1968 Gibson J-50 Slope Dreadnought Guitar

These late-'60s Gibson Js can sometimes be woody and thunky or, like this one, woody and full. It's a great backup-chorder sort-of guitar with just enough punchiness in the mids to sit nicely in a mix. Regardless of sound, though, they have "rock and roll" necks with a thin nut width that lends itself to chordal work rather than lead or melody playing.

This is a local customer's guitar and while it was here for, presumably, just a bridge reglue, it needed quite a bit more to be a player. Ancel did most of the work -- it got a new (longish, mahogany) bridge plate, he made a new repro bridge for it and I helped him cut the saddle slot for it, the frets got a level/dress, it got new pins and a new saddle, and a little fill to some cracks on the upper bout. Someone had previously replaced the original plywood bridge plate with a giant maple one that had come unglued so the top and original bridge had distorted enough in there to warrant a new bridge as well.

Anyhow, post-repairs it's quite a nice guitar and I'm hoping the owners think so as well! It's certainly got looks going for it.