j45nick

All my friends in Sydney tell me it's pretty wretched right now. I was there working last year for a couple of weeks in January/February. It was warmish for much of the time, but not bad for someone used to Florida. I worked in Melbourne for a month a few years ago, and that weather was bizarre. Winter and summer, in the same day.

Tri-Flow has PTFE in it, which is the reason you don't want to get it on your guitar's finish. BK, the weather looks wicked in your part of the world right now, between the temperatures and the fires. I hope it calms down before I go to Sydney for work in late February. The trouble tuning the J-50 may be due to the old strings. They produce so many overtones that a lot of electronic tuners have trouble sorting out the fundamental pitch. I had the same issue a few nights ago when I was tuning a couple of my guitars down a half step for some 60's rock stuff. With really old strings on the guitars, both of my electronic tuners threw up their displays and said "Enough. We ain't doin' this."

Those standard enclosed three-on-a-plate Klusons rarely wear out. Take them off the guitar the next time you change strings. Flush them thoroughly with naphtha-- I use plastic glue syringes for this, working the tuners a lot while flushing them--let them dry, then give them a shot of Tri-Flow using their pinpoint lubricator. Work the tuners in thoroughly to make sure they turn without binding. Clean any excess lubricant off the outside with a rag moistened in naphtha. Clean and polish the stringposts with a metal polish like Flitz. Take a cotton swab dipped in naphtha to clean the inside of the ferrules in the headstock. Don't think of trying to remove them from the headstock. Do a final clean/polish of the inside of the ferrules with a dab of Flitz on a cotton swab before reinstalling the tuners. Don't lube the tuners with them on the guitar: you'll get lube everywhere, and it is difficult to impossible to remove completely. I've been using this method for decades, bringing back many "dead" tuners, which essentially only need a thorough clean/lube unless either the stringposts or tuning shafts are bent. Incidentally, on older Klusons where the nickel plating is showing signs of rust on the gear covers, I clean those up using Flitz as part of the restoration process. You end up with a nicely relic'd-looking rust-free tuners. They don't looks new, but they do look "vintage." Stewmac has a good video on this process, using methods almost identical to the ones described above. It ain't rocket science. If anyone has old "junk" Klusons they don't want, send them to me. I'll pay for the shipping. Waste not, want not.

For some odd reason, Gibson has identified these modern versions of the J-50 as the "J-45 Natural." We've had discussions here on how non-historical that designation is, but I suppose they do it because a lot of people don't know anything about the J-50, and might not realize the only difference is the natural vs sunburst top. The particular one in the video looks like a mid-60's re-issue, with the two-circle soundhole rosette, batwing guard, and ADJ with what is most likely a tusq insert, since it doesn't seem to have the ceramic tone. It probably has the modern standard scalloped top bracing and the wider nut, compared to the tapered bracing and narrower nut of a vintage piece. It looks like a nice guitar.

Temperature variance from the low 50's F to low 70's F is probably nothing to worry about, assuming humidity stays within a rational range. I keep my guitars in their cases unless I am playing them. They stay clean and safe that way, safe from their clumsy owner unless he is playing them. My small home office (about 11' by 11', 3.4m by 3.4m) doubles as my music space, of necessity, so all of my guitars are no more than 10' away when I'm at my desk. Just did a timed test. It takes me no more than 15 seconds to get up from my desk, take a couple of steps in either direction to my guitar storage, pull out a case, take a guitar out, and sit back down in my desk chair or guitar-playing stool (Geoffrey Warner Studio Owl stool). That's a pretty small inconvenience for me. If I had a proper music room (still on the drawing board), I might look at things differently. We don't get real extremes in temperature in Florida, and it only gets fairly dry inside when the air conditioning is running in the summer, when it can drop to about 37-40%. Right now, outside temp is about 72 F, and humidity (it has been raining, but is now clearing) is 60% in the office. While that humidity is higher than ideal, it isn't into danger zone. The guitars just don't sound as crisp as they will at 45%.

To some extent, it depends on how quickly the temperature changes, and what the actual temperatures are. Often, very cold temperatures come with low humidity, which can be a deadly combination. I've seen significant lacquer checking on guitars that were kept at both extreme high temperatures and extreme low temperatures. What they had in common was low humidity. When you say a "pretty cold office", what exactly are you talking about? You may want to look into humidification of individual guitars, rather than trying to control the macro environment.

It is creepier than the old dealer stickers on my J-45, for sure.

Definitely bad juju to remove it. Somebody put it there for a reason. The 1950 J-45 I bought earlier this year still has a tiny dealer decal on the back near the neck heel, as well as a small dealer label inside: Dusi Music Shoppe, Youngstown, Ohio. My first instinct was to remove them. But they had been on the guitar since 1950, and the owner had never removed them. So I left them.

Plus it has scalloped top braces. I would say it's a winner, any way you look at it. In this case, the premature lacquer checking is a plus. Look at the premium you pay for "aged" versions of Martin's D-18/D-28 Authentics, or the aged versions of the Pre-War models. And you got yours at a discount (I hope).

I gotta say, that song fits that guitar. That really does look and sound like a well-aged J-50.

Not me, I got nuthin'. We could party at Dave's, but if he's smart, he won't let most of us in the front door.

1947 J-45, by the visual characteristics. Last of the rectangle bridges, first of the block logos. Zombywoof will know the history of those tuners. That was just about the time Gibson switched to the closed-back (rather than open gear) Kluson strip tuners. It was also about the time they went from fabric strip to popsicle stick side stays.

Dave, what are the three 12-fret full-depth jumbo's in the pew?

I'm scratching my head here on this combination of features. It also has the straight (rather than slanted) white silkscreen script logo. The combination of flat back, 16" body, plain dot fretboard inlays doesn't neatly tick all the boxes on any resource I have. 62burst may well be right, but I thought the L-50 had an arched back when they went to f-holes and the 16" body around 1935. There could well be transition pieces with both older and newer features, however, and L-50 from 1935 is not an unreasonable answer. The only things you can say with confidence is that it is a lower-end model, and probably dates from the mid/late 1930s. caveat: I do not pretend to be an expert on re-war Gibson archtops.

Give us the measurement across the back at the widest point. It should be either 14.75" or 16". Also, is the back more or less flat, or does it have a pronounced arch to it? If it is a flat back and 14.75" wide, ZW's guess of an L-30 from 1937-1943 is reasonable. The tuners look original to me, but ZW would know when those particular tuners were in use.

He plays at the end like a young Jimi Hendrix. It really is a great-sounding guitar. No surprises on the issues so far. Let's see what they find when they get into it.

BuddyW, do you live in an exceptionally dry climate? The cracks you are seeing aren't really normal in a guitar that has been kept reasonably humidified over its life. I have several 70-year-old guitars that have rarely been kept in a controlled climate, and they show no signs of cracks, nor do any of my other guitars. What is the floor in the space where you store your guitars? Rooms with poorly-insulated outside walls in colder climates can be problematic when it comes to controlling humidity. Whenever possible, I would store guitars away from exterior walls, and certainly away from any source of heat, whether it is forced hot air or radiated. Make sure that black paint and carpet never come in direct contact with any of your guitars. If possible, post a photo of one your guitars showing the type of cracks you are seeing.

Wowser! OK, we know it sounds great as a bottleneck guitar with ancient strings. How about some new strings to see what she can really do?

I store all mine as you describe: in the case, with the case more or less upright. As you say, it's a practical way to store them, and it saves on floor space. There is no downside to storing them this way that I'm aware of, and there are a number of rack designs available with this general configuration. There wouldn't be room in my office/music room to store them flat, even if I built shelves.

It's not quite as stark a choice, but I agree with the sentiment. Why waste cannoli?

If the guitar has an endpin that goes through the tailblock (rather than a screwed-in endpin), remove the endpin and look closely at the rims inside the hole, using a magnifying glass and good light. You may be able to tell at least if the sides are laminate from that type of inspection. Inspecting the grain inside and out can be an indicator, particularly if there are some unique characteristics in the grain, such as dark or light patches. In the case if this guitar, the very dark grain striations in the back near the edges at the widest point of the bass bout should show up on the inside, close of the kerfing in that area. You couldn't ask for a harder area to check inside a guitar, but it may be worth the effort. My initial reaction is that this looks more like EIR than BR, but I've also seen BR with pronounced light/dark grain streaks like that. The serial number is ambiguous, and can't be pinned down to within a couple of years. Interestingly, the early 1968 Heritage in the photo on page 124 of Fabulous Flat-Tops has a similar bridge, which is says is a replacement. It's not the same bridge, as the pins and saddle are not in the same location on the bridge as the OP's guitar. Fabulous Flat-Tops says the switch to EIR was made in '68, as was the switch to a bottom-belly (Martin style) bridge. I would go inside the guitar with camera and mirror and photograph the bridgeplate. If this bridge is a conversion from an adjustable, or a replacement, there's a good chance this is still the original bridgeplate. If it originally had an ADJ bridge, that would be obvious from an inspection. The pin position on this bridge is the same as on the 1968 ADJ bridge. I would love to have this guitar in my shop with strong light and a magnifier. There are some marks on the top of the bridge that suggest to me that this could be a converted ADJ bridge. Since it's ebony, it would be easier to do a clean conversion compared to doing the same thing in a rosedwood bridge. In any case, it's a nice guitar, and was near the top of the Gibson range in that period.

Vintage Klusons get a bad rap. I've restored a number of them to perfect working order. As my luthier says with a shrug, "the only function of the tuner is to hold the strings at pitch. You don't need $200 18:1 tuners for that." Modern electronic tuners have made actually getting to the right pitch dramatically easier.

That really is nice! It has the complete late 1950's look, with the correct soundhole purfling, pickguard, tuners, bridge, etc. If you just looked at it without looking at the label, you would say it was a 1957 J-50. What's the nut width (we know you are particular) and neck profile? Looks pretty chunky. Are the top braces scalloped or tapered? What does the label call it ? Some of the tone may come from it being dry as a bone. Often a dried-out guitar sounds its best just before it is ready to explode from drying out, so you might work a bit on humidification. So many questions...

You could probably swap your D-35 even for a modern Hummingbird, which is likely to be a better guitar than a 1970-'72 Hummingbird. There are good Norlin era Gibsons, but on average, they don't hold a candle to modern Bozeman guitars. Older isn't always better.

He was a pretty accessible guy, particularly when sitting at the bar at a club in the Village. He did hold forth in those situations, which was one reason he was known as the Mayor of MacDougal Street. I have to admit to being pretty timid about approaching him, since he'd been an idol of mine for so long. A lot of people were like that back then, particularly if you had any connection in the business. This was, of course, long before there were people with phones demanding selfies with everyone under the sun...