This Gibson L-50 appears to be among the first acoustic archtops made by Gibson following World War 2, and actually appears to be made of a pre-war body, having the same specs and same bracing style seen in the pre-war examples.
 
The top is carved and graduated spruce while the top and sides are solid maple, the back having very nice flame figuring.  The neck is mahogany with a full, C-shaped carve. The fretboard and bridge are Brazilian rosewood.  All parts, other than one replaced tuner appear original to the guitar.
 
The guitar has that great 16-inch Gibson archtop bark one hopes to find in one of these guitars.  It has plenty of volume with focus on the fundamental.  The playablity is great even with a fair amount of wear on original frets, mainly on the first 4 frets.  It should play well for quite a while yet, unless the next player prefers large frets of a size which were not used in this era anyway.
 
The finish shows wear on the top, upper bout, bass side likely from early jazz style picking.  The back also shows wear through the finish of the center of the back which has been covered with a light french polish.  There is also a small dent in the top near the bridge and a repaired treble side crack.  There are no other cracks or repairs, but there is typical finish wear for a well played vintage archtop.
 
Weight - 5.1 pounds
Nut width - 1.77 inches
1st fret depth - 0.94 inches
10th fret depth - 1.04 inches
 
The guitar comes with a non-original hard shell case which fits well.  The latches and hinges all work and the case is in overall very good condition.
 
Ships free in the United States and for very reasonable rates worldwide.