1975 Gibson J-50D; What wood?

[Damocles]

I've got a 1975 Gibson J-50D that I've had for 30 years. I recently came across a listing for one that said it had a spruce top and rosewood back/sides but I always thought the back and sides were mahogany. Does anybody know, for sure, what the standard body woods for this year/model were? Looks like mahogany to me...

 

[Paul14]

Looks like mahogany to me too.

[Boyd]

I bought my 1974 J-50 Deluxe when it was new and it is mahogany. I thought they all were, but suppose anything is possible. BTW, I have never heard of a "J50-D" - does it say that on the label? Mine says "J-50 Deluxe".

[Damocles]

I bought my 1974 J-50 Deluxe when it was new and it is mahogany. I thought they all were, but suppose anything is possible. BTW, I have never heard of a "J50-D" - does it say that on the label? Mine says "J-50 Deluxe".

 

This is what's stamped inside...

[Boyd]

That is interesting. Did it have an orange label? Mine still does. Have never noticed a stamp like yours, and since I gave the guitar to my son in law a few years ago I can't check at the moment. :)

[Damocles]

No label at all and it didn't have one when I bought it 2nd hand...

[Boyd]

Did some Googling since I was curious. Is this what your guitar looks like? https://reverb.com/item/7889279-gibson-j-50-d

 

Quite different from my 1974 J-50 Deluxe! Here's mine, you can see a bit of the orange label inside - it has some nasty stains from where my daughter put some food into the soundhole 30 years ago, LOL.

 

 

 

I also found a thread about the J-50 D over at AGF, where our friend zombywoof said the characteristics of that one suggested it was from 1969-1972. Always interested to learn about more variations of the J-50. :)

Edited February 14, 2019 by Boyd

[Damocles]

Very much the same as that Reverb listing (with the black teardrop pickguard) except the bridge is more like yours (without the two dot inlays). For what it's worth I always thought the D stood for Dreadnaught...

[Boyd]

Actually, that is not the original bridge on mine. Sometime in the 1980's I had it replaced when it developed a big crack and became unplayable. I don't recall exactly what the original bridge looked like, but I do remember that the replacement was not quite the same.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Boyd

[Damocles]

 

The bridge on mine.

 

I'm also wondering about the tuners. It has Gibson Deluxe individual ones (as opposed to the six on a strip on my LG-12) and a couple of them look a little askew (high E and D)

 

Edited February 15, 2019 by Damocles

[Boyd]

These were my original tuners. I never liked them from the very beginning, always were very stiff to operate even when they were new. One of them broke and I had replaced it with something that didn't match back in the 80's. So when I had a luthier work on the guitar in 2012, he replaced them all with the Gibson "vintage" tuners with plastic knobs. At that time, I didn't realize I could have gotten modern replicas of the originals.

 

Edited February 14, 2019 by Boyd

[Damocles]

Now I'm even more confused and wondering if mine are replacements...

[Boyd]

The tuners on the guitar in that Reverb link I posted are completely different from either of ours! :)

[zombywoof]

Kluson closed up shop in 1974.  So after Gibson and others used up their available stock that was all she wrote.  

Edited October 17, 2021 by zombywoof