Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

"Early J-45" designation


j45nick

Recommended Posts

Hi, I’m new here. Just to reanimate this zombie thread- again!

I have a 1999 J45 that has no designation, ‘early’ or otherwise. The only other J45s I have found from that year have the ‘early’ designation. 
 

The guitar is a lovely thing. Even smells incredible. Just wondering what the differences would be between it and others from the same year of production, eg the ‘Early’? Many? To what degree?

Mine is from October 1999, if that helps..

Many Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, GIBSONFNQ said:

Hi, I’m new here. Just to reanimate this zombie thread- again!

Welcome.

The sticker just says "J-45" and that's it?

That's what it is.

I have an '03 and the sticker says 

                                                                                J-45

                                                                           Rosewood

It has rosewood back and sides, and ebony fretboard and bridge and gold tuners.

It's Bonafide.

I love zombie threads.

Welcome again.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Murph, thanks for your welcome and for your reply. 
 

Yup, just ‘J45’ on the orange sticker. Mahogany back and sides. Same white button tuners as others from that time. I forgot to mention in my previous post that it has the standard (?) smaller pick guard as opposed to the ‘batwing’ type of the ‘early’ of the same year. 
 

It’s a wonderful sounding guitar. Just wondering what the differences would be to the ‘J45 early’ guitars built in the same year, or even month!

Thanks again, Sam 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/31/2022 at 5:48 AM, GIBSONFNQ said:

Hi, I’m new here. Just to reanimate this zombie thread- again!

I have a 1999 J45 that has no designation, ‘early’ or otherwise. The only other J45s I have found from that year have the ‘early’ designation. 
 

The guitar is a lovely thing. Even smells incredible. Just wondering what the differences would be between it and others from the same year of production, eg the ‘Early’? Many? To what degree?

Mine is from October 1999, if that helps..

Many Thanks!

GIBSONFNQ,

Just wondering how many j-45's you had to sniff before you found one that smelled just right? 

It's a cheeky little guitar with a bouquet of Bozeman,  hints of Kalamazoo, and subtle notes of Nashville.

Like I didn't have enough other stuff to worry about when searching for a guitar.

Now this.

RBSinTo

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like numerous other Gibson models, the J45 is whatever Gibson decides it is and literally all of them are really sweet guitars.   My J45TV is a J45.  Don’t know that the “true vintage” designation makes it much different than most J45s (no matter what the moniker is).   It certainly doesn’t make it any better.  Still, it’s an awesome guitar, no matter what its name is……BTW, you will enjoy this forum.  Lots of us have been here for lots of years.   Join in on lots of threads.  You don’t have to own a Dove, etc. to give your viewpoint or ask questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi - it's probably a fore-runner to the Modern Classic, Historic collection and the contemporary J-45 Standard. They may differ quite a bit from wave to wave.                                                                                                      My pal's 05 Historic Collection fx is remarkable gentler than my 2010 Std. So a lot of nuances of that same 45-colour for sure.  

 

                                         ! Calling ALL MEMBERS ! 

           Prepare yourself for a flood of zombie-threads around halloween.

                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                                      🎃Made by yourself 👹

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/1/2022 at 12:53 PM, RBSinTo said:

GIBSONFNQ,

Just wondering how many j-45's you had to sniff before you found one that smelled just right? 

It's a cheeky little guitar with a bouquet of Bozeman,  hints of Kalamazoo, and subtle notes of Nashville.

Like I didn't have enough other stuff to worry about when searching for a guitar.

Now this.

RBSinTo

Remember to cleanse your pallet by sniffing a Taylor in between Gibsons.  

  • Thanks 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, zombywoof said:

The believe the proper term is soundhole sniffers.  But if you want to get the full effect you will first need to take a long swallow from the Tone Wood Kool Aid.

That was back in the 60's - The Tone Wood Kool Aid Soundhole Sniffer Test. The house band wasn't The Grateful Dead though it was The Strawberry Alarm Clock.

This is a fine Rosewood from the 50's. Smell the hints of vanilla and cardamon.

If you really want a rush, sniff one of those big old 60's or 70's Guild 12 string guitars. Its like the new designer drugs that are now are being laced with Fentanyl.

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In a noble attempt to get this thread back on track was the "Early J45" the first example of Bozeman's marketing team earning their pay with this particular model?  I do hate to say it but I have reached the point where I tend to look askance at any model which has "historic", "vintage" and in particular "blues" in their designation.  Not that it might not be a really nice guitar but I am still half expecting the arrival of the J45 TVV - the Truer True Vintage,

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I’m looking at what is claimed to be a 2008 J45 TV. The label does not have the TV on it. The binding is white, not yellow. The spec from Gibson says Sitka top. Should be red spruce. Tuners are not three on a plate. Yet the head stock has the banner label. 
 

were the early ones different or is this some sort of fake? The seller has an email from Gibson saying it is a 2008 TV 

 

thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, RichG said:

I’m looking at what is claimed to be a 2008 J45 TV. The label does not have the TV on it. The binding is white, not yellow. The spec from Gibson says Sitka top. Should be red spruce. Tuners are not three on a plate. Yet the head stock has the banner label. 
 

were the early ones different or is this some sort of fake? The seller has an email from Gibson saying it is a 2008 TV 

 

thoughts?

A bit of a mish-mash there. Could be real - post pictures for further feed back.                                     KEEP THIS THREAD ALIVE 😎

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, RichG said:

Here’s pictures from a reverb listing. There is an email from Gibson that says it is a 2008 J45TV. Also, in 2007 they were Sitka Topped so 2008 could be too. 
 

https://reverb.com/item/63463637-gibson-j-45-true-vintage-2008-vintage-sunburst

 

Rich. 

It looks realer than real.

Do you recall Gibson made a (slightly strange) series of 3 times 167 True Vintage clazzics in 2008. A J-200, a Hummingbird and a J-45.                                                                                                                                                            This may have been a step on the way

 

Here's a pic borrowed from ricfreak who posted it on The Acoustic Guitar Forum in 2014. 

Click here to see a large version

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, RichG said:

Here’s pictures from a reverb listing. There is an email from Gibson that says it is a 2008 J45TV. Also, in 2007 they were Sitka Topped so 2008 could be too. 
 

https://reverb.com/item/63463637-gibson-j-45-true-vintage-2008-vintage-sunburst

 

Rich. 

FWIW, I agree it's a legit relatively early J-45TV.  They did initially build them with Sitka, and (heretic that I am) the quality of Sitka will likely be higher than the quality of Adirondack Red Spruce used at the time.  

That's right at the point when Gibson decided that rather than build ONE J-45 pattern a year, they could build to different price points; the Modern Classic with a pickup system and Rotomatics and a rolled-edge fingerboard (and allegedly stouter back braces) for those who wanted a working stage-ready guitar and the True Vintage with Kluson-esque tuners, no pickup, more hide glue in the construction, and eventually Red Spruce - along with the ahistorical forward-shifted bracing adapted from the AJ, and a bracing setup that Gibson NEVER did with J-45s before that point.  And thence to the whole family of J-45-esque guitars that now spans from the lower-priced G-45 to the J-45 Studio Walnut and the Studio Rosewood to the  '50s Faded, itself a budget version of the'50s Original (suspiciously like my 2005 J-45 Historic Collection) to the Standard (today's version of the Modern Classic) to the Slash signature to the '42 Banner - lots and lots of price points.

And in the end I wonder how much the price points matter.  I've played lots of very expensive top of the line guitars that left me cold, and some surprisingly awesome guitars that were budget models.

It's sobering to ponder that the J-45 was the next evolutionary step from the J-35, which was the BUDGET jumbo-body Gibson.  And the J-35 and the Advanced Jumbo were themselves the result of Gibson dividing one model (the Original Jumbo, priced at $60) into TWO models selling for $35 and $80, respectively.

Just for fun, here's a gratuitous photo of my 2005 J-45 Historic Collection, a guitar on the evolutionary path between this thread's original subject the Early J-45 and the current discussion of the early variants of the J-45 True Vintage .... 

 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, rustystrings said:

That's right at the point when Gibson decided that rather than build ONE J-45 pattern a year, they could build to different price points; the Modern Classic with a pickup system and Rotomatics and a rolled-edge fingerboard (and allegedly stouter back braces) for those who wanted a working stage-ready guitar and the True Vintage with Kluson-esque tuners, no pickup, more hide glue in the construction, and eventually Red Spruce - along with the ahistorical forward-shifted bracing adapted from the AJ, and a bracing setup that Gibson NEVER did with J-45s before that point.  And thence to the whole family of J-45-esque guitars that now spans from the lower-priced G-45 to the J-45 Studio Walnut and the Studio Rosewood to the  '50s Faded, itself a budget version of the'50s Original (suspiciously like my 2005 J-45 Historic Collection) to the Standard (today's version of the Modern Classic) to the Slash signature to the '42 Banner - lots and lots of price points.

 

As has been noted here, Bozeman does not go with a forward or rear shifted bracing footprint.  That is a Martin thing.  When they cite AJ or 1930s Style bracing in the specs they are referring to a wider angle X bracing rather than the distance from the soundhole to the center of the X.

Edited by zombywoof
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, zombywoof said:

As has been noted here, Bozeman does not go with a forward or rear shifted bracing footprint.  That is a Martin thing.  When they cite AJ or 1930s Style bracing in the specs they are referring to a wider angle X bracing rather than the distance from the soundhole to the center of the X.

Cool.  So - my understanding from the old Fabulous Flattops book was that Gibson originally used a 103-degree angle to the X-bracing, and that Ren Ferguson set it to 98-degrees.  What was the AJ's bracing like, and what are the measurements more research has uncovered?  Truly curious, actually ... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, rustystrings said:

Cool.  So - my understanding from the old Fabulous Flattops book was that Gibson originally used a 103-degree angle to the X-bracing, and that Ren Ferguson set it to 98-degrees.  What was the AJ's bracing like, and what are the measurements more research has uncovered?  Truly curious, actually ... 

The Fabulous Flattops book is the reason I originally thought my Banner was a J45 which had lost its finish because the authors stated the J50 was not introduce until 1947.  Bozeman, of course, can build a guitar with a precision Kalamazoo could only have dreamed of.   If I remember correctly though bracing in Gibsons during the late-1920s and 1930s was precut with a buzz saw.  Also, I believe the bracing on the treble side of the AJs was left a bit higher than that on the bass side.  So, there would seem to have been a lot more going on with the guiars then just bracing angle or footprint.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I need a protractor for my bracing angle. Guitars are getting to be serious feats of civil engineering. You guys obsess to much. Does anyone actually play or look up specs all day. I know a few things like the scale of my guitar,  and what wood it’s made of, but how it’s braced, and what type is totally irrelevant, at least to me. How  about how does it sound? Let’s use that as a measuring stick. Not 893 irrelevant specs. Like with wine does it taste good, or you can only drink it if it’s a Chateau Jean Lafayette 1973? Probably spelled wrong. 

Edited by Sgt. Pepper
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...