Description
Gibson L6S Custom Natural 1976 USA
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Tony Elder / Steve Jackson
Black Dot Music
Est 1985
Hold – Danny
In Store – Great weight, Great Condition, lovely maple grain, plays and sounds as good as it looks! Original case.
From Wiki…
The Gibson L6-S is a solid body electric guitar. It was the descendant of the L5S jazz solid-body electric guitar. It was the same shape, very much like a wide Gibson Les Paul, but with a 24-fret neck, the first Gibson guitar to have this.
Model history
The L6-S was the first cooperation between Bill Lawrence and Gibson. It was designed in 1972 and first released in 1973.[1] The idea was to make a “multi-sound system” under a very tight budget.
The popularity of the L6-S gradually dropped after 1974, despite high-profile endorsements from the likes of Al Di Meola and Carlos Santana. Pat Martino, John McLaughlin, Keith Richards, Tom Johnston, Paul Stanley, Mike Oldfield, Dave Davies, Brad Delp, Rich Williams, Bob Mothersbaugh, Bob Casale, Martha Davis of The Motels, Allison Robertson, Angus Young and Prince also used the model during this period. All models were dropped from price lists in 1979. The L6-S Custom remained in the catalog in 1980 and was still being made in the Nashville plant.
The original L6-S came in three variants; all were maple-bodied with twin super-humbucking pickups.
Late in 2011 The Gibson company re-issued this guitar, with slight alterations:
The bridge is a standard Gibson Tune-o-matic, less heavy than the Schaller-made rectangular bridges from the mid-1970s, often called “harmonica” bridges. The pick-ups are not the original’s ceramic sealed Bill Lawrence-designed “super humbuckers”, but two humbucking pickups with four-conductor split-coil wiring—a 490R in the neck and a hotter 498T in the bridge. This is similar to what is on offer in some Les Paul’s. Colours on sale in 2012 are “Antique natural” – like the original 1970s all-maple maple neck L6-S – and “Silverburst” with a baked maple fretboard. No ebony fretboard model is on sale. The current L6S neck does not feature the unique “narrow at the nut and wider near the body” taper of the 1970s guitar, but a conventional Gibson shape. The chamfered body shape and 24 frets are of similar design to the 1970s classic, except that the newer version is a two-piece maple body, as opposed to a one-piece bodywork on the original.
Josh “Josh 2” Hager of Devo uses a L6-S. It is unknown what type of L6-S it is.
L6-S Models
L6-S Custom 1973–80
Over 12,000 L6-S Custom instruments were made. Each guitar is made out of a one-piece maple body and a three-piece set neck, with a choice of rosewood, maple or ebony fingerboard. Finishes; Natural Maple, Ebony, Silver Burst, Tobacco Sunburst & Cherry Sunburst. A Double Cutaway Model was also available in Ebony and Maple (used by Malcolm Young in 1975). Controls include a six position pickup selector, master volume, mid-range and treble roll-off controls. At the time of its introduction, the L6-S Custom was simply called the L6-S, not gaining the “Custom” badge until later, when the simpler L6-S Deluxe was introduced. The L6-S and L6-S Custom are identical.
The L6-S Custom has a six way rotary selector switch, complete with “chicken head” pointer knob. Starting with switch position #1, in the most counter-clockwise position, the available pickup switching options are as follows:
- Both pickups, in series
- Neck pickup, alone
- Both pickups, in parallel
- Both pickups, parallel out of phase, with the neck pickup’s bass response restricted through a series capacitor.
- Bridge pickup, alone
- Both pickups, series out of phase.
The capacitor in the #4 position gives a fuller tone than the otherwise very nasal out of phase tone. The capacitor serves to limit the low end response of the neck pickup, and also phase delays the signal from that pickup, resulting in a fuller tone, not too unlike the #2 and #4 switch positions on a Fender Stratocaster guitar.
Note that these switching options are for the original 1970s L6-S with sealed ceramic Bill Lawrence Humbuckers and are somewhat different for the 2011- reissue L6S, which use 490R/498T split coil pickup switching and different wiring.
