With blonde first being introduced into Gibson’s guitar lineup in 1939 (first with the Super 400), this gorgeous 1940 L-7, even through all its little age related and play related foibles, is amongst the best looking guitars we have in the store currently. Accounting for as little as 15% of archtop production, the blonde guitars are some of the coolest guitars Gibson’s ever made.

Though the original Brazilian rosewood fretboard has been replaced, the ebony board retains the same split parallelogram inlays and medium sized frets as it should’ve had from the factory. The headstock features the no-dot script logo, crown inlay, and binding (along with the board), and Gibson, specifically for the blonde guitars, picked the most flamed/birdseye maple for the back and sides. The top is solid spruce.

The neck has some repaired separation between the three layers, but it’s completely stable now. The body has a fair amount of wear, mostly on the top, where a pickup used to be installed by the bridge (which is also replaced, along with the pickguard, the tailpiece - with a genuine 40’s tailpiece, and the tuners).

This beauty comes with the orignal tweed stripe “Airline” case, and darn is it Purdy.