1950 Gibson Southern Jumbo Slope Dreadnought Guitar

What else can you say about an old SJ but "hubba hubba?" Mix the clear-sounding warmth of a better old J-45 with "just enough" extra bling to please a crowd... and there you have it! Early 50s Gibson jumbos tends toward a lot of volume, punch and focus on almost "bluegrassy" thunderous, open mids, but this particular guitar seems to have borrowed a bit of the top and low-end "notching" from early-60s slope dreads in that it has a warmer bottom-end and mellowed-off top-end that makes it a perfect "singing guitar."

This gorgeous old bruiser is a customer's instrument and it received a while-you-wait crash-course of hairline crack repairs, a fret level/dress, and general setup. The owner was around all-day so we could let everything set-up while working on other projects. It's now playing on-the-dot at 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret with a set of 12s on it.

Don't you love the "double ring" rosette look up against all that extra binding and sunburst?

This had an open center seam and lower bout hairline which both got cleating and sealing -- along with a pickguard hairline and two hairlines on the back, too.

The guitar got a new bone nut as well. The neck is 1 11/16" at the nut and has a mild-medium C-profile with a radiused fretboard and original, low-ish, smallish frets (in good order).

The original Brazilian rosewood bridge was shaved at some point in the past and a plastic saddle installed. I compensated the saddle a bit, cleaned-up the pin holes, and added a set of ebony pins down here.

I love the deep red-brown on these old mahogany Gibson backs.

The tuners are, unfortunately, replacement Klusons -- though they do work nicely. These were on it when it arrived.

The old plastic pin looked like it was glued-in so I didn't swap it out for ebony, too.