So I recently sold my Martin to upgrade to a J-45. I’ve always loved the J-45 and decided I was going to treat myself. I wanted to get something nice that I could play for years to come and eventually pass down to my son when he’s older. I toyed around with the with the idea of getting a J-45 studio or a J-15 because of the price, but ultimately knew I wouldn’t be satisfied if I didn’t get a J-45 with the burst finish.
I searched all over reverb for a month trying to find the right one. After much frustration I got the idea of looking at Guitar Center online to see if they have any used I-45’s. Normally I don’t like big box store type places, but with this pandemic stuff going on I had the time to give it a shot.
If you’ve ever looked at Guitar Center’s used collection you’ll notice that their pictures look like they’ve been taken from 100ft away through a fogged up lens on an old 5 megapixel camera. Let’s just say that you barely can make out if the guitar comes with tuners or string. Their descriptions of the guitars are essentially the written version of their pictures and tell you absolutely nothing about the guitar. They also have a grading scale which I believe goes from excellent, great, good, down to lord knows what. From what I’ve read, this grading scale has some pretty loose guidelines and parameters.
After a few days of looking a found a nice j-45 with the burst finish. The listing literally said “Gibson J-45 Standard Burst”. Grade given to it was “good”. It had five photos, one of which was the back of the headstock. I could hardly make out the serial number. After about ten minutes of zooming in and angling the photo I think I could make out that it was a 2017 Model.... I then called Guitar Center to see if anyone could tell me anything about the guitar. After 45 minutes on hold, I finally got a hold of someone. Their knowledge of the guitar was less than what the photos could provide. With this kind of money you don’t really want to buy something site unseen, but I said screw it and decided to take the gamble and buy it.
Well, the next morning I get a notification saying that my order was cancelled.... my guess is that someone else had bought it right before me and it was no longer available. I somehow had a feeling this was going to happen. Back to square one. I immediately do another search on their website and see a newly listed guitar with the same titling and description with a “good” rating. This one was different though. It had the old 50’s style pick guard which I absolutely love and the single line strip tuners. I went through the same process with someone on the phone and got 0 additional info about the guitar. I noticed on the photos there was not the typical Gibson sticker in the sound hole and there wasn’t a serial number on the back of the headstock. I did however notice the GIbson Custom Shop logo on the back of the headstock.
Once again I said screw it, decided to take the gamble and purchased the guitar through the salesman on the phone. That afternoon I get a notification email saying that my guitar had shipped. After two days of constantly tracking my package through ups it arrives! After slowly opening the package I see the original Gibson hard case. I then open up the case and see a MINT 2013 Gibson. This thing literally hardly has a scratch on it. I take out the guitar, check over thoroughly and can’t find a flaw on it. Open the compartment in the case and find the final checklist sheet from the Gibson factory.
I immediately tune the guitar and she sounds GLORIOUS.
You will never guess how much I paid for this guitar! $1,580!
