Would you like to hazard a guess as to what the very first left handed Gibson was? A ’50s Les Paul perhaps? Well, according to John Engel, it’s a 100+ year-old archtop…
Last night I was perusing my copy of ‘Uncommon Sound: The Left Handed Guitar Players That Changed Music‘ by John Engel. In each of the two books, the final sections are dedicated to pictures of noteworthy left-handed guitars from years gone by.
On page 412 of the big blue book, I stumbled across this absolute vintage beauty, built over a century ago!
Is This the First Left Handed Gibson?
It’s a 1915 Gibson L-4, and according to the book, it is the oldest known left handed Gibson. The image is accompanied only by a brief section of text:
1915 Gibson L-4, the earliest known left-handed Gibson. The venerable 16″-wide L-4 was launched only 3 years before and would live on in different guises through the 1960s. The oval soundhole (pictured), rounded in the late 1920s, would be replaced by f-holes in the early 1930s. (jv-ds)
After this description are the initials J.V and D.S. According to the book’s guide J.V is Jeff Veitch, who from a little Googling seems likely to be the photographer of the image above.
D.S. stands for Dugald Stermer, who I can only assume was the owner of this guitar when it was photographed. Dugald was a respected illustrator, also well known for his enviable collection of vintage left-handed Martin acoustics (amongst others). Sadly, he passed away in 2011.
During my time searching for this guitar, I also noticed that quite a few lefties from various forums had been acquainted with Dugald in the past and had even tried out or traded guitars with him.
Additional Info
Surprisingly, there is little information available about this specific lefty guitar online. Outside of the photo in Uncommon Sound, I was only able to find a single recent reference to the instrument.
The photo below is from the Instagram page of a user named FolkWayMusic, who appears to be the current owner of the guitar, having acquired it in July 2020.
The caption reads “My biggest excitement lately was yesterday’s arrival of this factory Left-Handed 1915 Gibson L4. I’ve never seen an older left-handed Gibson, and I’m thrilled that this one is intact and appears to have escaped ever having been modified for right handed playing. It’s right up my alley…“.
Great to know that the guitar is a bona fide lefty and not a converted right-handed model.
Gibson L-4 History
Known for its soft and mellow sound, the very first Gibson L-4 was made in 1911. It was famously played by jazz musician Eddie Lang (who is credited as being the father of jazz guitar!).
The initial design with an oval soundhole and 12-frets to the neck remained the same until a redesign in 1928. This new model introduced a round soundhole amongst other changes, so we know the lefty above is from the first generation of L-4s.
Uncommon Sound
If you’d like to read my review of Uncommon Sound by John Engel, click here. This is a set of books that should be on every guitarist’s shelf, left or right-handed.
