The L-5 S was made between 1972 and 1985, it was a solid-body version of the Gibson L-5 hollowbody. It had multiple binding on the single-cutaway body, neck, and headstock, and an ebony fingerboard with block inlays. The headstock inlay was a flower-pot similar to the L-5 archtop. Although initially the L5S models had the L-5 trapeze tailpiece, from 1975-1976 they had stop-bar tailpieces and from 1976 to 1985 TP-6 fine-tuning tailpieces.

The first incarnation of the L5S had two low-impedance pickups - as favoured by Les Paul himself. This version of the L5S was not a successful and Gibson switched to regular humbucker pickups in 1974. Though it was one of Gibson's top-of-the-line guitars at the time, it was not a commercial success and in 1985 the L5S was dropped from the Gibson product line.