1938 Gibson L-00 Black, Very Good, Hard, $4,800.00

Pre-war Gibsons can be absolutely wonderful guitars when properly cared for. They are also notoriously tricky to date and even to identify. This is, I believe, a 1938 L-00. But wait, L-00's had no back binding so it must be an L-0. But in 1937, the double 0 got the back binding but the only finish was supposed to be sunburst. So, is it a single )0? Well, it has side dots on the fingerboard which single 0's supposedly didn't have. Anyway, you get the difficulty here. There is a number on the back of the headstock which I'm assuming is the factory order number which starts with the letter D which indicates 1938. L models didn't have serial numbers. Here's the good news...it sounds awesome. Loud as a Dreadnaught and half the size. Neck set is good. There is one small tight crack in the back. Case is modern hard shell. This is a really great example of a pre-war Gibson. It is a player, not an expensive wall hanging. Feel free to help me out with the year and model if you know something I don't.