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I have decided to work on an old Gibson archtop I bought some years back and before I start I would like to find out more about it. It has been stripped of parts and finish so I'm not too worried about originality at this point. The top is solid spruce but has numerous open cracks I will be splinting wood into. The back appears to be pressed/laminated as I assume the sides are also. Obviously the binding needs to be replaced. The neck seems solid and the fingerboard lies on the top, not over it. I was thinking of electrocuting it, and might be able to sneak a pick up under the strings at the bridge position (I don't want to cut the top) Any advice or other thoughts on this are welcome.
Any ideas on what model and vintage it might be would be greatly appreciated.

My guess is the crown inlays are not original (but they could be). With plywood back and sides, it could one of several student models. Good luck with the resto!!! Should yield a fine playing and good sounding axe when you've completed it.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Thanks Chris,
The inlays appear to be original, but you never know. Any idea on the year(s)?

You didn't mention a serial number, so it's probably got a 3 to 5 digit Factory Order Number (FON) inked somewhere inside the body. Some had letter suffixes. My guess is it's late 40's to early 60's. That's a pretty wide stretch, but anyone with deep knowledge of Gibson guitars is aware it's not an exact science. Look inside for a number.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Are you sure the top is solid spruce?

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Very unusual that the fretboard extension lays directly on the top. Will there be sufficient height to get a normal archtop bridge on there?

Hi Terance,
The binding is loose (everywhere) and at the bottom you can see the vertical grain of the spruce top going all the way through. There is a gouge near a soundhole and the cracks going all the way through also indicate a solid top.
Hi Barry,
The neck is tilted back and when I measured out to the bridge position (24.75 S.L.) there was enough room to set a reasonably high bridge and possibly a pick up under it.

Looks like a late 40's or early 50's L-50. With the 19 frets, and trapezoid inlays, it would be from 1946 to 1954.

https://reverb.com/item/2929796-1949-gibson-l-50

Splinting the cracks should not be necessary on the spruce top. They should close up when humidified. If it is early 50's, there is a good chance that some of Gibson's bad glue was used, and the braces are probably loose. Now is a good time to remove the back and do all the internal repairs needed. Every glue joint should be checked.

Yep an L-50 is a good bet. The inlays look like this one.

https://www.archtop.com/ac_53_L50.html

I forgot they had solid tops. That could be a fun restoration.
I have put an ultra thin Lace pickup under the strings successfully on some old Silvertones with the fretboard extension glued to the top. Might work on this one.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

L-50 and it's important to remember that Gibson (notice that this is the first times in OLF history that I refer to Gibson As Gibson and not G*bson now that Henry is Chapter 11 history but I digress, again...) produced many bastardized guitars that do not exactly fit into one model designation of another.

There are a number of references in literature about Gibson that they often built in small batches throwing the parts that they would need to complete the guitars into a bin and then producing say six guitars that day. As such there are many Gibson guitars out there from the days gone by that are not exactly one model or another.

Instead they built with what they had and didn't seem to be keen to engage in Six Sigma or lean manufacturing or JIT, just in time, etc. They simply produced with what they had laying around. No strict configuration control in other words.

In addition Gibson permitted and seemingly encouraged in some periods "employee guitars" which were just that and again not any specific model. The employee guitars may or may not have the Gibson name on the head stock. We see lots of them in these parts.

Laminate construction does not necessarily mean lower end, especially with older gibby's Most 30's -40's Gibby jaz boxes I have worked on had laminate back and sides. I remember an X braced L-5 or L-7 from the late 30's(?) I restored some years back that had laminated sides, maple/mahogany/maple that were a mere .035" thick.... you wouldn't do that with solid wood.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Thanks everyone for the information and your thoughts on the project. I feel I now have better guidance with how to proceed with it. Because of the poor condition of the top and the overall condition of the guitar I won't invest a lot of time and money in finding original components, but will try to find parts that are a reasonable match. The wood around some of the cracks in the top has shrunk back as unrepaired cracks do, so rather than humidifying and forcing them closed I will splint in thin strips of matching spruce (I have some very old tops that have darkened to that same color). Some of the cracks I will be able to glue shut without splints. The biggest cosmetic problem is at the lower end of the F hole where the wood is gouged out. If I patch in some wood and go a little heavy handed with the burst I may be able to obscure it enough to hide it from the casual observer. With some luck I may make a reasonable job of it.
Thanks again!

Here is a friend playing his Regal archtop I put an Ultrathin Lace pickup on. Fretboard extension was glued to the top. I made a very thin base to conform to the arch of the top. You can hold it on with just double stick tape. It sounded pretty darn good.

https://youtu.be/XWXcjh7pAoc

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.