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j45nick

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New (old) guitar day here yesterday. Another 1950 J-45, FON 3358 5, as opposed to 3644 8 for my other one, so they're pretty close together in the production line. I bought it from the original owner, who is in his 80's now. He bought it new when he was 14, from Dusi Music in Youngstown, OH.

 

It is in very good condition, albeit with cosmetic bumps and bruises. Will need a few repairs, such as a couple of braces re-glued. Neck angle is OK, but by modern standards, it is getting into re-set territory soon. We'll see what it actually looks like when I get new strings on it.

 

Scalloped top braces (not nearly as elegantly done as on new Gibsons), small bridgeplate, popsicle stick vertical side stays (rather than the earlier fabric ones, which ended about 1947 or so), tall thin back braces. Dark sunburst, as seen on some modern "vintage" Gibson re-issues such as the Legend series. Wonderful late-40's to early 50's full C neck profile, dead-straight neck with no hump. Very little fret wear or board wear.

 

It has essentially not been played since the late 1950's, and has been under the bed in the original Gibson-branded brown pressboard case, which was typically sold with a J-45 in that period.

 

It is completely original and un-molested, down to the shrunken tuner buttons and equally-shrunken black plastic (celluloid?) bridge pins.

 

I now have three variations on the Gibson hog slope-J: a Fuller's 1943 SJ re-issue, the 1950 J-45 I bought in 1966 (re-topped by Gibson in 1968, and much modified over the 50+ years I have owned it), and this new baby.

 

The comparisons will be interesting.

 

I know, pictures or it didn't happen. Haven't posted a picture since Photobucket became useless, so I have to find a new hosting site.

 

This is gonna be fun. I think I'm in love...again.

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Wow- this is guitarcheology! To get your hands on something that no one has tried to "improve" after all this time is really cool. You're a lucky guy and I hope you figure out how to get us some pix and sound bites. Congrats.

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Oh, that guitar.. you got the hots for that one fairly early on. Congrats. As your avatar guitar was re-topped and refinished, this one might get you the back to the ordinal sound more than the other two combined. You might remember that ‘46 SoJo with a back crack I’d rolled the dice on up in Nova Scotia; it was passed on by a local-to-there forum member who got to play it first and pronounced it a dud. Turned out, it had a brace or two that were loose- once repaired, it sounded so sweet and clear, it wasn’t a J-45 anymore. If your brace reglue wakes up your Dusi Music (translate Dusi into Czech {polka country}) half as much, you will have a big surprise in store.

 

There is a good StewMac YouTube on getting the tuner buttons replaced if there is a concern that the old buttons might crumble.

 

‘Love that you know so much of this guitar’s history. . . so often we’re only left with a mystery.

 

So- what’s on the sticker/label below the heel, ‘round back?

 

As Mr E suggests, imgur is a fairly usable (free) image hosting site.

 

A sound bite after (or before & after) work is complete? Ha! We won’t hold our breath ; ).

 

Congrats

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Just signed up to imgur, and am still trying to figure it out.

 

The little sticker next to the neck heel says "it's a Dusi" (pronounced "doozy" in this case, which is old US slang for something special or unique). The store seemed to love to advertise. There's a sticker on the back, one inside, and one inside the original pressboard case, which I have but am not using.

 

This link should work, but I would rather embed in the future if I can figure out how.

 

Picture was taken by the seller as he was packing it to ship in the hard case I sent him. I've had a spare Gibson case sitting around for a few years, just waiting for the right guitar. Picture may be a little dark, but it's a fair representation of the dark burst, which I really like. The pins in this picture are not the original, which he sent me in a baggie, since they are essentially unusable. The pickguard is gorgeous, and in perfect shape.

 

J-45

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imgur.com is fairly intuitive to use- just keep one of the dimensions (once uploaded to imgur, select/highlight the pic in "images", click the pencil icon button to edit, find the edit button middle/right above your images gallery) in the 600's range, hit the copy button in BBCode, and you'll be able to imbed several photos into your post (thx, BucMcM).

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sorry, failed experiment. need to re-size image.

 

You actually don't have to. You don't even need to sign in to imgur. Just go to the web site, click upload, then right click the image and choose view. It image will come up with its web address. Just copy that and post it to the from as an image -- any size will work.

Best,

-Tom

 

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Hey Nick. Glad to hear you have another J-45!

 

Of all things, re: "Dusi Music" -- I have a 1946 LG-2 that is also from Dusi Music. There's a stamp on the back centre strip proclaiming "Dusi Music Youngstown Ohio"! I did some internet searching and only determined that Dusi had closed a number of years ago, and that it appeared to be well-loved by some of the locals. That was about all I found on it.

 

My guitar was -- I'm assuming -- bought new there too. It ended up here in Vancouver courtesy of a draft dodger, IIRC the story from the dude I bought it from, and it moved here something like fifty years ago.

 

So -- another Dusi connection. I'll see if I can take a snap of the stamp and upload it later.

Btw, I also have moved over to Imgur -- Photobucket can suck it!

 

Fred

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Nice guitar. How did you find out about it? I wonder if there are any more 80 year olds who suddenly remember they have a guitar under the bed that hasn't been played in, oh, 60 years!

The grandson came on this forum asking for help in dating the guitar and determining the value. Others here chimed in on value--I did not--and with the help of another forum member here (jedzep), I contacted the owner's grandson (and later the grandfather) and after viewing additional pictures and talking to grandfather and grandson, I made an offer that was basically low retail value, and they accepted. I did this after reviewing virtually every comparable J-45 for sale right now online. Pretty sure it was a lot more money than they expected, and probably a bit more than I needed to pay, but that's ok. I have been looking for a decent, un-molested '46-'52 SJ or J-45 for several years, to scratch the itch for a completely original version of the same J-45 that I bought back in 1966.

 

After we reached an agreement, I talked at length with the grandfather (the seller) to get the entire backstory. He had not played the guitar in years, was getting up there in age (although still sharp as a tack), and decided to sell it and give the grandson the money to help complete his studies.

 

I also talked to John Shults (True Vintage Guitars) about value and likely repairs I would see. John has sold several vintage Gibsons for me in the past, and has handled a lot of Gibsons of this vintage. He was spot-on in saying what the likely repairs would be, so I'm very grateful to him for his help. He's a good guy, whether you're buying or selling. Straight shooter, and knowledgeable.

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