1967 Gibson J-45 Slope Dreadnought Guitar




I'm a sucker for cherry-red-sunburst J-45s and B-25s. I'm also a sucker for "bearclaw" figure on guitar tops. When you have both of those things in a well-preserved guitar, you've got a winning ticket, no? And when it sounds as good as it looks...?

With a nice low-end and a lot of non-complex, balanced mids and highs, this J-45 nails that '60s folk-strummer tonality and has good volume, too. It also has the slim/narrow "rock-n-roll" neck shape so you can thumb-over and barre-chord your way right up the fretboard. Old fellas often play one of these and exclaim, "well, maybe a little lady would like that." As-if! Am I the only one who likes to slide a barred G-shape all the way up to a D ending on the 12th fret just as easy as playing an open D at the 2nd and 3rd?

Work included: a fret level/dress, bridge reglue, replacement (but original '60s Gibson) adjustable saddle with extra compensation, minor cleaning, and a good setup. The truss-rod works, the neck is straight, and the action is spot-on at 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret, strung with 54w-12 gauges. 

Scale length: 24 5/8"
Nut width: 1 9/16"
String spacing at nut: 1 3/8"
String spacing at bridge: 2 1/16"
Body length: 20 1/8"
Lower bout width: 16 1/8"
Upper bout width: 11 1/2"
Side depth at endpin: 4 7/8"
Top wood: solid spruce
Back/sides wood: solid mahogany
Bracing type: x-braced
Fretboard: Brazilian rosewood
Bridge: Brazilian rosewood
Neck feel: slim C-shaped rear, 12" radius on board

Condition notes: it's all-original except for the saddle which is a same-era Gibson rosewood one from my parts-bins. The original was split. There's minor use-wear throughout but overall this guitar is very clean for its age and looks stunning. Check out the bearclaw figure in the top! Yum. The tuners are not my favorite Gibson factory-installed units but they work fine.

It comes with: a chip case (I'm pretty sure -- it's deep in my case-pile).









Isn't the bearclaw figure to the top wood outrageous? I love this look.



The mahogany used for the back/sides is nice-looking stuff, too.






There's plenty of adjustment room on the saddle height-wise.


Email Post

Comments

Phillips said…
Me too that burst is b e a utifal
April 25, 2019 at 12:00 PM
Bob said…
Thanks for mentioning the neck width. My first good guitar, bought used in 1969, was a Kalamazoo-made mid-sixties Epiphone Frontier, basically a Gibson hummingbird with a different pickguard and inlays... And I wondered whether the Epiphones had a slimmer neck than the Gibsons. Sounds like I might have been wrong? As a fingerpicker with some classical lessons at the start, I eventually moved to a Martin 0-18K and 00-21, but now with a dislocated arthritic right index finger and sore left thumb joint, general old-guy hand-flexibility problems, I'm thinking of heading back in the other direction. Any recommendations?
April 25, 2019 at 3:14 PM
Post a Comment