Mid 1990's Banner Gibsons

[Martin 1940D28]

by

[je302]

Hi folks, In the past few months, I'd been following a N.Y. dealer with a mid 1990's Gibson J45 for sale. There had been a casual mention of the guitar having a "banner Gibson" marked headstock. The asking price was about $300 more than the run of the mill Gibson J45's advertised in various classifieds. Lately, the J45 is listed as sold. Can this actually add a premium to the price of an early Montana J45? I, myself doubt it! Martin 1940D28

 

That would be a Gibson J-45 "western". I owned one, it was a great guitar. I'm not sure of all the details but it has the modern block letter GIBSON logo, with the banner below. Dont think that they're worth much more than a standard.

[ponty]

That would be a Gibson J-45 "western". I owned one, it was a great guitar. I'm not sure of all the details but it has the modern block letter GIBSON logo, with the banner below. Dont think that they're worth much more than a standard.

 

That sounds right. It came out in 1994, the year after mine. It is identical to mine except for the banner.

[ryanfender]

Could also be a j-30. I believe one year had the banner headstock and can be easily confused with a j-45. The j- 30 is a much cheaper guitar.

[Rambler]

Its basically a std with a banner under a block logo (miscegenation!). If you have a block/banner and the truss rod says "Buddy Holly" then its a Buddy Holly. But that's still more or less the same guitar. Erase the log and its an Historic. Something like that.

[jdd707]

Yeah sounds like a '94 Western ... I owned one that is still in the hands of my buddy. It matured to a wonderful sounding instrument.