j45nick

Looks like maybe a plastic bridge to me. No sign of the bolts outside the bridgepins you would have with a wood bridge.

The SJ was a higher-end guitar, pretty much on the level with the Hummingbird, which it closely resembles other than the pickguard. As such, I would expect a label, but could be wrong. I think Em7 has an SJ from around this period, and may be able to offer some insight. This one has the trapezoid neck inlays, which I associate with the 60s.

I've factored in the bridge, which actually looks like an earlier replacement rather than 1980's if Gibson did it. However, Gibson might have replicated an earlier bridge, although they were notorious for installing what parts were current whenever the guitar was in the factory for work The guitar is almost certainly (assuming it is a Gibson, and not a knock-off) an SJ from 1962 or later. The serial number will help clarify. The width of the neck at the nut, up where the neck transitions into the headstock, will be another indicator of the year in this period. Measure this precisely, across the nut, if possible. Do not rely on online serial number daters when it come to guitars in this period. There are people here with access to alternative sources who will give you a much more reliable answer.

If you can give us the serial number of the guitar--should be stamped on the back of the headstock, but could possibly be stamped on the neckblock inside--that would help pin down the year. I am surprised it doesn't have a paper label inside.

I can say with confidence that the guitar in that picture is nothing like a 1962 J-45. It looks like it might be an SJ, maybe mid or late 1960s or a little later, but we need more photos to be sure. Others here may know better than I do, but definitely not a 1962 J-45.

Need a picture to help at all.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who has a dual purpose office and music room. I work from home about 80% of the time in any case, so the only thing that has changed is my business travel is open to review every day. All of that travel could go away and I would be just as happy.

Those would be the Sta-Tite 97 series, and they are very good. I replaced the badly-worn Klusons on my original 1950 J-45 with a set of those back about 1970. They still work perfectly, 50 years later. Good tuners, and lightweight.

Photo of the serial number would help. What I see looks right for a B-25 natural from sometime in the early 60s.

That's basically a Brazilian AJ with a narrow nut. I'd love to play it.

That is one of the better A-B comparisons I have seen. The test tracks are exactly the kind of music you associate with Gibson slope-J, and the two guitars are directly comparable. One thing this comparison does is show just how superbly modern Bozeman Gibsons are at replicating the voices of their ancestors. Another good thing about these test from my perspective is that we are listening to the guitars the way others hear them, not the way we hear them while we are playing. To my ear, both guitars have wonderful tone. The new guitar has a certain lushness that is missing in the vintage guitar. The vintage guitar has a dryness, note separation, and articulation that is substantially different than the new guitar, even though the overall effect is similar. I have two mahogany slope-J's that are directly comparable to these two: and all-original 1950 J-45, and a modern 1943 SJ re-issue. What I hear in those two guitars, sitting behind the wheel rather than in front, as in this test, is pretty darn similar. My two are my favorite guitars right now, and this test reminds me of why they are. The guy demo'ing the guitars is perfect for the job, and shows them off well. JCV, thanks for posting this.

You mean the Black Knight wasn't real? Ricky Gervais is no John Cleese, but that's just me. (The irony font is missing on my computer.)

I need to disinfect my brain after watching that.

Yes, it is. While we probably can't stop the spread of the virus, we can impact on the rate at which it spreads by reducing exposure of a large number of individuals at once. This is one reason airports, theme parks, political rallies, and sports events pose such a public health risk. The risk is overwhelming the health care resources. If 500 people come down with the virus at the same time, that's a lot harder for the system to deal with than if 10 people come down with it. Large gatherings increase the risk of large numbers of people being exposed simultaneously or near-simultaneously. If you think it's overhyped, you really aren't paying attention to what's going on in the world. Wake up.

BK, you really are amazing, and that little old L-O is a great example of the reason I love vintage Gibsons. Thanks for that. I could listen to you play all day long.

Nice job on a great song. I have a soft spot for that song. It was the B side of a 45 the group I worked with back in 1971 cut for Mercury records, during my short-lived career in the music industry.

This guitar is outside my experience, and I don't know anything about the model that isn't on the link I sent. This one has 12 frets clear of the body, rather than the 13 the website lists, but I have no idea how definitive that limited information is, so your guess is as good as mine on this guitar. As to the neck joint, I don't know when the compound dovetail we know today became the standard, or if it has always been the norm. If you're contemplating a neck re-set, I hope you're getting it cheap.

This is a link to the only real information I see on this. The label and serial number do suggest an early guitar, but as you say, a couple of characteristics do no seem consistent with the date suggested by the serial number. It may have had alterations either at the Gibson factory or by someone else at some point during its lifetime. Gibson archtops These would appear to be only of interest and value as historical artifacts, not as playable instruments. In fact, the action height that shows in the photos would essentially be unplayable in any conventional sense. It's interesting, but I wouldn't pay a lot of money for it.

How about a picture? Gibson slope-J's from the late 1940s through early 1950s are my favorite guitars. I have a couple of 1950 J-45s, and I love them dearly.

That story reminds me of buying my incredibly beat-up 1950 J-45 off the wall of a music store in Jackson Mississippi for $50 back in 1966. Only difference: I still sounded like me when I played it. It did have my name on it, however. Still does.

That was flat-out awesome.

I thought repairs all went to Nashville after Kalamazoo shut down.

A 3636 FON stamped on the inside would probably be 1950. When you say "peg head number is 4543", what exactly do you mean? Is this number embossed in the top of the back of the peghead, or what? 4543 would also be a 1950 FON, by the way.

Pretty sure the necks got narrowed to more-or-less 1 11/16" by the time the block logo came in. I had an early '47 L-7 (script logo) with just over 1 11/16" at the nut, and the '50 J-45 I bought last year is also just a hair over 1 11/16". I don't think you can assume a specific neck width by year in the 1940s.

That's at least the third set of tuners that have been on that guitar. The original footprint looks like the standard individual closed-back Klusons that came in about that time, but ZW will know if they could also have been open-back. There are some Rotos that have that single offset screw, but I don't know that product line well enough to date them. In about 1970 I swapped out the original closed-back three-on-a-plate Klusons for a set of Sta-Tites on my original 1950 J-45.That was a pretty common swap at that time, since they fit on the guitar in a similar fashion. As ZW says, when a guitar went back to Parsons Street for substantial work, Gibson as a rule used replacement parts that were the same as were then in use on the production line. That's how my original 1950 J-45 ended up with a new cherryburst top, adjustable bridge, batwing pickguard, and narrowed neck with 20-fret board when I sent it back for a top re-glue and a new fretboard in 1968. And, as ZW says, they stamped the FON on the back of the headstock, even though it is still on the neckblock. They re-used the original Kluson tuners on my J-45, by the way. That bridge is probably original, but the crisp edges of the transition from the thicker top of the bridge to the thinner wings appears to have been sanded. That's pretty common, and it often means someone has sanded down the top of the bridge to lower the action, rather than re-setting the neck.