Circa 1955 J45?

[j45nick]

Beautiful guitar. Congrats. Anyone would be proud to own it.

 

This will amuse a few and upset a lot of folks but... How can so many of you like this guitar and seem to be OK with the excess glue coming out of the kerfing???

 

If this guitar were sent from Montana looking like this they would be crucified by many that post here? I'm just wonderin'? I think it's great but then Kalamazoo can do no wrong?

 

Sorry it had to be said.....

Yeah, I noticed the glue squeeze-out at the kerfing as well. Fortunately, the wood doesn't move very much at the edges of the guitar, so it shouldn't impact the sound.

 

My '48 J-45 with the Gibson-replaced '68 top has original glue drips in a lot of places inside. The '68 work is cleaner than the '48 work. I just tell myself it was a $50 guitar, and Gibson was bangin'em out then. I would expect better in a $2000+ guitar today, however. Of course, I get pretty amused seeing fully-blinged rosewood J-45s. Rosewood J-45s with gold hardware? Have we all become Porter Waggoner clones? What hath God wrought?

 

I will admit that my Martin 000-28 EC is absolutely clean inside. But so is my '68 ES 335-12, and my Nashville '59 ES 335.

 

Dunno. Maybe all these drippy Kalamazoo/Bozeman guitars are Friday PM or Monday AM guitars.

[Eyecon]

Well the '56 J-45 arrived today. First impressions, I was very surprised to see the wonderful the condition it is in. The headstock had a few dings, but the body hardly has a scratch on it. The sides not one blemish. The fingerboard is perfect. The neck is straight and no signs of wear from playing. The previous owner obviously loved her very much.

 

I changed the tuners to the kluson replicas, and strung her with DR Sunbeams. This is the first time I have tried these strings, but since they get so much rave I gave em a try. It was a struggle tuning because the orig. bridge pins are pretty worn out and two of them slipped while tuning up. Since all but the tuners are original, I was curious to hear how it would sound with the old ceramic saddle. I all I can say is, compared to my 2001 J-45 it is MUCH MUCH LOADER! I know the term "CANON" gets over used when referring to guitars, but in this case it fits. The '56's body is wider and deeper than my '01. Makes sense, more guitar, more sound coming out of it. I now know why the vintage Gibson's are so sought after.

[j45nick]

I changed the tuners to the kluson replicas, and strung her with DR Sunbeams. This is the first time I have tried these strings, but since they get so much rave I gave em a try. It was a struggle tuning because the orig. bridge pins are pretty worn out and two of them slipped while tuning up. Since all but the tuners are original, I was curious to hear how it would sound with the old ceramic saddle. I all I can say is, compared to my 2001 J-45 it is MUCH MUCH LOADER! I know the term "CANON" gets over used when referring to guitars, but in this case it fits. The '56's body is wider and deeper than my '01. Makes sense, more guitar, more sound coming out of it. I now know why the vintage Gibson's are so sought after.

 

Congratulations! Sounds like you got a keeper. Get rid of those plastic bridge pins, and get some bone pins from Bob Colosi or Bryan England. I would also suggest that as a sound control, you put on one set of Gibson Masterbuilt Premiums at some point as a test (12s--no 13s on a guitar of this age, in my opinion). In my experience, vintage J 45s are VERY sensitive to string selection. I settled on these strings for my old J-45 after years of searching for the "perfect" sound.

 

Guitars of this age are individuals, with different life experiences (and original construction) that determine their sound. As you might guess, I am a great fan of old J-45s, but they are not all created equal.

 

Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and the door shall be opened unto you.

 

You talk about differences in size, old and new. Could you lay the guitars back to back (carefully, of course) and comment on those differences? I've noticed the same thing myself, by the way, as my '48 J-45 would not fit in a new J-45 custom case, but did fit almost perfectly (the guitar was a hair too deep for my comfort) in an Ess and Ess J-45 case from the 60s.