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NGD Vintage 43/44 Banner SJ


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2 hours ago, duluthdan said:

Girl. She’s a she. A 95 pound she. 

All guitar pics need dogs in them now. My dog is a measly 16 lbs. But I don’t need a snow shovel to clean up her poo.

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Gentle people- this is very much a ‘players grade’ banner. Replaced tuners, couple repaired cracks. Sounds and plays outstanding, but Its not a collectors gem. Thinking about installing a trance pickup, but, my playing abilities are starting to wane. I’ll probably relegate this to the front porch. 

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You are preaching to the choir here as I play that 1942 J50.  It was also a player's grade instrument.  I have owned it for 12 or so years now and I have yet to play another other slope shoulder jumbo which has been able to dethrone it.  The thing about a Banner though is you do not feel as if you own it as much as you have been appointed the guitar's caretaker.  But this is the guitar that every time I play it, it feels like coming home.

You might run over to the Gibson Banner Registry and compare the specs listed there to those on your guitar.  If I had to guess, based on the lack of an FON, the presence of a truss rod, the square poplar neck block, and such, I would have pegged it as being built in 1945.  But then again, I am not even close to an expert when it comes to such wonderous creations as these.

P.S. I love JT's description of the Banners as functional artwork.

Edited by zombywoof
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I had a vintage '42-'43 J45. I had to have cracks cleated, braces glued, new bridge, fret job, new tuners and neck reset. After all that, I just didn't like it. My J45 Legend and '52 J45 were more to my liking.

‘42 J45

 

‘42 J45 ‘42 J45 42 J45

 

 

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45 minutes ago, PrairieDog said:

Oh go on.  Don’t be modest 🙂 any Banner is a catch!!  I have yet to find even a broken down wreck, and be in the right place and time, to even approach.  

Between turkey hunting season, being an authorized Martin Service tech, and handling general repairs for two music shops, my J50 ended up spending a full year with my repair guy.  I would call and ask how my Gibson was coming along and would get replies like it is in pieces all over the shop.  And based on some of the photos I was sent (which I wish I could find) he was not kidding.  But when he finally gave the guitar back to me, he did so with the worlds "never let it out of your hands" saying his father in whose music shop he had learned the trade used to call guitars which sounded like mine "once in a blue moon Gibsons.

Edited by zombywoof
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