1950's or 60's Gibson J-45

[bendmire88]

Ok, Let me start be saying i'm not exactly sure what year this guitar is but it's atleast 40 something years old. My grandmother bought it for my grandfather a couple of years before they built the house i now live in, built in 61 so i'm geussing it's a 50's model.



The finish is worn and cracked, and there's a huge crack down the back.



From the wood grain, I'm geussing it has Mahogany back, sides and neck with a spruce top.



It had been sitting in the closet since my grandfather died(1971) until i "discovered" it at the age of 12. I love this guitar and would'nt want a thing changed in any way, not even the cracks because without them it would'nt sound as amazing and beautiful as it does now(along with the age).

And here's the kicker people..... My grandmother payed a massive... ONE HUNDERED AND FIFTY DOLLARS!! ;D HAHAHA One hundered and fifty american dollars, To bad you can't buy a brand new gibson for anywhere near that price today. Don't you just love inflation!?

[andy]

Mmmm... Yummy!

The J-45 is the one for me- when I can afford one, that is! It partly comes from the fact that the only acoustic guitar which seemed to open up another whole universe of sound when I played it was a Buddy Holly signature model a couple of years back- I only picked it up to see if a £2500 guitar could possibly be worth it. I didn't buy it, so perhaps it wasn't, though I still remember that day with fondness. Other than that, I just kind of like the shape...

It must be good to have a really sentimental one like that though. Not only having the worn in feel and tone of a well aged, well used guitar, but knowing its how all that wear got there(and who put it there)- great.

[newey]

bendmire88 said:

And here's the kicker people..... My grandmother payed a massive... ONE HUNDERED AND FIFTY DOLLARS!! ;D HAHAHA One hundered and fifty american dollars, To bad you can't buy a brand new gibson for anywhere near that price today. Don't you just love inflation!?

Bendmire-

If Your grandmother paid $150 in, let's say, about 1960, that would equate to $1045.44 today. For a neat calculator of the effect of inflation, and the consumer price index, on the value of the US dollar over time, see:

minneapolisfed.org/Research/data/us/calc/index.cfm

In 1960, my parents bought the house where I grew up, a 3-BR ranch, for about $15,000. At the time, my dad's salary was about $4000/yr. as a school administrator. That is to say, it's all relative . . .

So your grandmother probably put a real dent in her budget to buy that Gibson.

But you're right, you can't buy a new Gibson acoustic for $1044 anymore. They make a repro J45 for about $2800, so in this day and age, you're definitely paying a premium for the "made in USA" label and the Gibson nameplate on it. Also, the CPI is calculated based on a hypothetical set of goods, which doesn't include the costs of the fine woods necessary to make the guitar- those costs have increased much faster than the CPI due to scarcity.

But you can still buy a very good acoustic 6-string for $1044. You can buy a good one for about half that, in fact, so in some ways we should consider ourselves lucky in this day and age.