1963 Gibson B-25 Flattop Guitar

I love the venerable LG-2 in all its forms, and this B-25 (the 60s name for the LG-2) is a good one. It's owned by a friend of mine and, despite it having an in-recent-memory neck reset and new bridge and saddle, it had some work ahead of it. The saddle slot was installed 1/16" too forward so I widened the slot and replaced the saddle with a wider, ebony one. The frets also needed a level/dress and the center seam had opened up (it needed cleats and sealing), a brace needed gluing-up, and an old hairline crack repair needed a cleat as well.

After all that, it's turned-out just fine and is a gutsy little player. It's a one-owner guitar and his lore on it states that the top was replaced in England decades ago. I find that a little hard to believe since the bracing seems "right" and it would've been a devil to replace the top and rosette binding with the factory Gibson stuff that this seems to have on it. Considering the minor abuses from travel heaped on this guitar, I think it's held-up very, very well. There's plenty of "love bites" but, for the most part, she's fairly clean.

One can't argue too much with cherry bursts.

The original jumbo frets are getting low but still have enough life left for a level/dress job or two in the future.

The replacement bridge that was put on is quite a good match for the original, bolted-on plastic ones that came on these guitars, but it's funny that the saddle slot wasn't cut in the right place. Fortunately, the big, new ebony saddle knocks the contact points farther rear so it plays in tune, now. I also added new ebony pins.

Like all B-25s, the top is solid spruce and the back, sides, and neck are solid mahogany.

That's a heck of a songlist!