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2011 J-45 True Vintage neck marks


PeterM

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That looks like a beautiful 2011 Southern Jumbo True Vintage. Made when Gibson still had a decent supply of really nice rosewood for the fretboards, and the fretboard on yours is evidence of that. It also seems to be a photo of the guitar when it was still fairly new, as it appears that the protective plastic is still on the pickguard- I know the look, as I kept the plastic on my 2007 for a while, and it too started to come up at the 'guard's "point" and also at it's outer edge.

"Neck marks" ? If you're talking about what looks to be a reflection on the left side of photo #5, to these eyes, it looks like a reflection, maybe of another guitar case. Looks like a beauty- I'd love to have it.

Edited by 62burst
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Yes, those split parallelogram fretboard inlays are normally seen on the Southern Jumbo, as well as some other models. 

EDIT: If it's a True Vintage (and it wouldn't be a great shock if it got labelled as a J-45), the aftermarket installed pickup system, however, is not sweetening the deal. Ironically, you pay more for a True Vintage to not have any of that on the guitar. Pure acoustic.

Edited by 62burst
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I guess the custom label refers to the split parallelograms for fret markers and the factory electronics 

The orange label looks like my 2011 45tv. Dots for fret markers no electronics

Thats some tight grained red spruce for the top, mine has some fine looking rose wood also 

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Yes, we learn each day - I still sometimes forget 'fret markers' and 'fretboard inlays'.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        The Gibson above is a 'picture' of the early Southerner Jumbos* without the white bound board.                                      *Later Southern Jumbo.                                                                                                 The so called creambindings were introduced in 1947 approx 5 years after the model saw light of day. Lots of places to look further into this 🔎  Have fun

 

 

 

P.S. - Neck marks would probably be a rather bad thing. 

Edited by E-minor7
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The Southerner Jumbo also had a different rosette.  Those I have seen coming out of Bozeman also had neck binding.  So I would think it is not a matter of mislabeling.  It does get confusing though as Bozeman releases an avalanche of Custom Shop runs every year.  Yours could, as example, have been an instance of Gibson having a surplus of SJ boards ready to be attached to the neck blank which they decided would be cool to slap on a batch of J45 TVs.   Just enjoy the heck out of the guitar and do not sweat the details of a back story you may never figure out.

Edited by zombywoof
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Definitely a strange one which was not uncommon and a very good looking guitar. Vintage head stock decal, unbound neck with split parallelograms, modern 20 frets, modern belly up bridge with drop in saddle.

They started slapping the TV and Legend label on everything. As mentioned above , the rosette as shown below of the SJ was fancier than the J45 shown at the bottom.

They really got away from the visual basics of a Vintage Banner.

J45/dot inlay/unbound neck/19 frets/small rectangular bridge/ saddle through/ open gear tuners - 3 on a strip 

SJ/split parallel inlay/bound neck on some of them/19 frets/belly down bridge/ through saddle/open gear tuners - individuals/ fancier rosette 

hardware-500_500.png

neck-side-500_500.png

hardware-500_500.png

hardware-500_500.png

 

Edited by Dave F
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3 hours ago, j45nick said:

The Southern Jumbo is essentially just J-45 with the fancy neck inlay you have.   Your guitar is actually a Southern Jumbo True Vintage, which is a good thing.

While this is mostly true from an historical perspective, the early TV versions of the J-45 and SJ are braced (and topped) differently from one another, the J-45 TV having red spruce and Advanced bracing, with the SJ TV having sitka and the standard x bracing. At least that's true of my two from the mid/late 2000s.

 

Red 333

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Sounds like it's yours and you got in  from the original owner.  The fret inlays change shape and proportion as they go up the neck and the frets get narrower.  Doesn't happen with dot, but does on the fancier inlays like on the SJ and H'Bird.   "Custom Shop" ...   it's not a place, it's a concept.    A real sweet guitar -  take good care of her and she'll take care of you.

Welcome Peter ! 

 

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3 hours ago, grOOved said:

Southern jumbos have binding on the neck too. This guitar is just a J45 with parallelogram inlay. Maybe a special order.

The Woody Guthrie Southern Jumbo had the exact same neck as this guitar: same inlays, 20-fret neck, no neck binding, Maybe this was a custom J-45 TV with a Woody Guthrie SJ neck.

Gibson SJ re-issues have been all over the map. I have a 1943 SJ re-issue that is pretty accurate: slot-through belly-down bridge, 19-fret neck, SJ rosette. I also, however, has a bound fretboard, which is a post-war feature.

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17 minutes ago, j45nick said:

The Woody Guthrie Southern Jumbo had the exact same neck as this guitar: same inlays, 20-fret neck, no neck binding, Maybe this was a custom J-45 TV with a Woody Guthrie SJ neck.

Gibson SJ re-issues have been all over the map. I have a 1943 SJ re-issue that is pretty accurate: slot-through belly-down bridge, 19-fret neck, SJ rosette. I also, however, has a bound fretboard, which is a post-war feature.

Yes the real Guthrie 1945 SJ had the fancier double ring rosette, a surprising down-belly bridge and 19 un-bound frets.

s4JVIQl.jpg

                                                                                                                                           Script logo and banner not seen here. 

 

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6 hours ago, E-minor7 said:

Yes the real Guthrie 1945 SJ had the fancier double ring rosette, a surprising down-belly bridge and 19 un-bound frets.

s4JVIQl.jpg

                                                                                                                                           Script logo and banner not seen here. 

 

The down-belly (Martin style) bridge was the rule on Banner SJs, rather than the exception.

Just check out the SJ gallery on the banner website:

BannerGibsons.com

Woody's SJ also had the wider top binding that was used on some banner SJs.

Edited by j45nick
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55 minutes ago, E-minor7 said:

Ouh thx - never knew that. Guess there must have been a turning point. Perhaps when the 45 went belly

All I  know is what I read and the photos I look at. It isn't clear why Gibson went to the "modern" belly-up style that we associate with Gibson.

Looking at old photos is tricky, because you never know with certainty if you are looking at the original bridge.

As a general rule--but there are exceptions--banner J-45s had rectangular bridges, banner SJs belly-down. The banner registry lists five different bridge styles during the banner era.

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