Discovering and Restoring the earliest known 1923 Gibson Lloyd Loar Signed Master Model L-5 Guitar

Uncovering guitar history!
Cumberland Guitars discovers, documents, and restores the earliest known Gibson Master Model L-5. Join us as we share the story behind this incredible find, and look at how it changes the Gibson and Lloyd Loar L-5 archtop guitar timeline, featuring photos and time-lapse footage from the restoration!

[@danielrunyon8918]

Masterclass on the restoration of a historical piece.

[@KenIn_NH]

Just astonishing! The stuff dreams are made of! It's sounds so great because like any 101 year old.....it's thankful to have survived this long! And thank God for that. What an amazing piece of music history. Brilliant job on the resto. Any blueprints in our future?! 😅

[@guitargavel2015]

Amazing! Thank you Cumberland Guitars for the history lesson and documenting your methodically painstaking restoration process!

[@chrisva4268]

I can't imagine the rush of emotions the team felt taking a look at the label and having set in that they'd get to restore a piece of history like this

[@WestminsterEffects]

This is absolutely incredible.

[@kennykaufman8263]

Wowza. Tnx god it would up in the right place Would have loved to have heard it played at the end…. ?

[@Richard-wz7bu]

Incredible find and a wonderful restoration job!

[@woodyblakemore8401]

Well done! I’m impressed.

[@cumberlandguitars]

Thank you!

[@bderryberry4987]

Terrific restoration and great video of the process.

[@ChuckNicholsonTRM]

Are we going to get to hear it?

[@AcousticStandards]

Yeah cool vid but we now want to hear it !!

[@rubiera58]

Great video and thanks for documenting the documentation process. Are you publishing this info somewhere? Too bad we don't have video of your faces as you looked inside. Would make a wonderful Antiques Roadshow style segment.

[@emanuelefaggion8338]

Amazing work and documentation! Thanks so much. Would it be possibile to see the thicknessing measurements of the top and back?

[@dangedgoodmusic4991]

Wow........

[@goldsman]

Great story and restoration work! It's amazing how little it needed. Is the owner going to try to get a vintage or repro tailpiece / pickguard to get back to the original cosmetics?

[@cumberlandguitars]

Thank you! It's wild that this stuff is still out there, undiscovered. We are making a pickguard for it and still trying to track down a correct tailpiece.

[@goldsman]

I'll keep an eye out for the follow-up video. And I'd love to hear someone take that guitar out for a spin!@@cumberlandguitars

[@tomasjung4460]

What string gauge is recommended to put in this old and precious guitar? I have recently found 1947 german archtop..

[@guitarsofold100]

it is a shame the removal of the dirt seems to have lightened the burst some what in a very patchy way on both front and back!

[@ThomasGilmore-fi6gb]

Thought you intended to teach something. When was the last time you saw anyone teach by way of playing music and holding up cue cards?