Gibson Custom Shop 1942 J-45 All Mahogany Light Aged Acoustic Guitar, Vintage Sunburst

Fresh in from our friends at the Gibson Acoustic Custom Shop in Bozeman, Montana we present the Gibson Custom Shop 1942 J-45 All Mahogany with Murphy Lab Light Aging. As part of the Gibson Custom Greatest Hits Collection, this J-45 celebrates it's rich history and heritage with its original first year of production specs from 1942. While many acoustic fans today are familiar with the J-45 sporting a spruce top, during World War II, it wasn't entirely uncommon for some J-45's to leave the factory with an all mahogany body due to material shortages. Let's take a closer look at this dreadnought shall we?

The Gibson Custom Shop 1942 J-45 All Mahogany starts with the iconic dreadnought body shape constructed from a mahogany top, back, and sides. The dreadnought body shape paired with the mahogany tone wood makes for an incredibly dynamic and versatile playing experience. Loud, warm, and round, this J-45 can handle everything from soft fingerstyle playing to heavy handed cowboy chords. Under the top, red spruce is employed to support the top in the traditional "X" bracing pattern to provide balance amongst bass and treble frequencies. The body receives its signature period correct finishing cosmetic appointments: the iconic double bound single ply cream binding and fire stripe pickguard.

Meeting at the 14th fret, an all mahogany neck is glued to the body in the tradition set neck design. The modified V neck on this J-45 feels great, not too chunky yet comfortable enough to fret bar chords with ease, or get around the neck quickly for faster bluegrass runs. The neck is topped with a lush rosewood fingerboard and is crowned with 19 frets. Keeping with tradition, the J-45's fingerboard features Mother of Pearl dot inlay position markers.

From there, strings are loaded into the rosewood bridge, capped with black tusq bridge pins, and strung using the open gear, three-on-a-plate nickel scalloped cream button tuners. The bone saddle and nut provide proper intonation and action while the historic open book head stock provides the authentic period correct script Gibson logo and "Only A Gibson Is Good Enough" banner logo. 

Murphy Lab Light Aging brings everything together on this J-45 and offers an inviting vintage aesthetic. Finish checking, scratches, dings, and aged hardware are faithfully replicated to emulate decades of honest wear and tear.

Known universally as a workhorse guitar, this Gibson Custom Shop 1942 All Mahogany J-45 is ready to inspire for another 80 plus years.