1949 Gibson J-45 Slope Dreadnought Guitar

Mike Brown's always on the hunt for fun old Gibsons. This one was completely wrecked despite the fact that it was owned by a preacher in Iowa for most of its life. Almost all the bracing was detached and many sections of the top were detached from the sides. Here's an Instagram post from when he first got it and then here's another one of him stripping the nasty housepaint off of it.

Work here included a neck reset, regluing all those bad seams, a fret level/dress, lots of brace repairs to the top and back, lots of crack cleating, bridge reglue, saddle slot fill and straight-cut so it can be setup as a lefty and/or converted back to a righty as desired, a little buffing and a couple coats of really thin finish on the top, minor extra cleaning, and setup. Mike's a lefty, so it's lefty-ized and I think the non-pickguard top works for it nicely in that capacity.

It sound is big, warm, airy, and midsy but with good high-end punch, too. Mike does a lot of fingerstyle playing so it's sort of an ideal sound for his playing-style.

We're thinking this was probably a J-45 when it was made as it has the remains of darker old finish at its edges. It has a 2000s factory order number at the neckblock.