What's your opinion of this 50's era J-50 top?

[twalker 2]

Here's my question: The owner says the guitar is from the fifties but I've never seen such a yellowish top before. Most spruce tops tend to change to a brownish orange over time. I'm wondering if this guitar has been oversprayed or refinished.

 

What say you?

 

[zombywoof 250]

Whenever I try and photograph my guitars the top color never seems to come out quite right. Maybe this is what is going on with the photo. The photo makes it look far more yellow than it is.

[twalker 2]

Here's a close up

 

 

[EuroAussie 192]

Looks just fine to me.

[zombywoof 250]

In the 1940s Gibson occasionally used an opaque yellow finish on some of their guitars - kinda looked like what you saw on an old Tele. But I do not think this is the case here. Again, it is often hard to judge true color from photographs. I know the middle part of the burst on my guitars always seems to come out looking alot more yellow in photos than it acutally is.

[jedzep 150]

Since the browns and blacks look true I would be suspicious that the photography isn't off, and that this was recoated and ( mistakenly? ) tinted. Maybe well-intentioned color in the lacquer, but more yellow than I've ever seen. Hope you can get more pics and info if it's something you're looking to buy.

[Salfromchatham 235]

Toby - ask Jorma at camp; he should know!

[BluesKing777 240]

I've seen the photo background on EBay a lot - photo produced up for sale.

 

More 'real' photos are needed.

 

 

BluesKing777.

[Jayyj 10]

In the 1940s Gibson occasionally used an opaque yellow finish on some of their guitars - kinda looked like what you saw on an old Tele. But I do not think this is the case here. Again, it is often hard to judge true color from photographs. I know the middle part of the burst on my guitars always seems to come out looking alot more yellow in photos than it acutally is.

 

That was my first thought when I saw this - but my memory is that it was Banner era instruments that occasionally show up in the opaque blonde and this looks like second half of the 50s. As a standard J50, colour definitely looks off from the guitars I've had in hand of this era but not so much I'd want to call refinish without seeing more evidence.

[zombywoof 250]

The only Gibsons with that opaque yellow finish I have ever gotten my hands on were both made in 1942 - one was a J-35 and the other a J-50. I have also seen a couple of Epiphone archtops from that perid with the same finish.

 

With egard to the J-50 in question, I am still betting on either lighting or a poor attempt at photoshop.

[BigKahune 449]

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In the close up, the binding at the neck end of the body and at the butt end seems to have the yellow color of the finish over the cream binding, making me think refinished at some point.

 

 

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[Jayyj 10]

Someone over at UMGF did a colour correction on Photoshop which made it look a lot more normal, the guard colour looking closer to what I'd expect as well as the top. That's now swinging me towards saying it's more likely than not to be original.

[retrorod 93]

Initial Reaction????

 

NOT digging it !

 

 

 

[twalker 2]

Here's what the guitar actually looks like:

 

[BluesKing777 240]

Here's what the guitar actually looks like:

 

 

 

 

Hardly seems to be the same guitar!

 

It now looks like a large version of my 1959 LG3.

 

On the subject of GF/S photos, I like Elderly because of their great service and standards, but I have to say their guitar photos are the worst! Their photos for my om18v were like cartoons compared to the real thing when it arrived.

 

 

All part of the fun!

 

Congratulations on that J50, TW,

 

 

BluesKing777.