1965 Gibson B-25N 00-Size Guitar

My friend Michael bought this guy off of Facebook or Craigslist or whatnot and has been loving it ever since. It still had an original ceramic saddle in place and a gaping crack on the lower bout, so those had to be dealt with. It'd been refretted in the past and the frets now have big old gouges in them, but we were running out of time so that will need to be addressed later-on. It still plays nicely on the gouged frets for the moment, anyhow.

I like the adjustable bridges because they're easy to use when gigging to adjust action on the fly and -- don't hate me -- I don't even mind these horrid plastic bridges when they're still surviving and doing their job. I cannot abide the white, ceramic saddles Gibson used at the time, though, as they have a pingy, unpleasant sound in the upper mids and highs and can't be compensated easily. I made a new rosewood saddle for this one in the pattern of the later rosewood adjustable saddles -- but properly-compensated for the guitar and fit nice and snugly to the saddle slot so that it won't wobble around the same way the Gibson original wood adjustable saddles and ceramic ones do.

The crack just needed some cleats and fill and then it was good to go.

For years and years people mistreated and lambasted '60s B-25 models ("oh those student guitars!") for some reason (I've always loved them when they're fixed-up) but the market has finally caught-up with the guitars and made them realize that -- oh dang! -- these are actually just the '60s rename for the LG-2 and LG-3 models and should be judged and treated accordingly Surprise!

This same guitar, bracing pattern, scale length, neck, bridge, etc. was just slightly scaled-up in the body to make your beloved J-45 and J-50 models. Surprise!

Also: yes, it's normal for the black plastic bridges to go these weird grey/splotchy colors as they age. You can hit them with finish but they go right back to being grey.