j45nick

His music meant a great deal to many people here. I saw him last just a few years ago. His voice was a sweet as ever. Fair winds and a following sea, Croz. May your restless soul find peace at last.

If you're gonna be a one-hit wonder, #1 on the Billboard top 100 isn't a bad way to go. This was at the top of the charts when I was 15. Love this version, Bucaroo. You've still got the pipes.

That just looks like a light reflection. Even if it were a ding, it's a steal at that price, assuming you can inspect (or get more photos) to verify authenticity. There is nothing obvious that indicates it is not authentic. It would be nice to know exactly what the label says.

John (True Vintage Guitar) sold several vintage Gibsons for me that I consigned to him several years ago. My experience with him was 100% positive.

Yes, I have an L-OO Legend. It is supposedly (by the Certificate of Authenticity) an exact replica of Lee Roy Parnell's 1937 L-00. Like the J-45 Legend, it has an Adi top, and Madagascar rosewood fretboard and bridge. It is also all hide glue construction, and is accurate in detail down to the fabric interior side stays. Mine is from 2010. It is a wonderful, great-sounding guitar, with a big voice for its small size. I bought it after spending a year looking for a vintage L-00 that was in good condition, at a rational price. The L-00's are so lightly built that many of the original ones have suffered over their 80+ years of life. Finding the L-00 Legend felt like finding a brand-new 1937 L-00, minus 80 years of aging, but also minus 80 years of wear and tear. I'd call that a reasonable tradeoff. In recent years, Gibson has done a number of re-issues and custom runs of both the J-45 and the L-00 that are close to the original vintage specs, but not quite as authentic as the Legends.

100% fake.

That was nothing short of awesome. Reminds me of when I sat about that far from James Taylor doing a small outdoor show in 1968 or 1969, before he really was "James Taylor." On the downside, it sort of makes you want to give up any pretensions about writing good songs, particularly country songs. Some of us have it, and others don't, no matter how hard we try. You are one of the good'uns.

Just print and cut out the image on the PDF link and see if it fits the guitar.

The serial number says 1965, and the ink stamp say LG 1. The LG 1 was an entry-level guitar with a ladder-braced top, but otherwise similar to the X-braced LG2. The bridge looks like an original plastic bridge to me. You can tell be looking inside at the underside of the bridgeplate in the area where the bridge pins come through the top. You should see 2, 3, or 4 hex-head fastenings, which are lag screws that secure the plastic bridge to the top. The missing batwing pickguard is easily replaced. And welcome to the forum.

All that fabric couldn't have helped the top resonate, you wouldn't think.

Even the celluloid pickguard appears to be in near-perfect condition. What a rare beast! Remember that this is just about the time that the first J-45 was about to come out at a price of $45.

I always had a thing for the High Lonesome sound of a lap steel or pedal steel. Oddly, I've never owned one, or even though much about owning one. It seems to fall into a category similar to the 12-string. There's nothing quite like it, but you don't use it that often.

I would really like to see that mechanism. Never seen what seems to be a type of B-bender on a conventional acoustic before.

Interestingly, the one flagged here for $15,000 seems to match the specs of the one he ended up buying. I wonder if he ended up buying the one he previously rejected because it had a trussrod? That combination of features doesn't come along that often.

It seems unlikely that Gibson would have arbitrarily assigned a 3-digit FON to a guitar in the repair shop in the 1970s. It was typical for them to stamp an existing FON on the back of the headstock on guitars in the repair shop. Maybe Gibson couldn't read the FON either, and so did not stamp the headstock when the guitar was re-topped, assuming Gibson did the work. The only way to reasonably date the guitar is by its remaining original characteristics. If it has a tapered headstock, that means no later than 1952, I believe. The bound fretboard, kif original, means no earlier than 1947 or so. Three digit FON probably means no later than 1947. Dating this will be a "preponderance of evidence" exercise.

Velcro patch for a pickup battery pack? Neither of my 1950 J-45s has a hyphen between the FON and rack number: just a wide space. Looks like two stamp wheel spaces. So it's 3644 8, for example, not 3644-8.

I don't know how many different ink stamps Gibson was using in that period, but I have two 1950 J-45's that clearly used either the same ink stamp, or identical ink stamps. There are a bunch of 3s in the two FONs, but no 7 unfortunately, so I can't offer anything definitive. All the stamped 3s in my guitars are very rounded on the top and bottom, and don't look a lot like the first number in the Op's FON. However, given the numeral style Gibson was using, I would be very surprised if the "tail" of a stamped 7 did not angle sharply to the left from top to bottom. I'm surprised at how clean the headstock is on that guitar. I wonder if Gibson did the owner the "favor" of some refinishing if the guitar was re-topped at the factory. They certainly did on my first old J-45, much to my dismay.

When my first 1950 J-45 went back to Gibson for repairs in 1968, they stamped the FON on the back of the headstock. And they re-topped the guitar, even though I didn't ask for it. The features of the guitar sound right for the period to me, but more detail is needed. I believe the bound fretboard began in 1948. In 1948, the top braces would still have been scalloped, but if it was re-topped in the 70s, all bets are off on the top bracing. The bridge might have been either belly-up (typical Gibson style) or belly-down (Martin style). Both types of bridges have been used on the SJ at one time or another. The original bridge would have a slot-through(long) saddle. If the guitar was re-topped, there is a good chance the bridge was also replaced at the same time. That's what they did to my J-45. The additional top support referred to could also be the floating adjustable brace under the bridge that Gibson installed on my J-45 when they re-topped it. This had vertical wooden supports on the sides, plus a transverse "floating" brace with a thumbscrew that basically pressed up against the top right behind the bridge, like an adjustable column. I ripped that out shortly after I got the guitar back, and finally remove the remains of the wooden side supports a few years ago. If it is a 1948 neck, the headstock will be tapered slightly in thickness (about 1/8" of the length of the headstock) when you look at it from the side, from around 5/8" thick in the area of the truss rod to about 1/2" thick at the top of the headstock. You need to put pictures on a hosting site to post them here. Others will tell you how to do that. The 328 FON is a mystery. But then the ways of Gibson are sometimes mysterious. Photos would be a tremendous help.

That one appears not to be an ADJ saddle. I believe we have now seen plastic bridges with 2, 3, and 4 screws.

That particular set is from a plastic bridge. The two lag screws with washers at lower right go up through the bridgeplate and hold the plastic bridge in place. If you have a loose plastic bridge, you and often seat it tightly just by tightening those lags with a wrench.

Thanks. Didn't see that.

The ADJ hardware is identical for both the plastic bridge and the wood bridge, since it goes through and is attached to the wood top, and has no structural connection to the bridge itself. The adjustment screw is completely proprietary, and appears to have been made for the purpose. The barrel nut (the large-diameter part with the external threads in the photo) also appears to be a proprietary design. The adjustment screws are very thin and fragile. If they do not turn easily in the barrel nut, don't force them. They will snap off. Use a bit of penetrating oil and a lot of patience. Don't ask me how I know they will snap off. I assume the OP is just looking for the adjustment screws, rather than all the parts. A good machinist could make them, but it would be cost-prohibitive. I have a complete ADJ setup, but unfortunately, it's the only one I have, and I need to keep it. Sorry, but just keep looking. They do show up on ebay.

The serial number says 1965 or 1967. There is likely little or no difference between those two years as far as the guitar's specifications go. Neither 1965 nor 1967 is really considered the "Norlin era", which generally refers to the time beginning around 1970 when Gibson flat-tops had heavily-braced tops that tended to deaden tonal characteristics. The only significant drawback to your guitar will be the narrow 1 9/16" (39.7mm) neck width at the nut, which some people find difficult to play.

Sounds like me with 'hog slope-J versions. They all sound similar, but certainly not identical.

You could say "opinions differ on the originality of the back." At the very least, as ZW says, the back has been re-finished. By the way, there should be no finish on the inside of the back of any Gibson flat top I have seen. High-end archtops yes, flat tops no. My gut reaction is that the back has been replaced. The back and side woods should essentially look the same.