Gibson L-5

The Gibson L-5 guitar was first produced in 1922 by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, then of Kalamazoo, Michigan, under the direction of master luthier Lloyd Loar, and has been in production ever since. It was considered the premier guitar of the company during the big band era. It was originally offered as an acoustic instrument, with electric models not made available until the 1940s.

Worldwide, the L-5 was the first guitar to feature f-holes. Then as well as today, the construction of the L-5 is similar in construction, carving, bracing and tap-tuning, to building a cello. This guitar as well as the cello are similarly designed in order to amplify and project the acoustic vibration of strings throughout carved and tuned woods, using f-holes as the projection points. From 1922 to 1934 the L-5 was produced with a 16" lower bout width. In 1934 the lower bout was increased to 17" - and this width is still used today. Also released in 1934 was the one-inch larger 18" archtop guitar named the "L5 Super" which in a couple years was renamed the "Super 400". These two master-built acoustic guitars are Gibson's top-of-the-line carved wood and highly ornate archtop instruments. These guitars cannot be constructed quickly, nor can corners be cut, and their price does mirror this fact. The time, skilled workmanship and materials used in these builds has been delivered non-stop for the past 90+ years. Since the 1930s there have been several other 17" archtops designed by Gibson, including variations introduced as more-affordable less ornately decorated models - these were introduced to consider the budgets of musicians.

Today the standard model of the L-5 is an electric version designed for less feedback when amplified, it is called the L-5 CES - (a perfectly carved acoustic (once amplified) becomes quite a feedback machine - thus the complaints from musicians about this feedback when amplified demanded a more feedback resistant build & design).CES stands for Cutaway Electric Spanish (one needs to study Gibson's history to understand where some of the company model terms originate. This is due to the fact that the company has been building stringed instruments for many years, and the guitar that we are currently used to and know today was once not seen as a standard musical instrument).

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Wikipedia