1951 Gibson J-50 Slope Dreadnought Guitar

When I unpacked this guitar (sent in by a consignor), I took one look and said, "ohhhh boy." This thing has lived one heck of a life. It came here with no pickguard, a ton of unrepaired cracks (and poorly-repaired side cracks), lots of missing top bracing, loose back bracing, a need for a neck reset, no pickguard, and an old refinish job. Let's also not fail to point-out all of those worn-in black streaks and major-pickguard-leftovers mucking-about going on with the top.

So -- it sat here for a long time until I felt prepared to tackle it. I started working on it almost two months ago but finally finished-up in the first week of this month. Then one more old brace let-up and I had to reglue it. Now it's done and has remained content ever since.

I have to say, after all of the minor battles, I was really happy with the sound and feel after finishing it. This sounds just like any other grand old early '50s J-50 and has a woody, punchy, aggressively-midsy voice. It's great for singing with -- or picking old-time tunes on.

Repairs included: a neck reset, many brace reglues, some seam and side crack repairs (and some re-repairs to old repairs), two new tonebar braces, four new "finger" braces to the sides of the main x-braces, one new ladder/upper-bout brace (a little wider and flatter than original), new pickguard traced from the original pickguard lines, a fret level/dress, many crack repairs/cleats to the top and some to the back center-seam, cleaning, compensation of the original saddle, and a good setup.

Setup notes: it plays bang-on with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret. The neck is straight and the truss rod works. String gauges are 54w, 42w, 32w, 24w, 16, 12.

Scale length: 24 3/4"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 1/2"

String spacing at bridge: 2 3/16"

Body length: 20 1/4"

Lower bout width: 16 1/8"

Waist width: 10 7/8"

Upper bout width: 11 1/2"

Side depth at endpin: 4 3/4"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back/sides wood: solid mahogany

Neck wood: mahogany

Bracing type: x (replaced tonebars and finger braces)

Fretboard: rosewood, original synthetic nut

Bridge: rosewood, original synthetic saddle

Neck feel: slim to medium C-shape, ~12" board radius

Condition notes: oh, please see the above notes -- but other than all the repairs, it's also been refinished throughout and there's much wear and tear to the finish especially on the top. The back and sides are quite a bit cleaner but still show use. There are not-quite-evenly-glued side cracks near the endpin area and a repaired hairline crack along the endpin hole. The bridge pins are new and ebony but the bridge, saddle, nut, and tuners are all original. Make no mistake: this is definitely not a collector's guitar -- it's much more a player's box.

There's plenty of saddle there for adjustment!