Music

Gibson SJ Southern Jumbo Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar (1946), made in Kalamazoo, Michigan, sunburst top, natural back and sides finish, mahogany back, sides and neck; spruce top, rosewood fingerboard, period brown hard shell case. Early Postwar Gibson flat tops don't come too much better than this one! This is a very clean, fine playing and sounding Gibson Southern Jumbo from the *just*-post-WW II period. This genuinely beautiful example shows some standard maintenance repair but not too many signs of actual use. The SJ or "Southern Jumbo" sometimes feels like a bit of a forgotten model in Gibson's postwar flat top line; not as simple a working man's guitar as the more austere J-45 or as yee-haw fancy as the SJ-200. The SJ features same general layout as the J-45 with a sunburst spruce top on a 16" slope-shouldered mahogany jumbo body, with a mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard. 1940s SJ's are fairly rare, more expensive and made in smaller numbers than the plain-Jane J-45. There are no production figures available for 1946-7 but in the later '40s the ratio was about 3 J-45's for every SJ. We're always pleased to get one in stock and this might be the nicest from this period we have ever had. As is typical for the early postwar era this guitar has no identification numbers but shows features specific to the 1946-7 period. These include the early style gold script Gibson logo without the "Only a Gibson is Good Enough" banner underneath and an unbound rosewood fingerboard with pearloid double parallelogram inlay. The tuners are openback Klusons still with the wartime riveted gears. The sunburst top with a small tortoise celluloid pickguard has a lovely shaded dark look; the top edge binding and soundhole ring are seven-ply W/B/W/ Celluloid while the back is five-ply. This guitar has a slimmer neck profile than the wartime "Louisville sluggers" but is still quite substantial feeling, with the adjustable truss rod. By this point Gibson had figured out that with the rod back in they could start slimming down the necks again! This one is still fairly close to wartime spec. but a bit less deep and round, with more dress-away at the sides. The nut is wide at 1 3/4". This is a very warm, deep sounding and comfortable playing guitar, carrying a great vibe and at home with either vintage or modern musical stylings. We always love early SJ's and this is beauty is certainly no exception. Overall length is 40 3/4 in. (103.5 cm.), 16 1/4 in. (41.3 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 4 7/8 in. (12.4 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 3/4 in. (44 mm.). This lovely instrument shows only light wear overall and is really in very clean condition for a nearly 80 year old Jumbo; a large percentage of these were played half to death in the 1940s and '50s. The finish shows some checking but still shines with its original gloss and there are only small scrapes, dents and dings scattered around. The lower rim of the soundhole has some minor strumming loss but that's really about it for pick wear. There is some very light flaking around the edges of the pickguard from it shrinking up just a bit. The guitar does show some discreet and extremely well-executed work to optimize playability for the next century. The neck has been very cleanly reset and re-fretted with era-appropriate wire. The original bridge had been shaved beyond salvage and a lovely Brazilian rosewood replica is now fitted with a new bone saddle. A couple of tiny repaired chips are visible off the edges of the bridge. The bone nut is newer and the crumbled buttons on the original tuners replaced. All else remains original including the tapered and lightly scalloped bracing (a couple have been neatly reglued) and the small maple bridgeplate. There are no cracks to the instrument; there is one spruce grain check to the top on the upper bass bout that does not reach to the inside of the guitar but is feelable. This SJ is simply a delightful gem, a fantastic guitar to play and a real showpiece for the classic Gibson jumbo sound, deep and sweet but still incisive and quite powerful when pushed. It resides in a period mid-line Gibson HSC that while technically shaped for an archtop guitar appears to have been with the instrument for a very long time, if not from the beginning! Overall Excellent Condition.