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So curious. About a half an hour ago, amid these trying times, including losing to COVID-19 yesterday an otherwise healthy 35 year old friend, I turned to some of the deepest, most meaningful art I've ever encountered: John Prine's first album. A few minutes later, I learn this. What a time. My friend was--"was," what a horrifying word--well, was a neighbor and member of my monthly book club, which most often met in my home. She was a vivacious, intellectually curious, voracious reader, and otherwise healthy young woman.

They certainly didn't stay in Kalamazoo!

As others have pointed out, none of the post production modifications were done by Gibson: the finish, the pickguard, the bizarre backstrip and purfling around the back. Even an excellent, professional grade refinish diminishes a vintage guitar's value by approximately 50%. There's nothing remotely excellent or professional about the refinish of this instrument.

Fabulous, Lars! Thanks so much for sharing this with us.

Absolutely lovely. Thanks so much for sharing with us.

Thanks for doing the measuring, Dave. The results show the difficulty of aligning strip tuners on a headstock with curved sides! I would have chimed in, but two of my Banners are currently on long term loan (to Jennifer Nettles and Emily Saliers).

Finish doesn't appear to be original (though, a 1930 L-1 would not have had a pickguard) and bridge is an oversized replacement. Given these observations, price seems about right.

Such an interesting company. As with nearly every Banner reissue (including Gibson's reissues of guitars from my own collection), the guitars feature a logo applied at the wrong angle (straight across the headstock, rather than at the appropriate angle). And, both the LG-2 and J-45 feature an incorrect rosette. So strange. You'd think that they hadn't received my originals, and held on to them for nearly a year.

All but the SJs had rectangular bridges. Of the SJs, probably half had belly down.

Thanks for linking to my and Willi's Banner Registry, Nick! I agree with Nick's observations, except that there were no belly-up bridges during the Banner years.

Banner Gibsons, and especially SJs, are my wheelhouse. Pics, please. 🙂

You've stipulated that you "maintain the humidity of the room." Given this, a change of 15, 20, or, sheesh, even 40 degrees (fahrenheit), will not harm your guitars.

I agree. I've communicated frequently over the past couple of years with the consortium that owns 225 Parsons Street. I'm optimistic about the future. I'm also really grateful for their embrace of my projects.

I've visited the building for Kalamazoo Gal-related events twice within past month. The stack has not been reassembled, but the owners are still committed to the renovation plan, which includes restoration of the stack. For a variety of reasons, progress stalled, but will re-start this summer.

Thanks for flagging this for us! Good work by Tony, as always. Oh, and thanks to Tony for the shout out. One correction. Tony reads from a Vintage Guitar article suggesting that the early J-45s might have been sunburst J-50s, because they feature multiple top purfling. All of the first year of issue Banners - J-50s, J-45s, Lg-1s, LG-2s, LG-3s, and, of course, SJs had mutliple top (and back purflings). In addition, since the publication of Kalamazoo Gals, I've acquired copies of the original specification sheets for all of the Banners, which confirm my assertion. (Yeah, second edition over due).

Absolutely lovely, Tom. Thanks so much for sharing this with us.

As others have observed, during the Banner years, Gibson replaced the L flattop (L-00, L-0, L-1, L-2, etc.) with the LG (LG-1, LG-2, LG-3). The first of the LGs (an LG-2) shipped August 17, 1942. Gibson based the LG on its classical guitar, the GS, or "gut string" model. Using the GS body mold, Gibson simply adapted the guitar to a 14 fret, steel string configuration. Hence, the designation, LG, or L Gut body style. In response to dealer demand, Gibson did, however, continue producing the occasional the L flattop well in the war. The last shipping date I've observed is sometime in 1944 or 1945. I'll search my records. And, yes, indeed, some of those wartime L-00s featured Banners (as did a few L-50s and at least two lapsteels). Here's a Banner L-00. The Banner L-00s were quite unlike their pre-war siblings. As Tom has pointed out, many featured Kalamazoo model appointments. In addition, they featured a wartime neck carve and the 2 1/8 inch spring spacing at the saddle instead of the prewar 2 3/8 spec. Truly hybrids.

The returns are in red.

I don’t know if I’ll get access again. Initially, a Gibson VP invited me to Nashville and assisted me in setting up to photograph the ledgers. The company so embraced my project that it underwrote my book release party and initiated a project to produce a limited run of replicas of my personal collection. Then, stuff got weird. When producing its hourlong radio documentary about my book and me, the BBC contacted Gibson. The company’s head of global PR told the BBC that Gibson had never heard of me or my book, but asserted that I’d violated Gibson copyright by accessing the ledgers. The head of PR told me the same thing when the BBC referred her to me. I asked her if she knew that Gibson had underwritten my book release party. “Can you prove that?” She asked. I responded that I didn’t need to prove anything, but that she could view a YouTube video of a Gibson VP at the party saying just that and praising me and the book. The PR woman then said that I’d illegally accessed the ledgers. When I laughed and said that a Gibson executive had welcomed and assisted me, she threatened to sue me unless I revealed the exec’s identity. I laughed at that, too, of course. So, strange times under the old management. As best I can figure, no one had cleared with Henry Gibson’s involvement with me. When folks began to fear the wrath of Henry, folks stopped the replica project (it took me nearly a year to get my guitars back, at one point Montana told me that they didn’t know where they were) and, for good measure, threatened to sue me. Things are looking up with the new management, though.

Thank you for the kind words!

Nick, I don't know how complete they are. The earliest at Gibson HQ in Nashville, when I was there, was 1936, but I know someone with a photocopy of all the pages in the 1935 ledger. I also know of a few very early ledger books, also not at Gibson HQ, but in a private collection of a lot of early, historic documents. I simply grabbed the earliest up through 1946 - not bothering to look through the other volumes - and decamped to an office for several days to photograph them. One day my sister assisted me and a couple of other days my friend Willi Henkes joined me. Folks at Gibson HQ were quite nice, providing me the office, and office guitar (L-00 Legend), and tickets and meet and greet with Elvis Costello. Great fun. But, I was told to close the door and hide should a certain CEO enter the building.

Oh, the ledgers exist. When I photographed the ledgers from 1936-46 (4,400 pages), they were piled on the floor in a closet that held office cleaning supplies. Three years ago, a Nashville Gibson insider sent me this photo of them:

Probably my favorite of all of his songs. As much as I like his acoustic playing, I prefer his electric playing:

And, do be sure to check out the master of this technique, Richard Thompson:

Well, as my kids still say, i’m More often wrong than right. But, the logo looks to be straight across the headstock, as Gibson is wont to do with reissues, rather that an angle, as on the originals.