GEAR TALK – Gibson J-45
What does Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Jeff Tweedy, Elvis Costello, Jeff Bridges, New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen and yours truly all have in common? The answers is simple and self evident: Gibson J-45
It is not by accident. It is generally regarded as the most popular acoustic guitar Gibson has to offer, if not the most popular of all acoustic guitars. This model saw daylight in 1942, and has largely stayed intact since then. The J-45 has a rounded, “baseball bat” style neck, with sported modest dot-shaped mother of pearl fretboard position markers.
The J-45 was constructed of solid spruce wood for the top, while solid mahogany was used for the back and sides. Apart from a small batch of natural-finish J-45s produced in 1942, the model was offered only in the sunburst finish.
The J-45 is absolutely my go-to-acoustic guitar and I love it for the rich bass and the durability throughout a gig. The neck is “big” or wide and gives you resistance, and it responds great to a little harder strumming as well as fine fingerpicking. It truly deserves the label “workhorse”. It is extremely reliable and plays great summers as well and winters. I have taken this guitar half around the world already.Once tuned I very seldom have to tune it again during a show.
How it got started
THE STORY OF THE GIBSON is interesting!
Imagine launching a guitar in 1942. Us had just joined WWII and
parts were hard to come by because of government imposed rations
on the commercial use of timber and metal. Designers had to use up
to four pieces of spruce for the J-45’s top. This lead to Gibson
choosing the sunburst finish simply because a sunburst finish would
better disguise any join in the timbers
Why did they give it the name 45? Original idea was to ask $45 for it.
In other words: a simple, cheaper reliable guitar.
