j45nick

The "vintage-style" bracing Tony shows in that video is closely related to the "advanced" bracing Gibson used on some models beginning in the 1930's. Notably, the x-brace is opened up and sometimes shifted forward with the axis closer to the soundhole, creating (as I understand it) a freer-vibrating top in the bass bout. Think original Gibson AJ (Advanced Jumbo) here. I suspect these vintage-model 'Birds are really good, but I also suspect their tone is quite a bit different from a 'Bird from the early 1960's. There are folks here who are 'Bird specialists--think Em7--who could articulate those differences. Be forewarned that Em7's comments can be as poetic as they are descriptive, not that there's anything wrong with his poetry.

Twelve strings can be intimidating beasts, and I give you a lot of credit.

I don't disagree with what so say in any significant way. However, I don't believe these are all-hide-glue construction. Typically, higher-end "vintage"-model Gibsons use the standard hide glue neck joint that almost all Gibsons use, plus they often use hide glue for the top bracing. For all-hide construction, you generally have to go into Legend-series guitars or other special order models. Or buy vintage. Also not sure what "aggressive" top brace scalloping is, since almost all current Gibsons use scalloped top bracing. Interestingly, no "real" vintage 'Birds probably used scalloped top bracing, as Gibson stopped using scalloped top bracing sometime around 1954 or so, well before the first Hummingbird was built. The return to scalloped top bracing, I believe, can be traced to Ren Ferguson in the Bozeman era. Beware of marketing hype. Like you, I don't want electronics in any of my Gibson acoustics. I don't play out, so I don't need amplification. I do have a '59 Historic ES-335 that I play amplified, when and if I'm interested in that.

I haven't played a terrified-top 'Bird to make a valid comparison, but you pay a huge "prestige" or "rarity" penalty for torrefied tops right now. You can get an idea of the actual difference in material costs by the following comparisons from Stewmac for torrefied vs. non-torrefied materials. These are current quotes for book-matched dreadnought-sized soundboard sets: AAAA non-torrefied sitka: $109 AAA non-torrefied sitka: $70 AAA torrefied sitka: $87 AAA torrefied old-growth red spruce: $490 AAA non-torrefied old-growth red spruce: $416 Cost differential between torrefied vs non-torrefied top brace material is about $3 per stick, or maybe $20 difference for enough material to brace an entire dread-sized top. In other words, you are paying a serious premium over actual cost differential for a new guitar with torrefied top materials. Or, you can do what a lot of us do, and buy 70-year-old guitars with "naturally aged" tops and all-hide-glue construction. Just don't expect a brand-new guitar, not that this matters to a lot of us. If I were buying a new guitar--which I'm not--I would pay a premium for a torrefied top, but not the premium they seem to be asking. However, most vintage-spec'd new Gibsons have other "vintage" features that may not be so simply quantified. You pays your money, and you makes yer choice.

Sal, hang in there. We're your friends, even if we can't be there to help you directly. Bad things happen to good people, but they're still good people.

Two days older ain't much, cowpoke. You're only as old as you feel. I'm going on 100 this morning, working in the south of France under a broiling sun. But there's wine at the end of the day, and the food is good.... Should be a song in there somewhere.

Great-looking guitar! Generally, you can us naphtha to remove the old glue residue from both the back of the pickguard and the top of the guitar. Do not use more powerful solvents on either one. Just like the thin cellulose pickguards, the thicker ones like yours curl at the edges as they age and shrink. That one looks pretty good in the pictures. You're lucky it's off, as it saves you one step. Those edges may straighten out on installation, if you make a caul from a piece of wood, and clamp that to the pickguard and top of the guitar, with clamps focused on the warped edges, when you re-install. Stewmac may have a video on this process on their website, since it's a common issue. The original pickguard on the 1950 J-45 I purchased recently is starting to curl at the edges, but I'll leave it alone until the edges come loose. Removing the old bridge is a 15-minute job with a 7/16" wrench, with most of that time spent in removing the old strings. The frets and fretboard should clean up nicely with either bronze wool or a Scotchbrite pad. Don't even think of using steel wool. Save the old bridge, and try not to break it when removing it. That footprint looks pretty much the same as the normal wood bridge footprint. Whoever does the bridge replacement may actually re-install the plastic one and scribe the footprint with an x-acto knife to make it easier to remove the top lacquer under this bridge before gluing on the new one. All in all, looks like you've found a great little vintage Gibson in a condition not often seen.

She's two months younger than me, so I'm sure that's why she looks so much younger than I do. She is one of the few people who look as good at 70 as they did at 30. Maybe it's just my own taste "maturing." Then there are those like Mick and Keef whose faces show every one of their years, plus a few. Gettin' old ain't for sissies.

Nice find! The plastic bridge is usually held on with three (or four, I can't remember) small lag screws with hex heads. Unscrew those from inside the guitar, and the bridge should pop off. Someone here from the upper Midwest should be able to point you to someone to work on it. Make sure they know what they are doing. Despite the unplayed condition, the guitar should get a close inspection for loose braces, neck angle, etc. Does the plastic bridge have a fixed saddle, or an adjustable one? To keep it authentic, you should consider a rosewood replacement bridge, rather than ebony. Most repair specialists keep a variety of small bits of Brazilian around for just this purpose, and can generally match the bridge to the fretboard quite nicely. Pictures when you get a chance.

link?

Yes, they were. When Gibson re-topped my old 1950 J-45 in 1968, they put a bright cherryburst finish on it. I hated it, and stripped it off a couple of years later, and turned it into a J-50 for the next 30 years or so. Now a lot of those original late-60's cherrybursts have faded beautifully, and are pretty desirable. They were a bit garish when new.

Got your wah-wah on, Buc?

Welcome back to performing, Mark. You've got a lot of talent.

That's a nice guitar that appears to have had a pretty hard life. I don't know what part of the country you're in, but I would get it to a qualified luthier who specializes in vintage repair to see what work might be necessary to stabilize it and turn it into a great player. Congratulations. Now, post a picture of the "roached-out" 12-string, along with its serial number, and we'll help you determine exactly what you have, and whether it's worth repairing or should just be a wall hanger.

Baez was pretty much the model when it came to vocal qualities for female folksingers in those days. Most of them sang with a fair amount of vibrato (exceptions were folks like Mary Travers and Judy Collins). I personally find excess vibrato a bit distracting, although I can make an exception for Emmylou, just because...

L-00 is x-braced.

That all makes sense. Annoying, but not a significant problem.

Looks like a low humidity crack to me. If your ambient humidity is down much below 40% on a regular basis in the space you keep your guitars--say, 35% of less--you need to look at humidifying either the guitar in its case, or the space itself.

That metal plate is more complex than the one I had, which was essentially just a flat piece of very thin spring steel shaped in plan view like ZW's. The one ZW has probably been formed in a hydraulic press and sheared to shape, since it has the "tongue" pressed into the middle. It would be interesting if someone here has another early adj--say, 1960 or earlier--they could take apart and have a look at. It isn't that hard if you do it in conjunction with a string change, and it is of some historical interest. (I do have a life, but I find this type of thing really interesting.)

Now that's interesting. The underside of the saddle was grooved so that the spring plate indexed to it. I suspect that was an early iteration, and it was dropped because it added (minutely) to cost and complexity. I have never seen that before. 1961 was fairly early in the adj cycle.

They're not bad for a bunch of doddering geezers.... What was the name of that group? Stolen Roans? They look vaguely familiar.

Can't answer that directly, but the adj bridge/saddle Gibson installed on my old 1950 J-45 in July, 1968 had the rosewood saddle that was flat on the bottom. I still have it in my parts box. It also had the slightly curved steel "spring" plate underneath the saddle, which I removed somewhere along the line, probably when I modified the rosewood saddle with a bone insert around 1971.

If you don't want to go all the way down to something as small as the L-00, you might look at a step between, such as a Martin 000-28 EC. Smaller than a dread, bigger than a breadbox. The EC models are short scale (24.9") and have a 1.75" nut width. You can pick up a nice one used for around $2500 or so. Rosewood B&S, ebony board and bridge. Nice versatile guitar. Pretty strongly built in the Martin fashion, and has typical Martin tone, if you're ok with that. Of course, maybe your wife might like something other than a guitar for her birthday.

Check the post hole spacing on any three-on-a-plates to make sure they line up properly. Gotoh, Golden Age, and Kluson all make Kluson-style closed backs with plastic oval buttons, which may be what the guitar had originally. StewMac has all three of these, plus the 3+3 single-tuner versions of these tuners as well as well. All of these are in the $45-60 range. I have used the Kluson versions as replacements for tired vintage Klusons. These are not absolutely identical to vintage Klusons, as most have a slightly smaller diameter stringpost than the originals. They still seem to work fine with original bushings, however. The footprints of all are essentially the same. You will need conversion bushings in any case to fill the larger postholes left by the Rotos. StewMac has those as well. Also check the stringpost lengths from the drawings or specs to make sure they work for your peghead thickness.

That is a superb-sounding guitar. Of course, David Dugas brings out the best in any guitar.