I'm trying to date a Gibson J50. Thought it would be an easy job until I ran up against the 1960's Gibson serial number issues. This guitar was purchased for my father when I was around 8 - 12 years old which should put the date at somewhere between 1961 - 1965. That makes me 67 now and age does play tricks on the memory so these dates could be suspect. The SN on the headstock is 542109 which according to the Gibson files say Kalamazoo 1969. My confusion is that starting in 69 Gibson switched to the square shoulder and this is definitely a round shoulder. It has the double rosette which I understand started in 1965. There is no text on the vertical bracing but there is a single G on the neck plate inside the guitar. The thing that is really odd is the truss rod cover plate on the head stock that is engraved with J50. In my research so far looking at a number of guitars on line I've never seen the engraved cover plate, all have been flat black.
If anyone could help me with this I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks
Dan