The Square-shouldered Gibson that Never Was
Designed by Sweetwater’s guitar experts, the Gibson Acoustic J-60 merges the depression-era dreadnought stylings of Gibson’s first flat-top golden age with the square-shouldered sonic power of their iconic 1960s acoustics. The core of this guitar is a premium-grade Adirondack red spruce top, fit with hand-scalloped 1930s-style X-bracing — a combo that provides an almost supernatural level of projection and note separation that’s sure to please even the pickiest bluegrass player. The top is mated to a stunning pair of rosewood back and sides to grant you both booming bass and shimmering top-end zing, while the long 25.5-inch scale length and square-shouldered body construction ensure that you’ll never want for volume. You also get a chunky vintage-accurate rounded mahogany neck and a sleek ebony fingerboard. To top it all off, the Gibson Acoustic J-60 proudly wears a thoroughly 1930s-inspired set of visual accouterments, including a blazing firestripe pickguard, mellow ’30s Vintage Sunburst finish, rosewood headstock cap, and a mother-of-pearl Gibson script logo.
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Long scale, square shoulders
The Gibson Acoustic J-60 is, in essence, a simple question posed by Sweetwater’s guitar experts: What if Gibson dove into the square-shoulder dreadnought game way back in the 1930s? For those unaware of Gibson’s acoustic history, the company spent their first three or so decades of dreadnought-building exclusively making round-shoulder guitars, as opposed to the square-shouldered design found on many of their competitors’ models. Gibson would eventually fully embrace the square-shoulder formula in the 1960s, but the J-60’s aim is to combine two beloved but disparate Gibson eras into a singular canon of a dreadnought-sized acoustic guitar.
Aiding the powerful projection of the J-60 is another less-common Gibson acoustic feature — a long 25.5-inch scale. But while the idea of a square-shouldered Gibson dreadnought from the 1930s is inherently anachronistic, Sweetwater’s guitar history nerds hasten to point out that Gibson has been making long-scale acoustics dreadnoughts since the 1936 Advanced Jumbo model — a guitar that predates the even legendary J-45! History aside, the J-60’s long scale length, bass-boosting square-shoulder construction, and 1930s-style advanced X-bracing meld together to provide this instrument with enough volume, depth, and warmth to rival any bluegrass-approved dreadnought out there, pre-war or otherwise.
Tonewoods straight out of the 1930s
What better tonewoods to pair with a pre-war-style square-shouldered dreadnought than spruce and rosewood? And not just any spruce — true to its pre-war roots the Gibson J-60 boasts an Adirondack red spruce top that offers a significant increase in overall volume, in addition to sporting a slightly drier, crisper response than the comparably sweeter-sounder Sitka spruce. Combined with the beautifully figured rosewood back and sides, the J-60 is a powerhouse of a dreadnought that’s positively beaming with zingy highs, mellow mids, and a bass-biased depth that one requires from a golden-era dreadnought
The epitome of Depression-era style
From headstock to strap button, the Gibson Acoustic J-60 is a full-fledged tribute to Gibson’s pre-war acoustic excellence. The era-accurate ’30s Vintage Sunburst found on the spruce top sports a darker, moodier vibe than your typical Gibson burst, making it an ideal aesthetic companion for the J-60’s attention-grabbing see-through firestripe pickguard. Even the headstock’s iconic Gibson script logo pays tribute to Gibson’s first golden age of acoustic guitar building, complete with a gorgeous rosewood faceplate to match the J-60’s stunning rosewood back and sides.
Gibson Acoustic J-60 Acoustic Guitar Features:
- Designed by Sweetwater’s guitar experts to merge depression-era round-shoulder Gibson dreadnought design with the square-shouldered punch of Gibson’s 1960s-era acoustics
- Square-shouldered design with a long 25.5-inch scale length gives you a more powerful sonic punch, with enhanced volume
- Adirondack red spruce top supplies superior projection, supported by hand-scalloped 1930s-style advanced X-bracing
- Beautiful rosewood back and sides deliver deep bass, sparkling trebles, and a mellowed-out midrange
- Mahogany neck in a comfortably chunky rounded neck profile
- Elegant ebony fingerboard in a Gibson-Acoustic-standard 12-inch radius
- Ebony bridge, bone saddle, and bone nut with a 1.725-inch width
- Rock-solid Waverly tuners
- Loaded with 1930s-era visual appointments, including a firestripe nitrocelluloid pickguard, mother-of-pearl script Gibson logo, and attention-demanding ’30s Vintage Sunburst Finish
