Luke Jackson Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 This weekend I finally went and stumped up for a beautiful J45 I've had my eye on for months, I played all the Gibson Acoustics including a couple other J45s in the shop as well as a load of Martins, Taylors and other makes, and this one blew them all away. I was quite suprised how good it sounded because it's sort of like a 60s copy, with the funny height adjustable bridge from when everybody says the quality started to slip. I've got a lawsuit era Kiso Suzuki Hummingbird copy with one, and I don't like it so much, but I guess it's a poor comparison. Anyway,it looks exactly like this: http://www.route66classicguitars.com/70J45.html serial number is 11830026.I can't find anything about these on the gibson website, and I was wondering if anyone knew what the back and sides were made of, how many were out there, what 'under the leadership of' Ren Ferguson means or anything else about them for that matter! Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motherofpearl Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 That's mahogany. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Jackson Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 That's mahogany. Any idea where from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rar Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 ...I played all the Gibson Acoustics including a couple other J45s in the shop as well as a load of Martins, Taylors and other makes, and this one blew them all away. ... I'm not too surprised. The only one of these I've had a chance to play was really nice -- better, I thought, than the TV the shop had in stock, for quite a bit less money. For all the complaints about those adjustable bridges, and all the rave reviews from happy replacement bridge customers, guitars with adjustable bridges seem to do fairly well in my A/B tests. (Not saying it doesn't make a difference, just that the difference is not large compared to the variation between individual guitars. Of course, the worst-sounding vintage ones are likeliest to have had their bridges replaced, so replaced-bridge guitars losing to original-bridge guitars in comparison tests of any particular vintage is maybe not that inexplicable.) ... serial number is 11830026. I can't find anything about these on the gibson website, and I was wondering if anyone knew what the back and sides were made of, how many were out there, what 'under the leadership of' Ren Ferguson means or anything else about them for that matter! In case you don't know, that serial number means its "born on date" is 2 July, 2010. As you've already heard, the back and sides are mahogany (probably Honduran, just because that's their primary source). With any luck, Hogeye will be able to tell you how many were built, but there were likely more than 10 and less than 100. The "under the leadership of Ren Ferguson" means nothing -- the guitar was build on the regular production line, and Ren likely had no more to do with it than he had to do with every other J-45 built that year. (There's some chance he was involved in wood selection -- if that were the case, it would help explain why these sound good -- but a "Custom Shop" sticker is no reason to think so.) -- Bob R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Jackson Posted July 16, 2012 Author Share Posted July 16, 2012 Thanks Bob! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruffchris Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 That's a nice guitar Luke, enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdd707 Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Great purchase. Enjoy and welcome to the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JuanCarlosVejar Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I want one of those ! JC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Very cool guitar. Congrats. Personally, I never found the ADJ bridges on the 1960s Gibsons to be the "tone killers" they were reputed to be. I found the thin necks to be more of an issue on 1960s guitars. But I did recently get a chance to play around with bridge mass and the difference in sound. I removed what was a fairly substantial bridge from a heading for the dumpster guitar I was trying to bring back to life and significantly shaved it down. While I sure ain't no builder or professional repair guy the change in the guitar's voice was very easily heard. There was a drop off in volume while the upper end sounded a bit thinner. The only thing I could think of was that the reconfiguration of the bridge reduced the amount of vibration transmitted to the top. The guitar, however, did play amazingly well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoonerBuckeye Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I could be mistaken, but the stamp inside the guitar reads ADJ and not ADI. The sixties guitars with the adjustable bridges were marked with the ADJ (adjustable) after their model number and this guitar appears to be a reissue of one of those from the sixties. Fuller's Music had some of those commisioned in about that time frame. The spruce of the guitar in those pictures appears to be sitka to me. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I could be mistaken, but the stamp inside the guitar reads ADJ and not ADI. The sixties guitars with the adjustable bridges were marked with the ADJ (adjustable) after their model number and this guitar appears to be a reissue of one of those from the sixties. Fuller's Music had some of those commisioned in about that time frame. The spruce of the guitar in those pictures appears to be sitka to me. Bob Agree. I've also never seen the wood species identified as part of an ink stamp on the conterline back cleat of a Gibson. J-45's (and J-50's) from the 60's with the adjustable bridge are usually marked "J-45 ADJ". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasAK Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 The stamp inside looks identical to the “68” reissues, Ibelieve Fuller had made. It stands for adjustable bridge. The “68” reissue in the shop by me issupposed to have the advanced (1930s AJ) bracing. The top is Sitka spruce. It’sbeen in the shop for two years and is the best sounding J45 they have had sinceI got back into playing three years ago. It sounded good the day they got itand has improved over the last two years. The problem with the guitar is thatit is ugly. It is all black except for the bat-wing pick guard which is whiteand has a cheesy looking Gibson symbol on it. But the sound is incredible! If Iwas in the market for a new J45 I think I could get use to the uglies (I wouldprobably have the pick guard changed). If yours sounds as good as this one I won’tneed to say, “I hope you enjoy it.” chasAK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KL Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I could be mistaken, but the stamp inside the guitar reads ADJ and not ADI. The sixties guitars with the adjustable bridges were marked with the ADJ (adjustable) after their model number and this guitar appears to be a reissue of one of those from the sixties. Fuller's Music had some of those commisioned in about that time frame. The spruce of the guitar in those pictures appears to be sitka to me. Bob Agreed it usually says J45 ADJ to denote the adjustable bridge (I have one from 1966), but I have recently seen some reissues stamped J45 ADL and I am not sure what the ADL stands for, but could be Limited maybe as I saw it on an ebony coloured J45 and an all cherry one. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KL Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 The stamp inside looks identical to the “68” reissues, Ibelieve Fuller had made. It stands for adjustable bridge. The “68” reissue in the shop by me issupposed to have the advanced (1930s AJ) bracing. The top is Sitka spruce. It’sbeen in the shop for two years and is the best sounding J45 they have had sinceI got back into playing three years ago. It sounded good the day they got itand has improved over the last two years. The problem with the guitar is thatit is ugly. It is all black except for the bat-wing pick guard which is whiteand has a cheesy looking Gibson symbol on it. But the sound is incredible! If Iwas in the market for a new J45 I think I could get use to the uglies (I wouldprobably have the pick guard changed). If yours sounds as good as this one I won’tneed to say, “I hope you enjoy it.” chasAK I have a Fullers 68 reissue in all cherry finish and the white pickguard. I don't think it's ugly though, I like it. The logo on the pickguard is a reproduction of what Gibson were doing back then. Luckily they didn't put those screws they used to use to hold the pickguard on . . . they were ugly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasAK Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Does your “68” reissue sound remarkably well? Yes, my former “68” j160 had a screwed downpick guard and a rosewood saddle. I would still change the pick guard on theall black one. chasAK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuestionMark Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 I have a Custom Shop J-45 1964 Reissue that I purchased from Fullers in Houston. Looks identical to the cherry sunburst one in the photo at the beginning of the thread as well as the adjustable bridge...except, it doesn't have any stamping of ADJ or ADI like in the photo. Only the FON inside where the neck joins the body. I know Musicians Friend for awhile had a special shipment of 60s reissue cherry sunburst adjustable bridge J-45s...but to my recollection those ran out of stock in 2009 (which is how I ended up buying mine instead from Fullers' special order. Jeremy Fuller at the time explained to me the differences between the Musician Friend special order and the special custom shop order his store placed (which included a slightly different nitrocellulose finish that he said more resembled the 1964 finish and scallopped braces that more closely resembled the original 1964 version than Musicians Friend's version.) Guess the mystery of yours saying ADJ or ADI continues unresolved, but based on my Fullers version not saying either, I think we can rule out that its a Fullers one. On the other hand, Jeremy Fuller seemed really well versed in similar J-45 Custom Shop models. You might want to call him and ask if he knows anything about the ADI or ADJ stamping. Beautiful guitar you have by the way...which is why I also bought one. Mine, too, sounds great. Can't down rap the adjustable bridge on mine. QM aka Jazzman Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The G Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 What a beautiful guitar. Congratulations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Jackson Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 I could be mistaken, but the stamp inside the guitar reads ADJ and not ADI. The sixties guitars with the adjustable bridges were marked with the ADJ (adjustable) after their model number and this guitar appears to be a reissue of one of those from the sixties. Fuller's Music had some of those commisioned in about that time frame. The spruce of the guitar in those pictures appears to be sitka to me. Bob I'm pretty confident that it says ADI, the reason being the stamp hasn't printed fully, and the 'I' actually looks more like AD upside-down-'T', so it could only be an 'I', and not a 'J'. The one in the picture isn't mine, I'll have to sort some photos. I got mine in the UK in Promenade music in Morecambe . The gibson europe people want to see pictures of it before they'll tell me any more about it, so I'll get some taken at the weekend and see what they say... What's the consensus on gauge .13s on this type of guitar. I've read some stuff about some acoustics having trouble with higher than .12s, but that sounds like b*****ks to me, what are truss rods for after all? Having said that, it's a pretty serious investment, and I don't really want to take any risks. I play .11s on my les paul and .10s on my fenders,(was 11s when I was playing more regularly) the stock strings feel pretty light, not sure if they're .11s or .12s? but they're going to have to go pretty soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 I'm pretty confident that it says ADI, the reason being the stamp hasn't printed fully, and the 'I' actually looks more like AD upside-down-'T', so it could only be an 'I', and not a 'J'. The one in the picture isn't mine, I'll have to sort some photos. I got mine in the UK in Promenade music in Morecambe . The guitar in the picture may not be yours, but the one in the picture pretty clearly says J45 ADJ, as the two J's are identical type faces. If you want a reliable analysis of what you have, you should post a close-up picture of your own guitar, so we can look at the real thing. I had mis-read your original post (my fault) thinking the pictures posted were of your guitar. The ink stamps inside Gibsons are often not as clear as they could be, since they are printed on bare wood, not paper. While that is a very nice guitar, in re-reading the description in the sales ad, it's a complete bunch of marketing hype. "Under the leadership of Ren Ferguson" just means that Ren was head of production at Bozeman when the guitar was built. It doesn't mean he so much as looked at the guitar. If the label or the top is signed by Ren, that's a different story altogether, and indicates he had some hand in the process. As for whether the top is adi or sitka (or if it even matters)..... who knows? Certainly J-45's built in the period reproduced by this guitar would have sitka tops, but we all know that Gibson today sometimes mixes and matches characteristics from different eras, even in nominally "true vintage" guitars. Provenance is everything when it come to guitars, and claims of a distinctive set of manufacturing circumstances need to be backed up by empirical evidence, such as a COA. That's why you always want to save any original paperwork forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KL Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Does your “68” reissue sound remarkably well? Yes, my former “68” j160 had a screwed downpick guard and a rosewood saddle. I would still change the pick guard on theall black one. chasAK Yes my 68 reissue is a good sounding J45, not really that different from another (2004) J45 I have. My reissue does not have an adjustable saddle, but I have a 66 one with an adjustable saddle and it sounds very nice. My original 66 cherry J45 ADJ has a very subtle tone and is excellent for recording. It has a nice neck that is a little thinner (but same nut width) as my others. It's not the loudest J45 in the world by a long way, but I do not attribute that to the adjustable saddle as my friend has a 65 cherry J45 ADJ that is incredibly loud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red 333 Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 I'm pretty confident that it says ADI... It's "ADJ" for sure, for the reasons previously stated (ADJustable bridge). I've seen a few of these at Fuller's, and that's how they (and some vintage models) were stamped. Red 333 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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