1964 Gibson Country Western Dreadnought Guitar

Square-shouldered Gibson dreadnoughts aside from the Hummingbirds tend to get a bit of flak, but I've never really understood why other than aesthetics as long as you're talking pre-1970. By late '69, the square-shouldered guitars gain a long scale length and different bracing (and thus sound more Martin-ish), but these earlier square-shouldered Country Westerns (and their sunburst Southern Jumbo brethren) still have short scale necks that give the classic Gibson feel and sound.

It's that lovely, midsy, chunky, folksy, bass-boomy, chordal sound that's filled oh-so-many favorite records. I had to point the mic decisively towards the neck so I wouldn't woof it with the low-end rumbling from this critter.

In '64, the year this guy was built, Gibson was still building these guitars with the more-desirable 1 11/16" nut width and slim-medium neck profile, so folks who are discouraged by the super-slim 1 5/8" (or even narrower) nut widths have nothing to fear with this guitar -- it handles like "old school" Gibsons, though the front-to-back profile is pretty fast.

This instrument is all-original save a new saddle, has no cracks, and kills it in the tone, volume, and projection department. It also plays on-the-dot as well.

Work included: a neck reset, fret level/dress, new padauk compensated saddle, cleaning, and setup.

Setup: it plays bang-on with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret. The saddle is height-adjustable so can be set to taste. Strings are 54w-12 standard light gauge. The neck is straight and the truss rod works.

Condition notes: there's light scratching, weather-checking, and use-wear throughout the finish with some pickwear around the soundhole and some mild finger-wear to the fretboard. It looks great, though, and is far cleaner than most old Gibsons I've encountered. I've found no cracks. The frets still have some life left in them but are the usual lower/flatter Gibson medium-jumbo-width frets from the time. The original ceramic saddle is included in the case but I've made a new padauk one that compensates better and sounds far better. As on most Gibson flattops from this time, the top does belly a bit behind the bridge and that's because the tops on these were cut quite thin -- which is why they sound good! It's no biggie and is stable.

It comes with: an original, flat-topped, yellow-lined hard case in good order.

The original synthetic nut was a little abused but I cleaned it up and filled a small section at the high E string where it was mysteriously drilled-out.

The pickguard is the nice, thin tortoise material found on nicer Gibson products from the time.

This is the original, bolted-on, plastic Gibson bridge -- and it's doing just fine. My upgrade is a new, padauk-wood saddle that's replaced the original ceramic (white) one. Padauk basically clocks-in like rosewood but is a little more dense and tough and better-suits this application. I specifically made this new saddle because I wanted more of its base supported in the saddle slot for better stability after the neck reset. It also allowed me to properly-compensate the top edge of the saddle for better intonation.