"After Midnight", "Cocaine" and "They Call me the Breeze"
J.J. Cale's 1919 Gibson L-4

1919 Gibson L-4 (12-fret with oval soundhole) Ex J.J. Cale

Originally introduced in 1912 this ninety-six year old arched-top and back L-4 weighs just 4.00 lbs. Sixteen inch wide and 3 1/4 inch deep body with 'walnut-stained' maple back and sides and a two-piece carved spruce top with a 'triple-bound' oval soundhole with an inlaid 'diamond-pattern' in the center. Two-piece mahogany neck with a wlanut center-strip, a fat nut width of just under 1 3/4 inches, a scale length of 24 1/2 inches and a wonderful really thick deep "V" profile. Brazilian rosewood fretboard (with pointed-end) with 20 medium-thin frets (the neck joins the body at the 12th fret) and inlaid pearl dot position markers. The body is single-bound on the top and back. Walnut-veneer headstock with inlaid "Gibson" 'script' logo and bell-shaped single-layer black plastic truss-rod cover with two screws. The back of the headstock also has a walnut veneer. Original open-back strip tuners with oval white bone buttons. Compensated ebony bridge on height-adjustable ebony base, original trapeze tailpiece engraved "Patented July 19.1916" with tortoiseshell bar and six later white plastic string pins (the original very worn ebony pins are in the case). The tailpiece is secured to the end of the body by three screws and the original ebony strap-pin. Inside the sound-hole is the oval white Gibson label with Style "L4" and [Serial] Number "49794" written in pencil. There is one small surface crack on the bass side, lower bout of the back and the original pickguard has been removed. When we purchased the guitar we noticed that the action was a little high at the twelfth fret so we gave the guitar to our expert luthier who has re-fretted the neck with slightly wider gauge fretwire and repaired a small crack to one of the feet on the ebony bridge. There is lots of checking and playing wear but there are no other cracks, repairs or modifications whatsoever and the guitar is in excellent plus (8.75) condition and now with the re-fret it plays perfectly. Housed in the original five-latch shaped, black hardshell case with purple padded felt lining (8.75). This amazing piece of musical history was owned and played by legendary guitarist and songwriter J.J. Cale and comes with two photographs of him (and Norman Harris) with the guitar (sans pickguard) in the nineties. The guitar was purchased in the early 1970s by Norman Harris who showed it to J.J. Cale. Cale immediately 'bonded' with the guitar and used it for many years until selling it back to Norman Harris in the nineties. Harris then sold the guitar to the renowned guitar collector Hank Risan.

John Weldon Cale (December 5, 1938 – July 26, 2013), professionally known as J.J. Cale, was an American singer-songwriter, recording artist and influential guitar stylist. Though he deliberately avoided the limelight (being temperamentally averse to celebrity) his influence as a musical artist has been widely acknowledged by figures such as Mark Knopfler, Neil Young and Eric Clapton who described him as “one of the most important artists in the history of rock”. He is considered to be one of the originators of the Tulsa Sound, a loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz. Many songs written by Cale have been recorded by other artists, including "After Midnight" by Eric Clapton; "Call Me the Breeze" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Mayer, Johnny Cash and Bobby Bare; "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton and Jerry Garcia; "Clyde" by Waylon Jennings and Dr. Hook; "I Got The Same Old Blues" by Captain Beefheart, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Freddie King; and "Magnolia" by Beck and Lucinda Williams.

In 2008 he, along with Clapton, received a Grammy Award for their album, 'The Road to Escondido'.