scriv58 Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 I have a 1948 LG-2 it has side stays- not relevant now but my '46 SJ also has 'em. My LG-2 also has a tapered headstock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilroyonguitar Posted April 25, 2019 Author Share Posted April 25, 2019 Ok I finally added pictures to Imgur photo sharing. Here is the link https://kilroyonguitar.imgur.com/all/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted April 25, 2019 Share Posted April 25, 2019 I have a 1948 LG-2 it has side stays- not relevant now but my '46 SJ also has 'em. My LG-2 also has a tapered headstock. Changes such as abandoning the tapered headstock and side supports as well as overall heavier builds started gradually around 1951 after Gibson had re-tooled and re-organized. I always found 1950 as a convenient starting point for the emergence of the "modern" Gibson Company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilroyonguitar Posted April 25, 2019 Author Share Posted April 25, 2019 I didn't seem to get a side view of the headstock but it is tapered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilroyonguitar Posted April 25, 2019 Author Share Posted April 25, 2019 Hmmmm the link didn't work... Try these? https://imgur.com/xNQ7pjF https://imgur.com/zAEa3GY https://imgur.com/aMdx0bE https://imgur.com/nWOKlaD https://imgur.com/Zo0IWgf https://imgur.com/xKoTdoJ https://imgur.com/fBfj1nZ https://imgur.com/uY0YDAd https://imgur.com/Ep8M7CU https://imgur.com/ViiWqqV https://imgur.com/Osv67DK https://imgur.com/xghbJWR https://imgur.com/OAnJvup https://imgur.com/s6JwOy1 https://imgur.com/Nupnogi https://imgur.com/fLBe3kC https://imgur.com/jrTK7mO https://imgur.com/CN45csZ https://imgur.com/Ss9O2Tp https://imgur.com/280bsC6 https://imgur.com/aHNn0lc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilroyonguitar Posted April 25, 2019 Author Share Posted April 25, 2019 Here's a couple videos https://imgur.com/xNQ7pjF https://imgur.com/GeY22jp https://imgur.com/kTnB1wU Fixed the links Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted April 25, 2019 Share Posted April 25, 2019 Looking at all the pictures, including a couple that aren't in the links above, the guitar looks like an LG-1, probably from 1950 by the FON. The headstock logo is right for the period, as is the tapered headstock reported by the OP. The guitar has had a fair amount of obvious work, such as an overcoat over at least part of the guitar. You can tell this by the bubbles in the coating on the top just forward of the bridge, and the way the wear areas around the soundhole and pickguard are coated over where the top obviously had a certain amount of pickwear to bare wood that has been over-coated. Likewise, the coating on the back of the neck looks unusually even, smooth, and opaque for the age of the guitar and the wear under the overcoat on the top. Someone probably oversprayed the top around the end of the fretboard, maybe the neck was over-sprayed at the same time. That is apparent from the fact that the rosette is sprayed over in this area, which would not have been original. The rosette is absolutely correct for the period, so this top would appear to be the original, including the pickguard. The bridge is a head-scratcher. A 1950 should have a slot-through saddle rather than a drop-in saddle, but you never know with Gibson, so I don't read too much into that. The tuners appear to be later, even though they have the same footprint as the originals. They are Gibson Deluxe rather than Kluson Deluxe, and of course they have metal buttons rather than white plastic. While we normally think of an LG-1 as having a one-piece back, the fact that this one has a centerline back strip suggests the two-piece back you would associate with an LG-2. However, it would be presumptuous to say that Gibson never put a two-piece back on an LG-1. I don't know at what point the tops were "married" to the rest of the body in that period. The OP emailed me a picture showing a bit of the inside of the back. The gluing was clean and showed no signs of having been tampered with. As the OP said, this is a guitar that has been in the family for decades. It is not unusual to see work like this done over time, especially on a guitar that has been played a lot. My "old" original 1950 J-45 is a perfect example of this. It has had two tops, three bridges, two fretboards, a neck re-shaping and re-spray (thanks, Gibson), four pickguards, two sets of tuners, an original sunburst, a cherry sunburst (thanks, Gibson), a natural top, and a re-created original sunburst. Plus a lot of fancy inlay work on the headstock and fretboard. And that's only during the 53 years that I've owned it! It would take a first-hand inspection to get to the bottom of some of the questions here, and this analysis is just based on photos. This is a nice player-grade guitar that looks completely stable and playable. Play it, and keep it forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilroyonguitar Posted April 25, 2019 Author Share Posted April 25, 2019 Thanks for your efforts Nick and everyone else too! I just came across an interesting picture of a 1948 J45. It seems to have the same discoloration between the bridge and pick guard. https://imgur.com/m47XxSN This is the 1948 J45 https://imgur.com/zAEa3GY This is my guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted April 25, 2019 Share Posted April 25, 2019 Thanks for your efforts Nick and everyone else too! I just came across an interesting picture of a 1948 J45. It seems to have the same discoloration between the bridge and pick guard. https://imgur.com/m47XxSN This is the 1948 J45 https://imgur.com/zAEa3GY This is my guitar That is pickwear, from flat-picking or strumming aggressively in a way that the pick strikes the top in addition to striking the pickguard. It is common on older guitars. On your guitar, someone has over-coated the bare wood in that area. Willie Nelson's guitar "Trigger" is an extreme example of pickwear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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