Gibson Acoustic 50s J-45 Original - Ebony Reviews

I have played Taylor Guitars exclusively for over 20 years, and loved them.
My friend plays an older J45, and I was impressed with the big sound from this guitar.
I purchase one from Sean at Sweetwater thinking I would return it I was unhappy.
It's a keeper. The sound from this guitar was clean and Big!
It will be my go to acoustic now.
Sadley, I have to thin out my other guitars now.

Since I purchased this guitar I have not been able to put it down. I was a bit worried the neck would be too thick, however it sits just right in my hand, and the radius makes it very easy to play. The sound is bright with depth, very reactive to how I touch the strings. The ebony color is amazing up close, it will wear in beautifully over time. The tuning machines are solid and look great in person giving it the vintage look, I expect the white knobs to turn over time to a more aged look, and I plan to keep this guitar until that happens. I did my own setup after purchase, sanded down the bridge a bit to lower the action and straighten out the neck. Otherwise great job Gibson and thank you Sweetwater for getting this baby to me safely.

I've purchased this guitar two months ago and it has since become my main acoustic. Went for ebony finish/color as I already owned another acoustic in sunburst. A big THANK YOU to Adam Szmurlo for making my shopping experience at Sweetwater so enjoyable not only for this one, but for everything I've bought from Sweetwater over the years.

There is a lot of talk on the web about J-45s sounding all over the spectrum. Mine, however, is "the one". It has a very mellow and sweet tone, with rounded beautiful overtones (just the right amount) especially on the high register. The bass is tighter than Martin's but it *growls* if you dig in. Soft and sweet when finger picked, gorgeous punchy "overdriven" sound and growl when strummed hard (somehow reminding me of a nicely overdriven Les Paul). Never muddy.

Now, you really have to love thick neck profiles (the 50's style) as this one has a full D-shape with quite wide shoulders. Even though I have a thick 50s neck on my Les Paul, it still took a bit of getting used to it.

Initially I was concerned that the neck will become sticky while playing considering it was touching my entire palm and the finish is nitrocellulose (I had bad experiences with this combination in the past). Happily to report that that was NOT the case with this guitar. If anything, when my fretting palm sweated, it made the neck even slicker. So big kudos to Gibson for that, well done !

This model comes with bone nut and bone saddle (hooray !!!). Personally, I can't stand having those made out of plastic, especially on a $2,000+ guitar. The bridge pins however, are made out of tusq. It's certainly a personal preference, but I prefer bone instead of tusq. While tusq adds slightly more overtones (which I don't think this guitar needs anyway), it does so at the expense of suppressing its "growl" and diminishing its "punch" and sustain. So I've replaced mine.

The frets seems to have been plek-ed nicely :-) and there were no protruding frets at the edge (very smooth edges). The action was sky high though, and I believe that to be intentional so that the future owner can lower it to his/her satisfaction. For me, the factory setup was close to unplayable therefore I made a new bone saddle and lowered the nut slots to get the action to where I liked it. Every new guitar should have a setup done to match the owner's playing style, so that kind of work was expected.

I mostly play this guitar unplugged but the few occasions I plugged it in, it sounded good to me.

In conclusion, I am thrilled to own this acoustic legend with a phenomenal tone true to its name, and looking forward to many years of joy playing it.

This guitar is my first Gibson and I am impressed. I have multiple Martin (standard series, both 18 and 28 style) along with other acoustics. But this guitar with its fat neck and short scale make it a joy to play. The electronics are pretty decent and it sounds great unplugged. Craftsmanship isn't Martin or Taylor, but I think that is done on purpose. It seems like a rugged guitar. I cant wait for it to age and look and sound better ;)

Negatives/Disappointments first:
Intonation was not great (pretty bad in fact). The original saddle is not compensated and portly shaped. I know they're going for vintage specs, but an updated compensated bone saddle made ALL the difference! Intonation vastly improved with no loss of tone.

Easy enough of a fix, but annoying and disappointing.

Slight finish imperfections, but that's minor for me.

Positives/Expectations:
It sounds just like you'd expect except it's a little better. I LOVE it! Gibson J45's just have a sound and this one has IT. I really like the vintage spec's neck as well (seems fatter).

20 years ago I played a J-45 in a local store. Absolutely fell in love but was way out of my means. Couldn't forget that tone but when I went back to get it a week later it was gone. Finally decided to fill that lost-love gap about 2 years ago and purchased the J-45 (50's 0riginal model) from Sweetwater. Honestly I was disappointed in the fit and finish. Not what I expected and certainly less than any mid-level and up guitar I own (Taylor, Martin, Baden, Lowden or original Breedlove). Ryan from Sweetwater offered to make it right (awesome service as always) but there was something in the tone I liked enough to keep the guitar. It fit in between tones of other instruments I own and had enough of that 20 year old spark I remembered. I recently switched strings to Santa Cruz tension strings and replaced the plastic string pegs (really Gibson? spend a couple bucks on good pegs for the love of your own product!) with good quality bone ones that actually fit and now the guitar sings. Went from muddy and uninspired to articulate and alive. Have always liked the neck feel and body shape. Now the tone matches the expectation. Go in eyes open and you have the potential for a great instrument.