1950 Gibson L-7 P Premiere Cutaway Archtop

Gibson L-7 Premiere Cutaway Archtop 1950 full front view

Gibson L-7 Premiere Cutaway Archtop 1950 full rear view

Comments	Here is a wonderful 1950 Gibson L-7 P Premiere Cutaway Archtop. Gibson was a major player in the Archtop guitar world, with Epiphone as its main rival. And of course, after WW2 the volume wars were still being fought and amplification was the coming thing for guitars. In 1948, Ted McCarty filed a patent for the pickguard-mounted pickup assembly seen on this instrument (the patent was issued as #2,567,570 on September 11, 1951) and many others dating from its introduction at the 1948 Summer NAMM show until the mid 1950’s. The purpose of the McCarty Pickup/Pickguard assembly is to allow a real dual-purpose guitar – amplified when needed, but without sacrificing the pure acoustic tone when amplification isn’t needed. Aside from the mounting screws to the side bracket and fingerboard tag, it does’t affect the top. The pickguard uses a slim version of the P-90 style pickup used on the ES-125, with thinner coils and staggered, shortened polepieces. The L-7 was chosen as the original recipient of the “McCarty Unit” pickguard because it was cheaper than, but essentially the same guitar as the L-5. The model was given the ‘P’ for ‘Premiere’ designation, and this was eventally dropped for CE, or Cutaway Electric. This guitar is in great playing condition, with really good tone and a volume level that’s suprisingly high for its setup – it’s a very easy guitar to play! Over the decades, it’s had some work done; a repair was done to the back seam that involved some finish addition, and it’s possible that at that time the neck was reset (which would account for the excellent action).
Serial Number	A4 788, built during 1950 at Gibson’s Kalamazoo, Michigan, factory.
Pricing	$5,750.00 CND with original brown hardshell case.
Neck	Maple neck with two-piece construction and truss rod. Bound rosewood fingerboard with mother of pearl split-parallelogram position markers. 20 frets, 25.5 inch scale length. The headstock has mother of pearl Gibson logo and ‘crown’ inlay. The neck was reset at some point and the neck angle is very good.
Frets	This instrument has been refretted, and there is a small amount of wear on the replacement frets. Depending on the player’s touch, this guitar is ready to be played for years without further fretwork.
Body	Full size, acoustic L-7 Cutaway body, with carved spruce top, carved maple back, and maple sides. The back had some seam repairs many years ago, and some finish has been added. The top and back are bound, but the F-holes are not.
Finish	Original tobacco sunburst finish with some touchup respray, particularly on the back where a seam repair was done.
Hardware/electronics	A few wear items have been replaced – the original tuners have been replaced with Grover Deluxe models with plastic keystone tuners, the original volume and tone pots were replaced by Douglas Harrison in our shop, the original screw-on ‘Amphenol’ jack has been replaced with a now-standard 1/4 inch jack, and the knobs are newer. Otherwise, the McCarty pickguard assembly is original to the guitar and the tailpiece is original.
Playability/Action	This guitar plays extremely well, with the action quite low. Often on older instruments, the neck set and top condition combine to make optimal aciton difficult to obtain – that’s not the case with this instrument.
Case	Original brown hardshell case included.