1938 – serial number 95678
![](https://peterkanters.nl/dir/wp-content/uploads/Gibson-L-12-front-432x1024.jpg)
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This is my favorite guitar. I own this L-12 since 29 October 1986 and played it for 20 years almost every week on stage with the JoJo Swingband. I bought this unique guitar from my friend Ad Otte who brought it over from the United States. It came with the (non-original) L-5 tailpiece and Grover Imperial tuners. The original tortoise pickguard was falling apart, so I had it replaced by Hans Moust with a custom built with exactly the same shape and had him fit a Barcus Berry floating pickup. This addition allowed me to combine Freddy Green comping with Charlie Christian soloing. When the JoJo Swingband stopped, I started to play other guitars as well, but when I joined the Dutch Swing College Band in 2020, I took off the pickup and pickguard, made it fully acoustic again with high action and d’Addario Phosphor Bronze 80/20 13-56 strings.
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![](https://peterkanters.nl/dir/wp-content/uploads/Gibson-L-12-archtop-1000px.jpg)
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![](https://peterkanters.nl/dir/wp-content/uploads/Gibson-L-12-close-up-finish-500px.jpg)
![](https://peterkanters.nl/dir/wp-content/uploads/Gibson-L-12-close-up-tailpiece-500px.jpg)