j45nick

The first time I saw one of those, my reaction was "that top has really faded in an odd way."

Nope.

Congrats, Anne. I always allow mine to sit overnight before unpacking, but I'm also a master of deferred gratification. Given your description of the weather along the route, you should probably be able to open it whenever you want. Congratulations. Can't wait to see and hear this little beauty.

This sent me down a rabbit hole. The hardware on your case is from the Excelsior Hardware company of Stamford, CT. Geib was in Chicago, but presumably hardware could have come from anywhere. It seems that a Geib case typically has the name on it somewhere, embossed in the covering material, a medallion inside, etc. I assume you've gone over the entire case carefully looking for evidence. There are several good articles on this website: vintage cases

Let's hope they have little tiny fingers.

What I find hilarious is that the guy refers to the semi-opaque yellow finish as TV yellow, and implied it was developed for use on television. I hate to tell him, but in 1942, when this guitar was made, there was very little broadcast television at the consumer level. In 1947, there were only a few thousand television sets owned by the public at large.

I love my L-OO Legend. Best fingerpicker I own. It should go well with your playing style.

Nice guitar, and good to hear from you.

I'm more than happy to have people become familiar with the great Pete Seeger, as well as early 20th century labor songs.

Actually 54 years old, but who's counting.

I think these are the pots in my '59 Historic. Not sure if they are the same as the ones used in standard ES 335s or not. 500k ohm pots This another pot Gibson apparently uses. Note that it comes in long shaft and short shaft versions another 500k ohm pot

Sounds like an inside job to me.... Who knew they were on the truck, and what they were worth? Truck full of Gibsons, and the steal what was probably the single most valuable pallet? Not a coincidence. Start with the truck driver, then the loaders. Move from the small fry to the big fish.

Probably show up on the grey market soon, or maybe sold to unsuspecting buyers on ebay or reverb.

They may only "fit poorly" to your eye. To someone else, that might be an "optimal" fit. As far as why they sit the way they do, pull a knob off each of your guitars and inspect and measure the post heights and the post socket inside of the knobs. I pulled a vintage witch hat from 1968 out of my parts box. The post socket is about 12.5mm (just over 1/2") deep measured from the bottom of the skirt. The knob itself is 15mm tall (about 19/32"), so there's about 3/32" of plastic thickness at the top of the knob. Looking at a couple of photos of the top of the guitar those witch hats are from, it looks like the witch hats sit closer to the top than the (non-reflector) knobs on my '59 Historic, so I have no answer to this one. As I said, the knobs on my '59 Historic ES 335 from 2010 fit the same way as your reflectors. It has never bothered me, either playing or esthetically. To tell the truth, I would never have noticed it if you had not brought it up.

That's oven-roasted, not fried. Far fewer calories.

To my ear, the AJ really makes you sit up and pay attention. The '39 D-28 is a close second, though different. The '48 D-28 is fairly dull in comparison to the other two.

This is a modern SJ re-issue, so all bets are off.

Great job! Nice trio of guitars you have there, too.

Thanks for the summary. I have wanted either an AJ or a D-28 for a long time, but not having been able to make up my mind, I have bought neither.

As far as I can tell, most or all of the Luthier's Choice AJs came with the LC neck, as well as the other LC properties like the wood selection. It would be nice to compare a "standard" modern AJ neck with the LC neck.

That's pretty much what the back skunk stripe on my '43 SJ re-issue looks like. It might be ebony, but it could be any near-black wood.

Interestingly, those neck specs--1.78" at the nut, .805 first fret depth--are pretty much spot-on with the Luthier's Choice neck on my '43 SJ re-issue from 2006. That guitar was part of a special run for Fuller's Vintage Guitars, and has similar appointments, although it is a standard 'hog guitar.

Really nice, Dave. Don't know for sure, but I'm guessing the original belly-down bridges might have been constant thickness, not thicker at the bass side like the rectangular bridges Tom B's FON 910 '43 rosewood SJ has wood side stays similar to late-40s/early-50s slope Js. Those may not be original to his guitar, as I recall them being a little less refined than the wood side stays used later. The amount of glue on the inside is no more than I have on my vintage slope Js, and I would be a bit nervous to see less. Is this an all-hide glue version, like the Wildwood special edition J-45?

ZW, is the second x-brace forward of the soundhole, replacing the more typical transverse brace forward of the soundhole?

For reference, the clearance between the underside of the skirt of the knobs and the top of my '59 Historic ES-335 is a full .25" or about 6.5mm, for each of them. The top thickness is going to determine how much shaft is exposed above the top, and how high the knobs sit. Thicker top= lower knobs for a given shaft length. There's not much in the way of threads sticking above the retaining nuts, so the knobs couldn't sit measurably lower.