1967 Gibson J-50 Slope Dreadnought Guitar

April 25, 2019

1967 Gibson J-50 Slope Dreadnought Guitar

Well, now, this guitar is certainly a warhorse. It shows decades of love and use, though it's survived without cracks thus far. The treble side of the top below the pickguard has washboarded pickwear that's almost worn through the top, however! I love that.

Like most late-'60s Gibson guitars, the neck is narrow and fast, so it's very much a "rock-n-roll chord machine" vs. a consummate fingerpicker's dream, though I seem to have gotten along just-fine picking it a bit in the video clip bare-paws.

It has a good, country-style tonality that wants to be flatpicked in a strummy style. It has good low-end and the mids are great as long as you're in front of the guitar, though they're harder to hear punching-out from the player's perspective.

Work included: a fret level/dress, clean-up of the bridge and new bone saddle, removal of an extra brace installed north of the bridge plate (hanging under the main X!), cleaning, and a good setup. It plays bang-on at 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret, strung with 54w-12 gauges. The neck is straight and the truss-rod works just fine.

Scale length: 24 5/8"

Nut width: 1 9/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 3/8"

String spacing at bridge: 2 1/8"

Body length: 20 1/4"

Lower bout width: 16"

Upper bout width: 11 1/2"

Side depth at endpin: 5"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back/sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: x-braced

Fretboard: Brazilian rosewood

Bridge: Brazilian rosewood

Neck feel: slim/narrow C-shape, 12" radius board

Condition notes: the bridge plate has been capped/replaced with a larger, thin rosewood plate like in a '70s Martin. The bridge itself is non-original but the right shape (if not the exactly-correct profile) of a Gibson belly-forward bridge. The bridge pins, new bone saddle, endpin, and strap button at the heel are also non-original. The tuners are period Grovers but are non-original. The top also shows belly behind the bridge and over the whole lower bout and a little deflection down in front of it. It's stable-in-service and a non-issue, but it's there. The bracing in J-45/J-50 models at this time was pretty light and if they're run with 56w-13 for any length of time they tend to develop a bit of belly, so I see this all the time. Last note -- yes, there's a ton of pickwear and average scratching/wear-and-tear throughout the finish on the body.

It comes with: a hard generic, older, hard case.

The Grover Rotomatics are old-school and on the heavy side, but they do work just fine. The reason they're on there is because this looks like it had the oddball, period-style, non-Kluson openback tuners on it when it was made.