1940s Gibson "Banner" Southern Jumbo Slope Dreadnought Guitar
How about this one, eh? Vintage Southern Jumbos often give people lustful stirrings when they're in the shop. Southern Jumbos from the Banner years are enough to stop the hearts of some of these lustful stirrers! This one sounds particularly, disgustingly, perfectly good and it had all the heads turning when it was getting a bit of play after repairs were done.
It's exactly what you want a good old Gibson jumbo to be -- woody and airy and full and balanced right through every note and all the way up the board. The bass is there but it's not woofy and it's got a lot of presence and punch in the mids and highs. It also looks gorgeous -- with just the right amount of wear and tear to be friendly in the lap.
Per the Banner Gibson Registry (see here), this clocks-in as a '44 build and that seems about right for its features.
Work was light on this guy (and there's plenty of detail in the "condition notes" section of the post) and now that it's done, it's playing on-the-dot and sounding tops. Considering the light build, I wouldn't go heavier than 12s on it, however.
Repairs included: a fret level/dress, new tuners, pickup install, bridge adjustments, mild cleaning, mild crack/hole repairs, new saddle, setup, etc...
Weight: 4 lbs 6 oz
Scale length: 24 3/4"
Nut width: 1 3/4"
Neck shape: medium-big C
Board radius: 10"
Body width: 16"
Body depth: 4 7/8"
Top wood: solid spruce
Back & sides wood: solid mahogany
Bracing type: x, lightly scalloped
Bridge: rosewood
Fretboard: rosewood
Neck wood: 5-piece maple/hog
Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 54w, 40w, 30w, 22w, 16, 12 custom
Truss rod: adjustable
Neck relief: straight
Fret style: medium-lower
Condition notes: it's actually in fantastic shape for a more-or-less left-alone SJ. It had a big old maple plate bolted to the underside of the bridge and bracing since the '70s which I yanked-out but the original bridge (still extant) had been modified in the meantime. It had three bolts pot through it and was glued to a 1/16" or so "riser" foot on its bottom. The bridge height would actually be perfect without the riser added but I figured it would probably destroy the bridge to remove it (considering the suspect-epoxy glue job) so I just adjusted what was there to work well enough to get the action nice and spot-on. What else? Tuners are new replacements of a style similar to the originals (this had yicky Grovers put on it in the '70s), the saddle slot was modded to a drop-in back in the '70s as well (so I made a new bone saddle for it), and it had a pickup installed with a jack awkwardly placed in the side and then also a 1/2" hole drilled at the endpin. I filled the side-jack hole and installed a new K&K in the endpin hole. Easy-peasy...
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