1955 Gibson J-50 Slope Dreadnought Guitar

August 06, 2018

1955 Gibson J-50 Slope Dreadnought Guitar

Hubba-hubba indeed! I love me these big, round-cornered beauts. While the mid-'50s Gibson tone isn't for everyone, those of us who like a direct, punchy, mids-heavy attack that shows-off all your notes appreciate guitars like this thoroughly. The bass is round but not overbearing and you don't really hear it as much when you're behind the guitar -- but you do out front. The strings you flatpick bass-runs and melody on, however, sound dry, woody, and totally up-front.

For folks looking at J-50s and J-45s, I tell flatpickers and fingerpickers with a lighter attack to look towards the late '40s and early '50s. For those of us that beat their guitars (I do, sorry), I tend to favor and suggest '52 or '53 on into the late '50s. For folks that strum cowboy-style or singer-songwriter, early '60s is the way to go, and for folks who want to do everything, the Banner years sure as heck do it with gusto. They also cost a fortune.

This guitar is mostly original and pretty clean save a sealed-and-cleated open center seam below the bridge. Otherwise, I can't find any cracks. The top has one coat of overspray on it but it's very light. It had also been shot onto the fretboard and bridge and I managed to remove it just with mild steel-wooling on the board and a little buffing on the bridge. On the top it's hard to even notice it except that it reacts to humidity/moisture more than the original topcoat (on the back, sides, neck, and headstock) and you can see that open pickwear was sealed with it. Other changes include new black tuner buttons (the old cream ones were dilapidated) and a new set of ebony pins all-around. The saddle is also a new, compensated, bone one.

When this came in I took one look at the pickguard and questioned it due to its overlapping with the rosette, but the workmanship and styling was irrefutably Gibson-factory and a Google-search yielded multiple examples of '55 J-50s and Southern Jumbos with this style of guard.

My work on this was extensive (in time) but routine. Someone had installed cleats in incorrect places and tried to patch loose bracing with canvas strips and glue here and there. This was causing some irritating vibrations that had to be tracked-down as everything was apparently tight. I removed almost all of the old repairs save a small patch on the lower bout that was glued-up pat. I then re-cleated the already-sealed center seam on the top-lower-bout. After that I re-reglued ends of many braces that'd previously been "glued," tightened-up the bridge bolts, gave the guitar a fret level/dress, replaced the tuner buttons and pins, made a new bone saddle, and set it up.

She plays perfectly and has that medium-biggish, full-C neck shape with a 12" radius to the board and those older, smaller, Gibson frets. Action is 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret and I've got it strung with 54w, 42w, 32w, 24w, 16, 12 strings -- though I suspect mediums would make it happy, too.

Specs are: 24 13/16" scale, 1 11/16" nut width, 1 1/2" string spacing at the nut, 2 1/8" spacing at the bridge, 12" radius to the board (or a hair tighter), 16 1/8" lower bout, 11 5/8" upper bout, and 4 15/16" side depth at the endblock.

Woods are: solid spruce top, solid mahogany back/sides/neck, rosewood fretboard and bridge. The pins are all ebony and the saddle is bone. The nut is the original plastic.

There's a little bit of board wear but nothing to write home about.

The pearl dots in the bridge are not original, too, and there are two minor chips on the pin-side of their mounting holes where a previous "repairman" had taken the originals out to access the bridge-bolts.

As you can see, there's plenty of saddle even in summer! I cut the saddle slot a little deeper, too, for better stability of the saddle in case it needs to be shimmed-up or winter-saddled later on. Gibson's standard slot depth was pretty thin and often yielded leaning saddles (like what was on here when this came in).