1963 J-45 Neck Pitch Question

[tdrake]

Hey all

I'm looking at a nice, very reasonably priced ($2k) 1963 (my birth year!) J-45 that plays quite well but seems to have a neck issue:

1) looking down the plane of the body, the neck tilts "back" or "down" (rather than the normal looking of having pulled "up" from string tension)

2) the bridge has clearly been shaved/lowered. The bridge does not have the adjustable saddle, so I assume it is not original to this year.

Ok, so, I recently (yesterday) sold a 1953 Gibson L-50 via this same shop (Cole Music, in Spokane, WA, great place), and that L-50 was the only other Gibson, vintage or otherwise, I've had experience with: but it too had a neck that pulled back/down the same way.

...which leads to my foolish question: is this simply "normal" in vintage Gibsons and thus "ok", or am I just looking at two vintage Gibsons that both needed neck resets?

Really like this guitar, and because I live in the sticks it's also a very rare find for me...like the shop, have the cash because I just sold a bunch of guitars and nice old Princeton....

...all of which is to say I'm primed to make a very irrational decision.

Without seeing the guitar, can any of y'all still give me some feedback on whether I'd be wading into a costly repair...?

Thanks much.

[charles Tauber]

Frets.com has good information on how to check the neck angle of a guitar. It is simple to do, but does require a straight edge.

[John Arnold]

If it plays and sounds good, then what is the problem?
Adjustable bridge Gibson flat tops tend to have pitched-back necks, to facilitate the adjustment. If the bridge has been replaced with a fixed saddle type, it usually needs to be pretty thick....unless the neck is reset to accommodate a more 'normal' setup.
A 1953 L-50 is an archtop guitar, which should have a steeply-pitched neck.

[B. Howard]

Models originally fitted with adjustable bridges are usually marked with an ink stamp in the back strip inside the sound hole "ADJ BRIDGE".

[Ben-Had]

I think 1963 was the only year the plastic bridge was used on the J-45/J-50 as original.

[tdrake]

Thanks for the feedback, all. Checking with the seller, the bridge is definitely a replacement of the original adjustable one.

I've gotta get up to the shop in a week or two and if it's still there I guess it's just down to me and my will power. I swear every time I make a serious effort to downsize the buyers always have something I want more than money.