1945 Gibson J-45 Banner Logo Acoustic Guitar used

This is one of the nicest Banner J-45s we’ve had, and like many Gibson from this period, it has a mix of unusual features you don’t see on earlier or later guitars. For starters, the back is one-piece of mahogany, not two book-matched pieces. Another more critical difference is the neck is maple. Also the top bracing is scalloped. We’re calling the bridge rosewood, but the color is so light it may be another tropical hardwood as Gibson used several alternative hardwoods around this time. The bridge was lacquered when the top was finished, as was common then.

OK, on to the guitar:

It has its original tuners, nut, bridge, and pickguard. The finish is original but the back has been buffed, probably after two back cracks (4″ and 3″) in the upper bout on the treble side were repaired. The original crazing in the lacquer can be seen throughout and of course this is most obvious on the soundboard. The frets appear to be original as the lacquer along the edge of the fingerboard is mostly undisturbed.

This J-45 has a huge sound, and a big maple neck. Yep, it’s a little over 1 3/4″ wide at the nut. Those who do not like meaty neck profiles need not apply. What we’ve found is that necks like this give your left hand a lot of leverage and once you get used to them those later pencil-neck profiles will drive you crazy as it feels like you have nothing to hang on to. This neck shape, btw, is because shortly before this guitar was made Gibson couldn’t put truss rods in their necks because of wartime restrictions on the use of steel. So they made the necks bigger to resist warping and were still using that shape when truss rods became available again. Include a new hardshell case.