1987 J45 questions

[J-45Girl]

Would a J45 built in 1987 have had any influence from Ren? Is there anything notably good or bad about acoustics built during this year?

 

Thanks for any help. The guitar in question is not close enough for me to play, though I may be able to get a friend to try it out.

[Martin 1940D28]

Some of the '80 J45s built in Nashville are great guitars. I believe they are exact copies of a mid '50s J45 with the same top and back bracing. I foolishly passed one up a little over a year ago. It was a beauty and sounded like later '50s J45. As far as where it was built, The serial number will let you know, and possibly who might have had their hand in it. I should have said "the guitars, '80s J45s that left Nashville with no weather related problems were great guitars". The one I passed up looked like '50s workmanship on the inside, a little extra glue here and there. Not as clean on the interior as the later ones. This one had short, tapered straight bracing. Good luck.

[J-45Girl]

Thanks!!!

[zombywoof]

The Nashville guitars made from 1984 on were a major improvement on those that had come before. It is like Gibson started to get try and get serious about acoustics again. The J-45 lost the infamous double X bracing, got it round shoulders back, now sported a trimmer headstock, and shed the "clown bursts" of the 1970s. But repro or copy of a 1950s J-45 they were not. In that Gibson 100 Years book there is an account of Henry J. right after he snagged the company wanjtig to know if Gibson could build a guitar like the original AJ and start repairing their battered reputation. The answer was the Nashville plant could not.

[ksdaddy]

The answer was the Nashville plant could not.

 

I would raise the question, were they not capable in a craftsmanship sense or was it a climate issue?

 

My mother still has my late father's '85 J-100 upstairs and will NOT give it up for whatever reason. The workmanship on that guitar is A-One.

[zombywoof]

I would raise the question, were they not capable in a craftsmanship sense or was it a climate issue?

 

My mother still has my late father's '85 J-100 upstairs and will NOT give it up for whatever reason. The workmanship on that guitar is A-One.

 

 

There apparently was a real problem with humdity at the Nashville Plant. Again, the guitars from at least 1984 on (after the take over of Norlin by Peizo) are probably the best Gibson acoustics built since 1968. Probably the best thing about the mid-1980s Gibsons is the return to the non-scallop bracing used 1955 - 1968. But I would also guess at the time Nashville was not capable of reproducing something like an original AJ which is, according to the story, the guitar they were asked to copy and which they said they could not.

[J-45Girl]

Thanks so much for the info, guys!!

 

Is the nut likely to be 1 23/32?

 

There may have well been humidity issues, as the guitar has some repaired cracks.