There are so many wonderful  acoustic Gibsons; 1928-34 L-5s, pre-'55 small-guard J-50's, early round-bottom Nick Lucas Specials and this stunning model: The '27 L-4. There were many changes to the L-4. Perhaps more than any other Gibson model - she started out as a round hole, went oval, back to round, then F, different body bindings, different neck bindings, different tailpieces, cut aways etc.

Tony Collichio
The truss rod cover is adorned with the name Tony Collichio, a guitarist of note who played on the last Jimmie Rodgers sessions in 1933.  Jimmie was dying of tuberculosis and was too weak to back himself.  Included with this guitar will be a Jimmie Rodgers CD which includes one tune from that session; "Mississippi Delta Blues" and you can hear the guitar in action.

Quite easily my all-time favourite, the L-4 is very loud with a solid bass and sparkly highs. Finished in just lovely in Cheeton Brown Sunburst, the 1927 L-4 was (IMHO) the best combination of features with the richest tone of probably any Gibson archtop including the venerable L-5. There is obvious player wear from 81 years of service but the small radius Ebony fingerboard is still true and the neck wonderfully slim. At this age a guitar that's still in one piece ought to be thinking of retirement, however this is such fine condition that she'd be at home playing 5 nights a week as in an investor's guitar vault.

A very nice investment to round out an early 20th century Gibson 'Orchestra' collection, a stand-alone showpiece or a piece of US country music history. This Youtube clip below shows an L-4 in action.