j45nick

They can be harder to come to terms with if you are a flat top player. I had a gorgeous early 1947 L-7. It was just about everything you could ask for in a vintage Gibson archtop, but I never did come to terms with it. My luthier, on the other hand, started out as an archtop player, and could really make it bark. It just sort of coughed in my hands, however.

I looked at vintage L-00s for close to two years. I got frustrated with guitar after guitar that had one issue or another. Finally bought a 2010 L-00 Legend. identical construction to the "original" ones down to the fabric inner side stays, Adi top, and all hide glue construction, but without all the issues I found in most of the vintage ones. I love vintage guitars, and have two 1950 J-45s. But I simply could not find a vintage L-00 that ticked all the boxes. Gibson has done some outstanding L-00 re-issues in the last 10 years or so.

Tom, Thanks for this. It was really informative and helps explain some things I am discovering about my own playing these days. Some things have to be flat-picked. Others cry out for fingerpicking. In between, there is a huge area where I can play the same songs either flat-picking or fingerpicking, with an oddly similar feel and sound.

You need to get a digital caliper to be able to measure things like actual (rather than nominal) stringpost diameter. The bushing should not be a press fit on the stringpost, A very small amount of play is generally normal, and ok.

It's good when your dreams come true, even if it's 54 years later. In 1966, I was a broke 19 year old college sophomore with a yearn for a better guitar than the cheap guitar I had . Saw a very beat-up 1950 J-45 hanging on the wall of a music store in Jackson Mississippi, and begged my sister for the $50 to buy it. Still have that guitar more than 55 years later, although it has changed a lot over the years. A couple of years ago I bought an identical but completely original 1950 J-45, made a month or so before that first one, from the first and only owner in Ohio, who was selling it to help his grandson finish paying for nursing school. It was my dream guitar in 1966, and its "new" sibling still is.

I will be interested to see the Holter firestripes. I have two of the modern Gibson ones, which are too garish for my taste.

The OP had no idea what it was worth. It's not really fair to criticize him for taking the deal offered.

I don't really disagree with you. The work to the bridge that Ross Teigen did on the bridge of my 1950 J-45 is very subtle, much less pronounced than that shown on the OP's bridge in this thread. In my case, the pin holes already had "string wear slots" on top of the bridge, so all he did was a clean-up and tiny bit of ramping. On that guitar, the pin holes are quite close to the saddle, so the break angle is really good. I also had him slightly over-set the neck, since he was doing a neck re-set at the same time. My other 1950 J-45 has a replacement bridge that he did--it's a complicated story--but the result was a long distance between pins and saddle, and a really mediocre break angle. The new bridge was a re-convert to the original 1950-style bridge from a 1968 belly-down bridge with an adj saddle, keeping the same pinhole location. To get the intonation right, the saddle ended up being well forward on the bridge, resulting in a poor break angle. That guitar has had so many mods over the 55 years I've owned it--including re-topping by Gibson in 1968--that I am less reluctant to fiddle with things.

Stewmac sell saws and files specifically for this purpose. I have a set of five different sized of saws, and five different sizes of files for this. You match the slots and ramps to your string gauge. Bob Colosi made me a set of un-slotted very dark dyed bone pins, and Ross Teigen drilled and reamed new pin holes to match these pins after plugging the damaged pin holes. It was a lot cheaper than a bridgeplate replacement, and it kept the original bridgeplate, which was important to me on an all-original 1950 J-45. Note: "all original" except for new tuner buttons, saddle, bridgepins, and endpin. Kept the original nut, which I think is some kind of nylon or similar hard plastic.

There is no ramping in the Dave F's drawing. The ramping on the OP's bridge modification is the long, angled string slot in the bridge between the pins and the saddle that allows the string a steeper angle to the saddle, compared to the un-ramped arrangement shown in Dave F's drawing. Both of my Bozeman Gibsons have very slight ramps cut in the bridge, which were done at the factory to the best of my knowledge. On older Gibsons, you often see "natural" ramps worn into the bridge by decades of string changes, tuning, and playing. The problem with older guitars with slotted pins is that there is inevitable wear and tear in the pinholes from the ball end of the string pulling into the bridgeplate, no matter how careful you are. When Ross Teigen did bridgeplate pinhole repairs on what is now my primary (and virtually completely original) 1950 J-45 a few years ago, he suggested it was a good time to slot and slightly ramp the bridge, and make the move to unslotted pins, to minimize bridgeplate damage in the future. That is a really good thing to consider on Gibsons from the late 1940s and early 50s that have softer spruce bridgeplates, which can get badly worn over time. I bought the files and saws from Stewmac to do this to my other 1950 J-45, which has a pretty lousy break angle and a new maple bridgeplate and new Brazilian bridge. Since that guitar has a number of unoriginal features, I don't have any real concerns about another small modification which may actually improve tone. Your experience may vary.

Looking at the specs and reading this, it appears that this model is largely the same as the Legend design-wise, but skips on some of the Legend's "authentic" details, such as all hide glue construction and the fabric side stays. Those may be reasonable trade-offs for the price difference.

I don't have that particular L-OO version, but do have a 2010 L-OO Legend. It's a great little guitar. The specs are probably similar. You even got the same redline case with yours. Yours also looks like an Adi top with a VOS finish. I fingerpick mine, and it is my favorite for that style of playing.

Dave, What do you think about your rosewood SJ? I might move on my 1943 SJ re-issue (mahogany) for one of those.

To my ear, the 2001 'hog J-45 had the best-balance and the tone I most associate with the J-45, whether strummed or flat-picked. The rosewood J-45 s are different. Very brash and surprisingly treble-focused when strumming. I liked their picked tone a lot better, although the bass seemed a bit boomy to me on both of them. With a bit of signal processing, the various differences in tone seemed a bit less obvious, and they were more closely grouped.

Between 1975 and 1977, the serial number and model were apparently on decals on the back of the headstock. Not sure why anyone thought that was a good idea.

I still call myself semi-retired. For whatever reason I seem to be busier now than when I was working for a living. I need to go back to work to get some rest.

I'll elaborate on Frank Ford's directions for cleaning Klusons which have an oiling hole. Remove the tuners from the guitar before cleaning using a glue syringe or something similar, flush each tuner housing thoroughly and repeatedly through the oiling hole with naphtha , until it runs out of the housing perfectly clean. dry each tuner, then place on a rag and allow 24 hour for everything to drain and evaporate. lubricate through each oiling hole with just a few drops of Tri-Flow., using their syringe oiler. turn each tuner key through multiple revolutions to distribute lubricant. wipe off any excess. if there was significant excess, wipe outside of tuners with a rag slightly dampened with naphtha. polish inside of ferrules (bushings)using a premium metal polish such as Flitz on a cotton swab. polish string posts with the same polish. If these are old Kluson tuners showing surface rust on the gear covers and mounting plates, Flitz does a good job of removing just enough of this corrosion while leaving a bit of patina re-install tuners. I have restored numerous sets of old Klusons to good working condition using this method, including three on a plate, single tuner, and six on a plate (for 12-strings). It works well on any tuner with an oiling hole.

One of my 1950 J-45s has the original three-on-a-plate single-line Klusons. These are easily cleaned and restored to good working order. They do not have the low gear ratio of modern tuners, and have a fair amount of backlash, but once tuned, they hold tuning perfectly. Be aware that some of the modern repro Klusons come with larger ferrules that could require headstock modification. If you have the smaller, pressed-nickel tuner post bushings (ferrules), do not replace those when you change tuners. Be sure and verify the string post diameter and length on your old an new tuners. The originals are a full 1/4", I believe, and many of the repros are slight smaller in diameter. and may also be slightly shorter. Whatever you do, it is a poor idea to modify the headstock in any way to accommodate new tuners. If you ever need repro tuner buttons, the Antique Acoustics ones from Elderly Instruments are the most accurate design, including having concave sides like the originals.

Backstrips sometimes fall out, so the real check is the top bracing.

The logo indicates post-1947. Feel under the top to see if it's ladder-braced or X-braced. It is either an LG-1 or a LG-2. X-braced means LG-2.

With the value of vintage guitars skyrocketing, it's getting easier to justify the type of costly repairs that JT is talking about. Maintaining playability versus maintaining vintage value may result in very different approaches to the same repair, and may require significantly different skillsets.

Sweet guitar. My 1943 SJ Re-issue was part of a custom run for Fuller's Vintage in 2006, and is a great guitar. The only thing I would consider swapping it for is one of the new rosewood SJ re-issues, since I have an embarrassment of mahogany slope-Js right now. Yours looks like a keeper.

She's sort of a female combination of John Fullbright and Pokey LaFarge. And I love both of them. Had not heard of her before, but she is really talented.

Agreed. The Grass Roots were another hybrid LA/SF Left Coast Sound group, including lots of minor key stuff. Half of the original Grass Roots came out of the Bedouins in SF, which had to have been close to the time Rob was with Peter Wheat. Maybe a couple of years later, if that.

Why do you think the finish is thick? Gibson does not typically apply overly-thick finishes. The exception might be the Fullerplast finishes from 1990 or so. As has been stated, you will be seriously compromising the value of the guitar at the very least. What exactly are you trying to achieve? You don't say that.