Gibson L-6S
PART 1 L-6S specifications

L-6S specifications | controls | shipping figures and pricing | schematics & parts lists | famous users

Gibson L6-S Custom - Its the best damn guitar you ever played This early advert for the L-6S was printed when the guitar was at its peak. 1974 was the only year with reasonable sales, despite the high profile endorsement of Carlos Santana over the following years. This early instrument has the block inlaid fingerboard, which would soon be changed to dots. ...Power hungry? We haven't heard a more powerful pickup than the new design Super Humbuckings on the L6-S. The notes are extra loud, with enough sustain to live on when others die. And six different sound settings let you deliver any music style from country "chicken pickin'" to the most abstract jazz riffs.

Gibson L6-S Custom - Santana Calls it His Rainbow Actually, it's the Gibson L6-S. But he's got a point. Because the L6-S lets you color your sound any way you want with tone and mid-range control and a six-position sound switch. From pretty and warm to funky and hard-and anything in between-the choice is yours. The L6-S also has two incredibly powerful pickups mounted in its solid maple body for exceptional sensitivity and sustain. And the body itself is designed to give you complete access to 24 frets of the quickest, easiest action you ever laid your hands on. Creem Magazine called it "The kind of guitar that musicians ten years from now will dream about owning." Santana calls it his rainbow. We call it the L6-S.

Gibson L6-S Custom - Santana Calls It his Rainbow Actually, it's the Gibson L6-S. But he's got a point. Because the L6-S lets you color your sound any way you want with tone and mid-range control and a six-position sound switch. From pretty and warm to funky and hard—and anything in between—the choice is yours. The L6-S also has two incredibly powerful pickups mounted in its solid maple body tor exceptional sensitivity and sustain. And , the body itself is designed to give you complete access to 24 frets of the quickest, easiest action you ever laid your hands on Creem Magazine called it "The kind of guitar that musicians ten years from now will dream about owning" Santana calls it his rainbow. We call it the L6-S

Two versions of the L-6S guitar, the Custom (top) and the Deluxe (bottom).

The L-6S was designed in 1972 by then Gibson employee Bill Lawrence. The remit was to create a guitar with as varied an array of sounds as possible, without over-complicated electronics, and something that could compete with Fenders six string range. Bill Lawrence explains:

Read the rest of this article at the Bill Lawrence website

Launched in 1973, very much as a cheaper L-5S. It retained the L-5S body shape, still had maple body / neck (although the L-5S was curly maple, rather than close grain) and an (optional) ebony fingerboard. Solid bodies had tradionally been mahogany up to this point, but for reasons of economics, and fashion, the seventies saw a range of maple Gibsons, and L-6S was one of them.

Electrically it differed from the L-5S though, with its six-position phase switching system, and treble roll-off and midrange controls. The idea was to offer new sounds and as much versatility as possible. To this end, the L-6S also had a two octave, 24 fret neck - the first Gibson to have this.

The guitar shown below was in the 1973 Gibson Look Ahead to Gibson flyer. Unlike the majority of L-6Ss this instrument has a two-piece scratchplate, old-style headstock script, and block inays. Whether this was just a prototype, or an early production version is unclear.

In 1974 a second model was released (the Midnight Special), and in 1975 a third (L-6S Deluxe). The original model was then named the L-6S Custom. Both were a cheaper models with simpler electronics, strung through the body, bolt-on neck for the Midnight Specials and a rosewood fingerboard for the deluxe. Each had its own unique scratchplate. Some instruments may have been alder-bodied too.

L-6S players

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