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Have there been any differences in specs from the 2017/2018 Gibson J-45 up to now (Feb. 2024)?


Guithartic

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I just got a used J-45 on Friday. I've hardly put it down since. It seems to be the exact same specs as what I see listed on Sweetwater, e.g., VTR UST active pickup system, thin-feeling/looking neck, sunburst finish, Grover Rotomatic tuners, etc.). I sanded the bridge down a little, and it was plastic, so I'm guessing it was probably the Tusq, but not 100% sure. I believe it's a 2018, because it's stamped 2018, but the serial number indicates that it was made on Oct. 12, 2017 (SN: 12857...). I'm guessing that the guitar was made on that date, but meant to be part of the 2018 lineup (correct me if I'm wrong).  I'm just curious if Gibson made any "improvements" since then. Thanks.

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2 hours ago, Dave F said:

Even the write-up from 2018 till now is identical except they removed the “2018.”

Thanks. 

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9 hours ago, Guithartic said:

Even the write-up from 2018 till now is identical except they removed the “2018.”

Thanks. 

I found one difference for anyone interested. At least in 2018, the nut with was listed as 1.725, right now, on Sweetwater, it is listed as 1.724.. seems strange to shorten the nut by 1/1000 of an inch.

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40 minutes ago, Guithartic said:

I found one difference for anyone interested. At least in 2018, the nut with was listed as 1.725, right now, on Sweetwater, it is listed as 1.724.. seems strange to shorten the nut by 1/1000 of an inch.

I expect SW was hand measuring an existing guitar.  Or it was a typo.  Anyway, it’s a vendor making the observation, not the builder Gibson, so I don’t think it counts as a real change in specs.  I could easily see there being a 1000th diff just in the manufacturing of the nut.  it is so minute as to be immaterial to the width of the neck.  I’m always even surprised people even care about the real spec’d  diffs in nuts that only amount to a handful of hundredths. 

Edited by PrairieDog
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57 minutes ago, Guithartic said:

I found one difference for anyone interested. At least in 2018, the nut with was listed as 1.725, right now, on Sweetwater, it is listed as 1.724.. seems strange to shorten the nut by 1/1000 of an inch.

It's called "shrinkflation".

It's been around for years, but it got really bad starting in Jan. 2021.

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On 2/28/2024 at 7:15 AM, Murph said:

It's called "shrinkflation".

It's been around for years, but it got really bad starting in Jan. 2021.

Right! If they save 1/1000 of an inch on every nut, they can make an extra, free nut after making 1,724 nuts. They're geniuses. 

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For those who go back far enough with this forum you will recall a member who tried to list every variation of the J45 to come out of Bozeman up to that time.  He gave up after hitting 90 or so.  My main thought though was that Gibson had to have set some kind of record for the number of names they went with for various bursts.

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1 hour ago, zombywoof said:

For those who go back far enough with this forum you will recall a member who tried to list every variation of the J45 to come out of Bozeman up to that time.  He gave up after hitting 90 or so.  My main thought though was that Gibson had to have set some kind of record for the number of names they went with for various bursts.

That's hilarious. I'll try to look that up. The reason I as is mainly because on Reverb, when you search Gibson J-45 Standard, it gives one choice of "Gibson J-45 Standard" and another choice of "Gibson J-45 Standard 2009 - 2019," implying that the current J-45 Standard is from 2020 till now, and that there is something different about those compared to the 2009-2019 ones. Maybe it's just that they added the cherry red one to the lineup because that's the one they show in the photo for the former. 

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