help me find out what this is!

[skrewflanders]

I had a friend growing up in AZ, and I moved about 5 years ago and lost contact, anyways his dad had a gibson that he'd had since about 1970ish. It was like a byrdland but had a solid body and was really thin. I can't remember for the life of me what model it was or much other than it had a flamed maple top in a cherry sunburst and the usual rosewood and i think it had a split diamond headstock but not sure. Anyone have any idea what it could be?

[markyperfection]

Gibson L5S?

[mr.death]

Gibson Merauder??

[HDS]

Its a China knock off but I will take her from ya

[losgatosrg350dx]

it says gibson on it...must be modded w a bigsby(sp) or whatnot..

[skrewflanders]

Thats exactly what it was! an L5S! When i was a younger i always thought it was a weird les paul... Quoted from W***pedia...

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, and also featured an ebony fingerboard with block inlays. The headstock featured a flower-pot inlay similar to the L-5 archtop and most L5S models featured the L-5 trapeze tailpiece (though some had stop-bar or TP-6 fine-tuning tailpieces). However, the L5S had a thin solid body, whereas the L-5 archtop was larger in size and fully hollow. The L5S was available in various finishes, such as ebony, cherry sunburst, and natural.

Upon its introduction in 1972, the L5S featured two low-impedance pickups, similar to those found on several Gibson Les Paul models of that period, such as the Recording model, the Signature model, the Personal model, and the Professional model. This incarnation of the model was not a success, however, thus Gibson switched from low-impedance pickups to regular humbucker pickups. Though it was considered one of Gibson's more top-of-the-line models, it was still not particularly popular among guitarists. In the mid-1980s, the L5S was dropped from the Gibson line.

[jim777]

Those L5Ss are EXCELLENT jazz guitars, simply fantastic instruments.

[markyperfection]

Originally Posted by skrewflanders

Thats exactly what it was! an L5S!

damn i'm good.

[skrewflanders]

yes you are thanks marky, couldn't remember for the life of me. i remember he was always changing the pups. put a coil tap in it, that guitar was his baby, i played it once, it was so weird. Don't know why but this guitar is so appealing to me, its such an strange beast.

[markyperfection]

I know just how you feel, I've had a bizarre obsession with Gibson M3's, USA-1's, and any of the few LP + Floyd guitars they've done for years now. The L5S really is a strange bird, isn't it? When I worked for a Guitar Center a few years ago there was an alpine white one, I always kind of thought of it as a Les Paul made of taffy that got run through the rollers, with the way it's slimmer front-to-back but wider all around with a similar single cut shape. If I remember correctly, it was a decent player and didn't sound too bad at all, somewhere between a Les Paul and a Firebird on the bridge pickup, and between an SG and a Byrdland or similar on the neck pickup. Neat and weird guitar for sure.

[skrewflanders]

I'd love to see what all color options they came in, i've only seen the cherry burst like in the picture. and have only ever seen the one in person. tried googleing it but thats the only picture that came up. its like a custom grade, the ebony, block inlays, binding everywhere, and i love how the end of the fingerboard comes to a kind of point, so odd, like a dog thats so ugly its kinda cute.

[Jase]

Well- it's been three years now-but I just saw the the L5S stuff here-so cut me some slack!LOL!
I have never owned one,but I have played a couple.The L5S examples that I have played have all been from the later period.Not only with standard humbuckers,but with stop tailpieces in lieu of the original archtop trapeze types found on the early models.As for finish-the most recent L5S I saw was actually on ebay-it was the most beautiful one ever-it was nicely flamed with a translucent wine red finish!I have seen the color an some of the hollowbody models...but not an"S"...UNBELIEVABLE guitar!
They do in fact play with the same performance that you would expect from a high end Gibson archtop.
I once plugged one into a 50 watt Marshall and I was astounded at the metal sound I got.It was like a Les Paul Custom on steroids!If you are into Les Pauls and you can ever find/afford one of these-do it.
The finest sounding metal guitar on the planet if you ask me!

[Jase]

Oh! ...and a quick note to you screwflanders(great name!) The point at the end of the ebony fingerboard you mentioned is called a "cupid's bow"...just thought you might like that!

[AlaskaBat]

Originally Posted by Jase

Oh! ...and a quick note to you screwflanders(great name!) The point at the end of the ebony fingerboard you mentioned is called a "cupid's bow"...just thought you might like that!

He hasn't been here in 7 months, so I doubt he's popping in.