1969 Gibson L-4 CN Cutaway Natural Vintage Archtop Carved Top Acoustic Guitar w/ Case

Up for sale, a 1969 Gibson L-4 CN in excellent condition, complete with a hardshell case. This Gibson archtop shares the dimensions of its electric sibling the ES-175, differentiated by a hand-carved spruce top, with maple back and sides, mahogany neck, bound rosewood fingerboard, Florentine cutaway and gloss Natural nitro lacquer finish (CN: Cutaway, Natural). This particular L-4 was produced just two years before the model was discontinued in 1971.

This L-4 CN is a lively instrument, highly responsive to picking dynamics with a vibrant, broad sound. The trebles are round and punchy; the wound strings have a dry, woody quality that ensure exceptional articulation for complex chording, and there’s an overarching even-tempered smoothness to the sound further accentuated by a set of 11-49 flatwound strings. This L-4 CN weighs 5lbs 2oz, professionally setup here at Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar with easy-playing action and accurate intonation.

Neck Specs:

-Wood: Honduran mahogany (one-piece)
-Shape: Medium C, measuring .830” 1st fret, .950” 9th fret
-Fretboard: Rosewood, split parallelogram inlay
-Frets: Medium jumbo, leveled/crowned, faint wear beneath the plain strings on frets 1-2
-Scale Length: 24 3/4”
-Nut: 1 9/16”
-Tuners: Kluson Deluxe double-line, double-ring
-Serialization: Six-digit stamp dates to ‘69

Body Specs:

-Wood: Spruce (carved), maple
-Hardware: Rosewood compensated bridge, parallelogram trapeze tailpiece (chrome-plated)
-Plastics: Four-ply pickguard
-Label: Serialized, Kalamazoo, MI orange oval
-Marquetry: Multi-ply ambered binding

This is a crack-free, well-kept example, and the gloss Natural nitro lacquer finish is 100% original, exhibiting subtle checking and highlighting some bearclaw figuring in the spruce. Wear is very restrained, with some minor marks and light finish scratches, and some small dings largely along the bass-side edge of the top. The smooth nitro gloss on the neck profile is flawless.

A vintage black tolex hardshell case is included.