Welcome to the Quinnipiac University Imaging Center in North Haven, Connecticut.  Attending today’s clinic are three talented members of the Diagnostic Imaging faculty, Shelley Giordano, Tania Blyth, and Natalia Pelletier.  Today’s patient is 74 years old, in overall good health, and has no complaints except those typical of seven decades of a life well lived.  Of course, it’s a guitar.

I write “of course” because this is patient 60 or 70 in our “Project X-Ray,” our endeavor to decipher the mysteries of vintage guitars.  To date, we’ve peered inside the earliest of Martin guitars, hand carved Orville Gibson creations, and an array of the work of the Larson Brothers.

This J-35, courtesy of guitar connoisseur Dario Ronco, is yet another fascinating specimen.  It has the nearly un-tapered body of the rare Gibson Trojan, but with back binding, making it one of the earliest J-35s discovered.  Its bracing pattern, too, is unusual; it has three un-scalloped tonebars.

Check out issue 26 of the Fretboard Journal for a full report on “Project X-Ray” and this session, including detailed images from our state-of-the-art digital imaging equipment.  For now, though, you can marvel at the work of professors Giordano, Blyth, and Pelletier as they work through a full series of dorsal and lateral x-rays that will provide a definitive view of their patient.