1952 Gibson J-45 previously owned by Johnny Meeks and Bobby Jones of His Blue Caps

This one is real special.  I found myself one day jumping in the guitar hauler (read mini van, so rock and roll) and driving to South Carolina.  There was a man selling a 1952 Gibson J-45 and a 1963 Fender Bassman there and we had already agreed on a price.

When I arrived he asked me if I knew who Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps was.  I had no idea I had stepped into the house of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Member Bobby Jones.  Rolling Stone Magazine bestowed the title of "The first rock and roll band in the world" on the Blue Caps.  Bobby was the bass player for the Blue Caps for about 14 months ('58-'59) and toured the world playing rock and roll.  Bobby's J-45 was stolen around '56 so Johnny sold him his '52.  More on Bobby here

Gibson introduced the J-45 in 1942 sporting a solid Adirondack Spruce top and Honduran Mahogany back and sides.  It had a scale length of 24.75", featured scalloped X bracing and the bridge was rectangular.  In 1944 they switched to Sitka Spruce for the tops.  In 1950 the "belly up" bridge was introduced with a slot saddle.  The sides were solid Mahogany until 1952 and in 1953 the saddle changed to the drop in style.  In 1955 the fretboard went from 19 frets to 20, the bracing went from tall/thin and scalloped to shorter and straight, and the pickguard became the larger style.

Since this guitar has the belly up bridge and the slotted saddle then it *should* have been made in 1952.  The Factory Order Number prefix "Z" confirms this.  

The aforementioned '63 Fender Bassman is still at the amp tech's place.  I'm not sure if it is taking a long time to get parts or if he is playin' the hell outa that thing!  Either way I am excited to get it back.  Hopefully that will be soon.

TVG

1939 Gibson J-35, 3 tone bars of blues.

The model designation "J-35" showed up in the ledgers in late 1936.  It was a no frills jumbo featuring a Spruce top and Mahogany back and sides.  It was originally named the "Trojan" but not for very long.  It is my understanding that the word Trojan only shows up one time.  The Trojan guitar differs very little from the J-35, if at all.

-Edit-  As our friend mentioned in the comments section, the "Trojan" model appears 39 times in the surviving shipping ledgers from 1936.  Only one had an attached FON: 960-12 which shipped to Ridders Music Store in Atlanta.  This guitar still lives in Atlanta and while I do not know the owner personally I have interacted with him on the Gibson forum.  He is a well respected collector and I hope to one day be able check out the collection in person.  I live only 2 hours west of Atlanta!  There is a lot of TVG material there.  Thanks, Anonymous!



The J-35 was produced up until 1942 when Gibson introduced the next and more common J-45.  This J-35 was made in 1939 which was the first year that the natural finish was offered.  It was also the last year of the 3 tone bar bracing.  That makes this one a bit easier to date since Spann's Guide to Gibson does not have very many factory order numbers from 1939.



This guitar was being sold locally and was described as a "1939 Gibson L-00."  I am still trying to figure out how they nailed the year perfectly but were terribly mistaken on the model.  I tried to tell the seller what it actually was but, as is common with sellers, they don't want you to tell them what they should already know.


When I opened the case for the first time I was very surprised at how good of condition it was in.  This guitar survived in a chipboard case in someone's basement for many, many years.  The seller told me it had some water damage but he repaired it.  That was not what I wanted to hear but upon inspection, he did a pretty good job.  I was expecting sloppy glue work and half-assed overspray but was pleasantly surprised to find neither.  There was plenty of evidence of water damage but it was on the bottom near the end pin.  It wasn't a perfect repair but it was done well.  I wouldn't have expected much better from my own luthier.  He then told me he was a wood worker so it made a little more sense.

I bought this guitar 5 days before the Orlando Guitar Expo and had already bought a booth to show some guitars.  I took this one because I just couldn't resist.  It sold the morning of the first day to a very happy buyer.  I was sad, yes, but it had to be done.  I had spent the last bit of our savings including my wife's last couple of paychecks!  Not a great way to buy a guitar but I had a pretty good feeling about this one.  It seemed to work out but now there is a big J-35 shaped hole in my heart.  I guess that is one of the things that keep me going.

TVG

1953 Gibson J-45 nicknamed the "Workhorse"

Introducing my favorite guitar ever made- the Gibson J-45.

This guitar came out of the Appalachian foothills of north Georgia.  It had been posted for months along with a 1936 Gibson L-00 and had not sold.  I snatched them both up as soon as I could get in contact with him.  Here is a shot of the L-00 (dorm room photo).

The first J-45s came out in 1942 when Gibson was producing only six models because of the war shortages.  It was a bare bones blues powerhouse that continues to be in production today with no end in sight.  The J-45 is one of Gibson's flagship models that is commonly referred to as "The Workhorse".  They were all made the Jumbo body size with X-bracing using hide glue to keep it all together.  During WWII, many substitutions were made including Maple backs and sides, Mahogany tops and the absence or presence of a truss rod.

This one features a Sitka Spruce top and Honduran Mahogany back, sides and neck.  Both the back and top are two piece, book matched quarter-sawn solid spruce an mahogany.  It has the pre-'55 style 19 fret neck, belly-up drop in saddle and finely scalloped tone bars.

But how does it sound??  With light strings, this one sings with rich, balanced lows and acutely defined highs.  The woody, Americana tone is undeniable when flatpicking chords or playing fingerstyle blues.  The action is medium to low with a little room on the saddle to come down.  The bridge pin holes have been lightly ramped to allow for good break angle over the saddle.

This example has all of the original parts (except for strings!).  The only repairs that done were a couple of reglued loose braces done by Jason Burns of Burns Instrument Repair at Homewood Musical Instrument Co. (Burns Banjos and Repair  Homewood Music).  Jason is an extremely talented open back banjo maker as well as a true-to-the-original repairman.  He used hide glue when regluing the braces.  Other than that, only simple set up work was required.  You can see that the plastic on the original Kluson tuners has gassed and shrunk over the years.  I should put new tuners on there but I really like the way the old ones look.  I am very very careful when tuning and luckily, it never needs much!

These are two pictures of the underside of the top of this guitar.  They show the two braces called "Tone Bars."  These braces have a huge influence on the tone and structural integrity of the guitar.  You may notice the tones bars are "scalloped."  This means they were shaped for strength in one way and tone in the other.  The beginning and end of the bars are tall while the middle is short.  This is where some would say we get in to the "religion" aspect of vintage instruments.  Many boutique luthiers and hand builders shave braces and tap tune their tops to focus the tone towards bass or treble response.  I'll let you be the judge on whether this has a big impact on tone.

One reason I like these old Gibson guitars is because they are very "lightly built."  This one is no exception.  What do I mean by lightly built?  Well, I guess it is a bit hard for me to explain.  It refers to the thinness of the braces and the overall weight of the materials used.  It would be better explained by holding an inspecting two guitars: one pre-1955 Gibson and one recent Epiphone Masterbilt.  Have you ever played a Masterbilt?  I love these guitars but they are heavy as lead!  They have big thick tops, backs and braces.  They are both built with all solid woods however they had two separate goals.  The former, to be the best sounding guitar possible with the materials, techniques and budgets that were available.  The latter, to avoid warrantee costs but also make a guitar out of all solid woods because that term sells guitars.  A lightly built guitar booms with vibrating resonance that you can feel in your gut when you strike an E chord.  A "tank" simply reflects the sound of the barely vibrating top off of the back and out the sound hole.  Maybe it would be better explained if we were sitting down with these two guitars and a glass of cool, straight Tennessee whisky.



Dating a vintage Gibson guitar can often be quite a process.  Someone that looks at these guitars a lot could notice a few indicators of what time period this one came from.  All years are model specific and should be taken with a grain of salt:




1.  Block "Gibson" Logo (1947-current).















2.  19 Fret neck, small "teardrop" pickguard and tall thin and scalloped tone bars (1942-1954)

3.  Upward belly, drop in saddle (1953-1955)










4.  Here's the kicker: the Factory Order Number and letter designation.  From 1952 to 1961 Gibson used the alphabet (backwards) to indicate what year the guitar was produced (only flattops, sometimes).  Why did they go backwards and randomly decide to quit in 1961?  Not sure.  Here is a breakdown of what it looks like through the years: (from the website Vintage Guitars Info)



1952= Z
1953= Y
1954= X
Etc. until 1961

Here are a couple more shots that highlight some cool aspects of this J-45:

Original Kluson keys have shrunk

Beautiful dark grain line in the Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard

This was before they stamped anything on the back of the headstock

There is some glare on the back.  Couldn't get a clear shot without some glare.

I have two more J-45s to blog about.  The '46 will be coming soon but the '43 is in Jason's shop and it may take a while.  Feel free to leave me some feedback or follow this blog for more cool guitars.


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