C.1944 Gibson J-45 Banner Acoustic Guitar - Used

$4,950.00

Details

This Banner J-45 is one of the loudest Dreadnoughts, slope-shoulder or square, that we've offered in a long time. Is it the Adirondack top with scalloped bracing that gives it its power? Or is it the stif maple neck? We don't know what makes the difference, we just know it works. The interior bracing is original, including the bridge plate and bridge bolts, but the exterior of this old Gibson has seen lots of changes so let's get started: All the work described below was done before the late 1990s, when we sold this guitar to the current owner. There's no sign any of the work was done here so we don't know when it was modified or by whom.
Both the top and the neck have been refinished, and while the back & sides might have their original coloring, lots of newer finish was added so we're not making claims that any of the finish is original.

The bridge appears to be original, with original bolts, but the saddle slot was routed for the wider saddle seen here and the bridge height was slightly reduced. The abalone diamond inlays in the bridge tips, and at the third fret, are obviously not original, and the same is true of the gold Grover Rotomatics (scars from old tuners are visible on the back of headstock).
We believe this neck didn't have a truss rod originally, as the adjusting nut sits higher in the headstock face than usual, hence the larger truss rod cover. Gibson often made the necks for these wartime "no truss rod" models extremely bulky, and this neck appears to have been reshaped to what you would expect to find on a later 1940s Gibson J-45 with a truss rod.