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  #16  
Old 07-16-2019, 02:58 PM
zombywoof zombywoof is offline
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Originally Posted by The Kid! View Post
Interesting. My '52 is alarmingly light.
It guess it comes down to your particular frame of reference. The best description I ever heard of early 1950s Gibsons though came from Jake Wildwood who described them as great all-rounders which were built to last.
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Last edited by zombywoof; 07-19-2019 at 09:13 AM.
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  #17  
Old 07-16-2019, 03:29 PM
Marshall Marshall is offline
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There's a young woman that plays out around Chicago. 20-something. She plays a 1943 bannertop J45. I'm thinking somebody bought that for her. it's got a K&K in it. Doesn't sound any different amplified than any other guitar. I checked on Reverb,com and somebody was selling one for $7.5k
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  #18  
Old 07-16-2019, 04:52 PM
KalamazooGuy KalamazooGuy is offline
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Good for you, The Kid!
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  #19  
Old 07-18-2019, 10:37 PM
The Kid! The Kid! is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zombywoof View Post
It guess it comex down to your particular frame of reference. The best description I ever heard of early 1950s Gibsons though came from Jake Wildwood who described them as great all-rounders which were built to last.
Yeah, they're all over the place, but so were the banners, and back in the day everything was built to last. That doesn't necessarily mean heavy. Mine clearly isn't.
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Current:
1952 Gibson J-45
- Schatten HFN passive / Fishman Matrix Infinity
1983 Washburn Timber Ridge Custom
- Fishman Onboard Prefix Premium Blend & - Schatten HFN passive
2016 Gibson J-45 Standard
- Fishman Onboard Prefix Premium Blend & - Schatten HFN passive backup
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1995 Martin D-28
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  #20  
Old 07-19-2019, 08:22 AM
1Charlie 1Charlie is offline
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When it comes to the topic of Gibsons being "built to last", I can offer the following.

I own a '31 L-0, a '32 L-4, a '34 L-00, a '35 Kalamazoo KG-11, a '43 L-50, a '47 LG-3 and a '49 J-50.

Only the L-4 has ever had the neck reset. The basic geometry of the other seven remains remarkably stable after all these years. All have big, fat necks, and all but one (the wartime L-50) have truss rods.

Some, like the L-0, are unspeakably light, others not so much. But what is most interesting is that they all share the same unmistakable warm Gibson tone.
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A few nice ones, a few beaters, and a few I should probably sell...
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  #21  
Old 07-19-2019, 09:13 AM
zombywoof zombywoof is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Kid! View Post
Yeah, they're all over the place, but so were the banners, and back in the day everything was built to last. That doesn't necessarily mean heavy. Mine clearly isn't.
I did not mean to imply they were heavily built. Just that starting around 1950/51 the tops and bridge plates got slightly thicker. The bridge got bulkier when they abandoned the earlier rectangular one and even the headstock when they did away with the old tapered style. It was all geared to structural changes that would keep the guitars being returned for warranty work which was a major drag on any builder's bottom line.

Thing is while Gibson was attempting to become more standardized in their guitars starting in the 1950s, they seriously ramped up production beginning in the late 1940s, turning out maybe twice as many J45s as that had J35s at the beginning of the decade. Not surprisingly, this resulted in consistency being variable.


Again though, I know more than a few folks who like me have been playing old Gibsons for decades who think the early-1950s Gibsons were about the best to ever roll out of the Daylight Plant. Gone was the tooling which had been a mish-mash and you now had hands using the same tools to make the same part. The bracing in my 1942 J50 looks like it was whittled with a dull pen knife. Not as much scalloped as just a long slight taper. Gibson did not even think it was worth their while to have somebody do a final sandin as you can see the saw marks.
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