197* J-50 Deluxe

[Bob Gaddis]

My brother bought this guitar new at retail in Raleigh back in the eraly 70's. It has the square-shoulders and the big pickguard and regular belly-bridge.

The neck has never been right on this guitar. It is the 3-piece maple(plus ears).It had a noticeable twist that drops the treble side down and raises the bass side up at the nut.

The celluloid tortoise binding crumbled. The top cracked at the fingerboard extension and right on past the edge of the pickjuard.

I called Gibson several years ago and asked them to repair this beast. The warranty sticker says" Gibson Guarantees This Instrument Against Faulty Workmanship and Materials."

I sent a couple of dozen emails to Gibson and was essentially told that they would not fix it. They finally told me to send it in for "evaluation," but not to count on any repairs. I got pissed off and decided to fix it myself.

I've had it apart for several years and am just now getting back to repairing it.(My brother keeps asking, "Whatever happened to my J-50?") Once I get all the top cracks and braces re-glued and new binding and pickguard, I am going to have to re-set the neck as the action was too high.

But as I look at this piece-of-crap neck, I'm wondering if I wouldn't be better off just making a good mahogany neck for it? I think it would play, sound and look better. It's not like it has any collectible value and it has never sounded good. The neck has been warped since new and it was impossible to keep in tune.

SO before I get to the neck re-set, what say you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury? Has anybody done this type of transplant on a J-50? Or is it not worth the effort?

[Paul Verticchio]

Hi Bob.

Those 70's Gibby acoustics are some of the worst USA made acoustics ever.  Most mid-50's Harmony's sounded & were built better. Their early 70's Yamaha counterparts kicked their sonic asses at one-sixth the cost.

My gut reaction is to recommend you turn it into a planter box or a wall hanger, but that doesn't seem to coincide with your brother's wishes.  In that case.........

My vote is for a new custom neck.  If he really wants it to sound good after all your hard work, build a new body to attach to the new neck.  You're looking at a ton of work to make a crappy sounding acoustic playable.

As for Gibson's "customer service"........well.......that's Gibson for ya!!!!  Caveat emptor.

Best of luck Bob (-:

[Bob Gaddis]

Looking for a low-cost option, I placed the J-50 fingerboard next to a D-18 fingerboard. It was difficult to detect the tiniest difference in the scale length. I'm wondering if I could use a Stew-Mac Martin style blank and get away with it?

[Mark Pollock]

Would it make sense to try to heat the neck and straighten it? If that didn't work, you could remove the fingerboard, plane the neck straight, and then replace the fingerboard on the neck. Or just remove the frets, plane the fingerboard, and refret.

[Bob Gaddis]

I have the neck out and the fingerboard off. I can flatten the neck, but it is such a piece of crap. The neck is not symmetrical. The lamination on the bass side is thicker than the one on the treble side, so the volute looks off-center to the center lamination. The dovetail is sloppy Each glue joint displays a ridge in the lacquer, although the glue joints are sound. I think the guitar would resonate better with a mahogany neck. Ijust don't want to start from scratch, but finding a pre-profiled blank with a Gibson style headstock(or enough wood to cut one) is not as easy as finding a Martin blank, I'm going to sand the neck on a granite slab and see how it looks. If it's OK, I'll go ahead and use it. If not, I'll probably make a new neck. If my brother was not so fond of this guitar(He thinks it is good because he paid a lot of money for it back in the 70's AND he like Gibson better than Martin. I told him to sell it on ebay and buy a Taylor or something NOT like a Martin), I'd sell it on ebay in  heartbeat as a parts project. I don't want to mess with it and if it was anybody else's, I wouldn't.

[Ned Knepp]

Might be time to teach your brother some repair technique?  ( Sanding is pretty high on my "all time least favorite things to do" list. )  In the mean time, maybe he will start to understand what you already know about this guitar.

[Paul Verticchio]

"I'm going to sand the neck on a granite slab and see how it looks. If it's OK, I'll go ahead and use it".

That's a prudent approach Bob.  When you do this, wait several days before reattaching the FB as this neck probably has decades of "twist memory" stored in its fibers.  It's a probability that the neck will continue to twist after the re-profiling.

Best of luck (:

[William F.Eden]

I would just make a new neck for it and a new fret board .That way you can ajust the board to the neck to get  it back on what ever  scale your new F.board happens to be. And if you ever  have it apart that is the back or top off I would change the top bracing. Any J-50s I ever worked on had a very thin top so be carefull.      just my two cents worth Bill...........

[Bob Gaddis]

I had a car one time and the mechanic told me the best thing I could do is to jack up the radiator cap and put a new car under it....

[Bob Gaddis]

I think this thing is done twisting. With the alternating grain in the laminations, it should not have warped in the first place. Teaching my brother to do repair work would be like teaching a bear cub in boxing gloves to play piano. He has a D-18V and complains that the action is too high and it won't stay in tune. I don't have that problem with it.

Next step is get the binding grooves clean and fit the binding. Then reglue the braces and fix the splits in the top. Then I'll glue the binding, scrape it to fit, wet sand and overspray the sides. Then I'll worry about the neck. I may see if I can get a Stew-Mac neck with an oversized peghead, or buy one and glue some ears on to make a Gibson shape.

When this is done, I still have the Guild 12-string I wrote about a few years back to fabricate a bridge for and re-set the neck. Banjos are a lot easier....

[lonnie james barber]

Hi Bob;do you think your brother would disown you if the guitar accidently caaught on fire and burned up while you went to lunch on day?

[Bob Gaddis]

No. But it would be better to keep on his good side. He does have some appreciable computer and money-management skills. I think I would be better off to build him a custom dreadnaught and use this for kindling. i do like a challenge, though. it will work out OK. I know it will be better than it was before.

[Mark McLean]

Bob

LMI have pre-carved mahogany necks in a Gibson shape:

http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?CategoryName=Neck+Woo...