1965 Gibson J-45 ADJ

This 1965 J-45 ADJ is a bit of an odd duck. As you surely have noticed, it was fitted at the factory with a large J-200 bridge rather than a standard belly bridge. This was most likely a custom order for a player who wanted the Tune-o-matic saddle setup that came on the J-200 at the time. The 1965 J-45 had an optional adjustable saddle that you could raise and lower with screws but wouldn’t allow you easily intonate each string. The adjustable saddle is the ADJ part of the guitar’s model number.

These days, many players would say that the addition of all that extra weight on the guitar’s top would kill the tone. But a few months ago I was talking to FJ contributor Derek See about a mid-1960s Gibson that he just bought and asked him if he thought its heavy bridge hurt the guitar’s sound. He said that he when you compared it to a 1950s model the newer guitar didn’t have the same same resonance and volume. “But in a lot the music I play, I am trying to replicate the tone of bands from the 1960s,” he explained. “George Harrison, John Lennon, Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend all recorded on Gibson guitars with adjustable bridges. If you want that sound, you need that guitar. A lot of those songs just don’t sound right if you play them on a guitar that is too resonant”

That’s an excellent point. Guitarists who want to recreate the tone of Delta blues players from the 1920s are buying and playing vintage ladder braced guitars that don’t sound as “good” as a Martin or Gibson from the same era, but they feel the Martins and Gibson sound “wrong” on that particular style of music. This J-45 probably doesn’t have the best tone for a wide range of music, but if you want your music to sound like 1965, this guitar will have the perfect tone. If you want to hear for yourself, just send $2200 to Mass Street Music and they would be happy to further your sonic education.