1968 Gibson J-50 Slope Dreadnought Guitar

What's not to like about a pretty-clean late-'60s J-50? This one has the "non-reverse" belly bridge, thicker pickguard, adjustable saddle, and skinny neck -- but it still manages to crank-out good lows and an impressive battery of mids. It sounds like, you know -- a classic Gibson J. Plant a misty-eyed songwriter behind one of these and you're halfway on your musi-spirit-quest.

I like that the "rock-n-roll" slim necks on these allow for all sorts of up-and-down, barre-chord, slick buffoonery on the left-hand side of things, while the sound is relatively unchanged from early-'60s Gibson Js. These machines are essentially meant to hold the strummy bottom down in a group and fill-out the sound behind a solo folksinger -- and they do that job well. I can think of designs better-suited to flatpicked lead work, but if you're a chord-banger and singer, the uncomplicated voice of something like this is an excellent match.

Work included: a neck reset, fret level/dress, bridge reglue, compensation to the original saddle, cleaning, and a good setup. The truss-rod works, the neck is straight, and it plays spot-on with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action 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"

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: there's avereage usewear throughout but overall the guitar is very clean for its age. It's all-original save the pearl dots in the bridge.

It comes with: a non-original hard case.

Note the zig-zag compensation on the bridge top. Due to Gibson's mislocation of the bridge when-made, I had to knock the compensation of the saddle all the way to the rear edge for the high E and B strings.

There's plenty of saddle adjustment room for action up/down changes.