1966 Gibson B-25 Flattop Guitar

I've worked on a lot of B-25/LG-2 Gibsons and, frankly, this one sounds quite good despite its being a bit of a basket case. Sometimes the '60s B-25s get a bit of that '40s LG-2 tone to them -- good warmth but also nice, punchy mids -- and this one has most of that. It's pretty impressive in the hand, really.

That said, it's still a quirky guitar! At some point a bunch of work was done by way of a full refinish (save the headstock front), a bunch of filled (but not cleated) cracks in the top and back, a replacement bridge (of the Martin-styled variety), a Bridge Doctor install (now removed), a replacement pickguard, and a set of (terrible) replacement tuners. The old repairs left a guitar with several loose braces on the lower bout (actually taped into position), strings almost falling-off the bass side of the neck, high action, and a middling tone (that you could tell had something but it was definitely stifled).

Work for me included regluing the loose bracing, removal of the Bridge Doctor, fill/redrill of the bridge pin slots, a new set of bridge pins, expansion of the saddle slot and a new bone saddle, a fret level/dress, a ton of cleats for all of the old crack repairs, a new bone nut (for better spacing), and a fresh set of "aged" Gotoh Kluson-a-like tuners that look at home on the guitar. The owner had me stick a K&K pickup in as well.

So, yes, now it's a good'n. I love it when a guitar gets turned-around!

The usual mid-'60s stuff applies -- narrower nut width, slimmer neck profile, and lower/wide frets.