Quick L-48 question
 

Did Gibson ever use Les Paul/Keystone type tuners on their L-48?

I've only ever seen them with small white buttons. There's one for sale locally with the Keystones. My assumption was that they're replacements, but who can say?

Depends when it was made - white-button single-strip tuners were standard from day one, but since it was phased out circa 1970 (right about the time of the Norlin takeover) it's possible that the very last models were assembled with whatever hardware happened to be readily available; FWIW I've seen a post-Baldwin Gretsch New Yorker - cataloged since 1949 as a non-cut 16" archtop - built with a leftover Brooklyn-made Corsair cutaway body (think acoustic Double Anniversary), Gibson was using leftover New York parts to assemble Epiphone instruments as late as the mid-60's (there's a gorgeous blonde '63 Emperor cutaway acoustic - one of only three in existence - made with all-original Epi parts for sale on archtop.com right now) and I've heard tell of a couple extremely rare '50s ES-125's built on a carved-top L-50 platform (possibly either prototypes for the short-lived ES-135, or assembled to fill the final outstanding orders), so I'd wait for a hands-on before making a final determination. Frankly, if it were me and the guitar sounded good and played well I wouldn't worry too much about originality in this case - and FYI I can be a real stickler when it comes to such things...

Thanks for the reply. And I'm only interested in the accuracy of the seller's claim - as to when it was made.

Please see PM.