The
Gibson L-5 guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
was first produced in 1922 by
Gibson Guitar CorporationThe Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a manufacturer of acoustic and electric guitars. Gibson also owns and makes guitars under such brands as Epiphone, Kramer, Valley Arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo. In addition to guitars, the company makes pianos through its...
, then of
Kalamazoo, MichiganKalamazoo is the largest city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 76,145...
, USA under the direction of master
luthierA luthier is someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments. The word luthier comes from the French word luth which means "lute".The craft of lutherie is commonly divided into two main categories: stringed instruments that are plucked or strummed, and those that are bowed. Diverse places and...
Lloyd LoarLloyd Allayre Loar was a Gibson sound engineer and master luthier in the early part of the 20th century. He is most famous for his F5 model mandolin, L5 guitar, H5 mandola, K5 mandocello, and A5 mandolin.Loar worked for Gibson from 1919 to 1924...
, and has been in production ever since. It was considered the premier
rhythm guitarRhythm guitar is the use of a guitar to provide rhythmic chordal accompaniment for a singer or other instruments in a musical ensemble. In ensembles or "bands" playing within the acoustic, country, blues, rock or metal genres , a guitarist playing the rhythm part of a composition supports the...
in the
big bandA big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. Big bands evolved with the times and continue to today. A big band typically consists of approximately 12 to 25 musicians and...
era. It was originally offered as an acoustic instrument, with electric models made available in the 1950s.
The L-5 was the first guitar with f-holes. The L-5 was first produced in a 16" body width and in late 1934 became the 17" body, compared with 18" for the larger Super 400.
Wes MontgomeryJohn Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He is generally considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, and Pat Metheny.-...
was a major guitarist commonly associated with the L-5. Also, the
RCARCA Corporation, founded as Radio Corporation of America, was an electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. Currently, the RCA trademark is owned by the French conglomerate Thomson SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Thomson...
fifties recordings of
Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as Elvis and is also sometimes referred to as The King of Rock 'n' Roll or The King....
feature the sound of
Scotty MooreWinfield Scott "Scotty" Moore III is an American guitarist. He is best known for his backing of Elvis Presley in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis' Hollywood years...
's L-5. Contemporary guitarists who have played an L-5 include Tuck Andress from the Tuck and Patti duo,
Lee RitenourLee Mack "Captain Fingers" Ritenour is a guitarist, recording artist, composer and producer. He began his career at the age of 16 and has appeared on over 3000 sessions, recorded over 40 albums, and has charted over 30 instrumental and vocal contemporary jazz hits since 1976. He is probably best...
,
Pat MartinoPat Martino is an Italian-American jazz guitarist and composer within the post bop, soul jazz, mainstream jazz and hard bop idioms.-Biography:...
and
Jan AkkermanJan Akkerman is a Dutch guitarist. Akkerman is a distinctive guitarist, constantly experimenting with new equipment and guitars. Akkerman's distinctive guitar sound is characterised by his pioneering use of volume swells which produce a smooth, fluty, sustained note, although he is also capable...
. John Mayer uses one on his cd/dvd
Where the Light IsWhere the Light Is: Live in Los Angeles is a Grammy nominated live album and film performed by American singer-songwriter John Mayer and directed by Danny Clinch. The concert for the album was recorded and filmed on December 8, 2007, in Los Angeles, California at the L.A...
during the main concert and extra features.
Eric ClaptonEric Patrick Clapton, CBE is an English blues-rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Clapton has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds, of Cream, and as a solo performer, being the only person ever to be inducted three times...
used an L-5 to record
ReptileReptile is an album by Eric Clapton, released in 2001 and was available in HDCD format.- Track listing :# "Reptile" – 3:26# "Got You on My Mind" – 4:30# "Travelin' Light" Reptile is an album by Eric Clapton, released in 2001 and was available in HDCD format.- Track listing :# "Reptile" (Eric...
and he also he used one on his cd/dvd
One More Car, One More RiderOne More Car, One More Rider is a double live album by Eric Clapton, released on November 5, 2002 on Warner. Bros. The album contains songs performed during Clapton's 2001 world tour. The recordings on this album are from two nights at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, August 18th & 19th of 2001...
during the songs Reptile, and Somewhere Over The Rainbow.
Early players of the L-5 include
Eddie LangEddie Lang was an American Jazz guitarist, regarded as the most important Chicago jazz guitarist and the Father of the Jazz Guitar...
, and
Maybelle Carter"Mother Maybelle" Carter was an American country musician.She was born Maybelle Addington on May 10, 1909 near Nickelsville, Virginia, the daughter of Hugh Jackson Addington and Margaret S. Kilgore...
from The Carter Family, who played her now-famous 1928 model for the majority of her career. Maybelle Carter's L-5 is now kept at the Country Music Hall of Fame in
Nashville, TennesseeNashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state...
.
Django ReinhardtJean "Django" Reinhardt was a Belgian Gypsy jazz guitarist.One of the first prominent European jazz musicians, Reinhardt remains one of the most renowned jazz guitarists due to his innovative and distinctive playing...
played an L-5 fitted with a DeArmond pickup during a short tour with
Duke EllingtonEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader.Duke Ellington became one of the most influential artists in the history of recorded music, and is largely recognized as one of the greatest figures in the history of jazz, though his music stretched into...
during November 1946.
Several different L-5 hollow-body models have appeared over the years, including the L-5 Signature and the L-5 Studio. The L-5CES was an electric version of the L5 introduced in 1951. These originally used
P-90The P-90 is a single coil electric guitar pickup produced by Gibson since 1946. Having a more complex architecture and larger dimensions than Fender's single coils, it is occasionally mistaken for a humbucker...
pickups, but used
humbuckerA conventional humbucker is a type of electric guitar pickup, first patented by Seth Lover and the Gibson company, that uses two coils, both generating string signal. Humbuckers have high output since both coils are in series and the magnetic circuit is low loss...
pickups from 1958 on.
http://www.gibsoncustom.com/flash/products/archtops/L5CES/L5CES.html In the 1970s, Gibson produced the
L-5SThe Gibson L5S is a solid-body electric guitar model produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation.Introduced in 1972, the Gibson L5S was essentially a solid-body version of the popular Gibson L-5 hollowbody. Like the L-5, it featured multiple binding on the single-cutaway body, neck, and headstock,...
, which was effectively a solid-body version of the L-5 archtop; though it was not popular, it was used by
Paul SimonPaul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter. He entered the public consciousness in 1965 as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, along with longtime artistic partner Art Garfunkel. Simon solely wrote most of duo's songs, including such memorable songs as "The Sound of Silence", "The Boxer",...
, and a custom-made 5-string version was used by
Keith RichardsKeith Richards is an English guitarist, songwriter, singer, record producer and a founding member of The Rolling Stones. As a guitarist, Richards is mostly known for his innovative rhythm playing. In 2003 he was ranked 10th on Rolling Stone magazine's "Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of...
and Ronnie Wood.
George GobelGeorge Leslie Gobel was an American comedian and actor, best known as the star of his own weekly NBC television show, The George Gobel Show, from 1954 to 1960 .-Radio:Gobel was born in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Chicago's Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1937...
had a special version of the Gibson L-5 archtop guitar built, featuring diminished dimensions of neck scale and body depth, befitting his own small stature; a series of several dozen of this "L-5CT" or "George Gobel" model was produced in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
External links