1934 Gibson L-7
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1934 had the world in the depths of the Great Depression. With more than 20% of the United States work force unemployed, finding work and a steady income was only worse the year before. If you were a professional tenor banjo player with a 1929 Gibson Granada in Cleveland Ohio back then, your chances for employment were also tough. So what do you do? Buy a new Gibson L-7 guitar and get in on the jazz guitar volcano that was erupting. William Woodrow was that guy. This guitar, purchased from his estate, is evidence of a great musician from the hard times in Cleveland 84 years ago. This guitar has a 16" wide body with a classic Gibson sunburst finish on the spruce top. A fleur de lis inlay in the peghead and Nick Lucas style inlay on the fretboard. Best of all, this guitar has a vintage Kauffman Vibrola that can also be seen on the guitar in his professional promotional pictures. In admiring the details of this instrument I note the extensive finish wear on the neck. That tells me this man could play! Of course with as much music as Mr. Woodrow put this guitar through, we did have to do a bit of restoration. That included a neck reset, new reproduction inlays (he wore out the originals) new frets, a new bridge top, new bound pickguard, and reglueing the guitar's back to the sides. All said and done, this guitar has the full, projecting tone you expect from a high-grade vintage archtop. Bring yourself back to 1934, minus the Bonnie & Clyde and John Dillinger ambushes, with this guitar. The sale includes the original hard case and some of Mr. Woodrow's personal ephemera. A little information about Bill Woodrow & his music career; In the 1930's he was a touring professional musician, starting out on tenor banjo, then buying the L-7 guitar. He toured with singer Dolly Davis. Some of the documents kept with the guitar from the boxes of papers left over from his estate included advertisements listing Dolly & Bill performances. In the 1940's he joined the US Navy to fight in World War II. After his Navy service, he opened Woodrow Diecasting in the Cuyahoga Valley of Cleveland. He passed away on August 7, 2007 at the age of 94. His obituary does not mention his prolific music career of the 1930's.
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