Soloshifter

I appreciate everyone's contribution to this discussion. I've concluded that the guitar is probably not a prototype. I will need to have it examined by Gibson experts.

I took your advise and sent an email to Gruhns but they haven't got back to me yet. I'm also trying to examine the bracing on the guitar. 1952 was the year that the bracing was changed to double X. From what I can see, my guitar's bracing may be at a wider angle then normal.

If an old guitar has been well used over the years then although it still is probably a great sounding guitar, it has probably lost most of its originality, then of course since it's not a collectors, but players guitar then it's fine to change things. But if a guitar had never been touched for 70 years, then to save it's historical and collectors value, I would want to preserve it exactly the way it was when it left the factory. If this turned out to be a prototype guitar, then I'd want to preserve the guitar exactly as the luthiers had last handled it. Now regarding the design of the pickgaurd. You say that the pickguards were all hand painted. I wasn't aware or that. Is there documentation about this? But even if that were the case there is still evidence to suggest that my pickgaurd is an early design. If all the 50's -60's pickguard are a dark red and my pickguard is a much lighter red; if all 50's - 60's pickguards have designs that are white with bright yellow dots in the middle of the flowers, while my pickguard is completely yellow gold, then that's a pretty good indication that my pickguard was an early design that the Gibson factory decided not to use for it's production. You might think that this is not important. But it is important, if I'm trying to establish whether or not this is a prototype guitar.

Notice the leaf that is pointing downward. The two lines don't touch, but in the picture that you supplied me of the 1954 pickguard the lines touch. Notice also that there is cut out celluloid pieces where the round dots are. I'm not sure, but I don't think this is present on the other pickguards. I don't want to change things to this guitar (pickguard, nut), if this is original.

Thanks zombywolf for your imput. I got my info about the change in pickgaurd from an expert who stated it, but then another expert says something else. You are most likely correct, that the pickguards were all made of celluloid throughout the 50's and 60's and you are probably also correct that Gibson produced the borderless picguards all the way back in 1952. My pickguard could be one of those. However, when I compare my pickguard to others of that time period it looks different - thinner brush strokes on the flower design. Maybe I'm just imagining it, but I don't think so. Take a close look at it. What do you think?

Thanks slimt, That's probably what I'll have to do - contact Gruhns for an apprasal. Thanks for the pictures zombywoof. You can see that those pickguards are a darker red then the one I have and the paint strokes on the flower design are much thicker.

That Gibson changed the material for the pickguard in 1955. I got this information from the following site, under the heading of pickguards. http://guitarhq.com/gibson.html "Prior to 1955, the J-200 has an engraved celluloid pickguard. Starting in 1955, this changed to an injection molded styrene pickguard that was cheaper to make."

Thank you "62burst" for showing one of my pictures. I'm new here and wasn't sure how to do it. But I don't think that the nut is that wide that it cuts out the lower screw for the truss rod cover. I didn't put that nut there and know nothing about how it got that way. I don't see why a normal guitar owner would want to do that. That's one of the reasons I thought that one of luthiers at Gibson might have been using this guitar to experiment with how the guitar would sound like with a wider nut and thus eventually a wider neck. But I guess there might be that some crazy (nut) guitar owner out there who wanted a wider and longer nut on his guitar. Now, to address the pickguard. I've now just noticed another major difference in the design of my pickguard to those of the Mid 50's and 60's. My pickguard is a brighter red with thin, yellow gold lines in the flower design. If you closely to the 60's pickguards, the painted bright yellow lines of the flower design are much thicker. Therefore I conclude that the pickguard on my SJ-200 is not a 60's replacement. It is probably a prototype. To address "slimt", I would say, that if he is not a Gibson expert, then he must be pretty rich to own three early SJ-200's, one being from the 1930's. But it is not a correct observation to say that you can see the markings of where the old pickguard was from the pictures. What appears to be the placement of a previous pickguard is simply a bit o glue that had oozed out from the bottom when it was glued and a bit of dust as this guitar needs a cleaning. Also, I don't think that there was a previous pickguard that had curled. If this guitar had been improperly cared for, then perhaps, but the guitar is in near mint condition. If the wood has never cracked then I don't think that the pickguard would have curled either.

You are probably right. You are more of an expert then I am. I can only compare to what I see on the internet. From what you are saying, you have handled many of these guitars in the past. I read that the guards that were used up until 1954 were engraved celluloid and then in 1955 onward Gibsons changed that to a cheaper material. That's why I asked you whether or not the 1960's guards had slight indentations where the dots are. Or are they flat? You are most likely right, however if my guitar's guard were made of celluloid then it would be pre 1955 and therefore a prototype of the 1955 issue. If the guard is not celluloid then your conclusions are absolutely right.

It looks like a 1960's guard, however the color of the design is much brighter then the one I have. I've never seen one of these 60's guards up close. Do these 60's guards have light indentations in the guard where the round dots are? Mine does and I'm just trying to compare. The body being in near mint condition, it's hard to believe that the owner needed to change the pickguard. That's why I think it may be original to 1952.

As you know, the pickguard changed in 1955 to one without the border, but they also used a different material to make them. I'm wondering if this is the earlier celluloid material. The yellow gold color is very faint but not faded. The design is usually darker. I will add more pictures. You can see from these new pictures what great condition that it's in. It has no cracks and only a couple of small scratches in the finish on the back of the guitar. It's hard to see but I managed to photograph them. I even have the original key that unlocks the case. https://imgur.com/a/0rkBNOZ

Here's my Imgur link. https://imgur.com/a/MGIG5Er

I bought this SJ-200 at a local auction about ten years ago and now I'm looking to sell it to help put my daughter through university. Unfortunately the auction house that sold it to me didn't provide me with the guitar's history. The guitar doesn't have a serial number but has an FON number - Z 1234 27. That dates the guitar to 1952. There are 4 things about this guitar that makes me think it might have been an experimental prototype. 1) the pickguard's design is like 1955 issue, but the color and texture of the floral design is different to anything else that I've seen; 2) the nut is much larger than normal for this guitar; 3) the truss rod cover is missing, but it is missing a bottom screw hole, so I assume there never was one; 4) the dot above the "i" on the Gibson logo is missing which is not normal for this year. While everything above the nut appears rough, everything below the nut appears to be in near mint condition, which suggests to me the guitar was rarely played. Was this guitar owned by one of the luthiers at Gibson Guitars? I don't know. If anyone out there has the expertise to help me out here I'd appreciate your input.