NEW ARRIVAL Introduced in 1912, the L-4 was Gibson's finest guitar offering until Lloyd Loar's signed L-5 arrived ten years later. The L-4 originally featured a 16" body, carved top and back, oval soundhole, and lavish trimmings. The guitar has an incredibly unique tone amongst archtops. What is most surprising about the L-4 is its flattop-like bass response adjacent to its full and bloomy mid-range pop. It has an open depth and amazing volume -- almost a 3 dimensional tone -- and sounds, not surprisingly, like the popular music of the 1920's and early 1930's. Think Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang and the like. This particular example has clearly had quite a life, but then at 99 years old that’s not a huge surprise….. What’s really interesting to me, though, is the original pickguard with it’s tortoiseshell supports are still intact, together with the metal side bars and leather protective pads - it really is a piece of engineering. Then there’s the beautiful plum sunburst, oval soundhole with lovely rosette, tortoiseshell tailpiece cross bar, ‘The Gibson’ headstock logo, and fossilised bone tuners. It’s like playing a piece of history, yet it feels strong enough to gig, has a very comfortable feeling V profile neck, and comfortable playing action. The fingerboard binding is missing on the first 4 1/2 frets on the bass side, but isn’t really noticeable when playing. There are also a few crack repairs, all of which are stable. This really is a chance to own a piece of Gibson history - the guitar even comes in it’s original deluxe hard case.