1967 Gibson J-45 (Lefty) Slope Dreadnought Guitar

J-45s are popular guitars, for sure. Late-'60s models can be hit or miss for that "classic" Gibson jumbo tone (some are more midsy or planky while others are straight-up tubby), but this one nails it in the "classic" category -- it sounds more like a '61 or '62 model with a good, full bass and enough  of a chunky ring in the mids and highs for leads and fills.

This guitar was converted professionally by someone before me and the job was very good -- it had Gibson-style side dots installed on the "lefty" side of the neck, a proper, nicely-cut replacement lefty bridge, new Tusq(?) nut and saddle, bone bridge pins, and the second, thick, celluloid pickguard looks like it might even be original Gibson material. It's also had an LR Baggs Lyric mic-style pickup installed and plugged-in it sounds great.

My work included: a fret level/dress, replacement truss nut (the original 10-32 threaded nut was stripped), and minor adjustments and a setup. It came to me with a new 54w-12 set of the D'Addario equivalent of Martin Retro (monel) strings on it and I left them on as they sound excellent and suit the guitar. It plays spot-on with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret and the saddle has good height and room for much adjustment later-on. 

Specs are: 24 5/8" scale length, 1 9/16" nut width, 1 3/8" string spacing at the nut, 2 1/8" spacing at the bridge, 16" lower bout, 11 1/2" upper bout, and 4 7/8" side depth at the endblock. The serial number is 097432.

Materials are: solid spruce top, solid mahogany back, sides, and neck, and rosewood fretboard and bridge. The nut is Tusq(?) while the saddle and bridge pins are bone. The frets are the original, lower-style jumbo Gibson type and in good shape with many more years in them.

Condition notes: the neck is essentially straight but does have 1/64" deflection with the truss-rod maxed-out. I think this has more to due with the neck's wood than the rod, however. I did detune it a half-step and it moved to perfectly straight, so a player who might be more inclined to use 52w-11 gauges will get a little more adjustment on the rod. Players will have to be careful with over-adjusting the rod, though, as someone had cranked on the threads in the past. The only cracks on the guitar are some hairlines on the back, lower-bout that were cleated and sealed professionally before I got the guitar (and are good to go) -- and also some repaired hairlines on the side over the kerfing (where they pose no issue). The heel cap is a replacement, too, and I'm pretty sure the binding on the back is replacement stock. Otherwise, the guitar is pretty clean save the usual minor scuffs/scratches throughout and the usual Gibson-style finish cracking/weather-checking throughout. There's some chipping-out/clean-up at the tuner holes in the headstock -- presumably where someone might have had Grover Rotomatics installed in the past. It currently has a repro set of antiqued Kluson Deluxe tuners on it that work well. The truss cover is also replaced.

Someone extended the bottom of the neck with a mahogany heel cap.

On the back you can see a "crunched-up" area of three smaller hairline cracks that've been repaired and cleated in the past.

Just above the binding on the side-lower-bout you can see a 4" or so repaired hairline crack.

The endpin jack also has the preamp for the Lyric mic in its housing. There's a 9V battery pack with access at the neckblock. Note that there's also a bit of roughed-up finish just right here near the jack on the side.

It comes with a good, heavy-duty, molded hard case.