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1969 J-45 or Southen Jumbo?


joeb

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I just bought a nice 1969 J-45 and I am wondering if it could possibly be a Southern Jumbo. I understand that in 1969 that the J-45 was produced with square shoulders, but I assume that not all were. It never had an orange label under the sound hole. serial # 540108

 

Any info on how to tell the difference?

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Despite some structural similarities in that era, the dead giveaway will be the fingerboard. The J-45 always had an unbound board with dot inlays, the SJ always had a bound neck and either double parallelogram inlays or (sometime in the 70s) they may have had smallish block inlays.

 

I think J45s always had a decal on the headstock and the SJ always was inlaid too.

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Gibson used 6 digit serial numbers in the '60's and '70's. Models built in the '60's had an adjustable saddle in the bridge, while models in the '70's did not have this feature. If you would like to email pictures of the instrument to service@gibson.com we would be glad to verify the age and model. Please keep to total size of picture files no more than 2MB per email. We would need a full front and back view and close-up views of the front and back of the peghead. Thanks.

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