What would you pay for an early 70's players grade Gibson J-45?

lovestrat74

Looking to see what the "going rate" for one of these would be...

Andy79

Depends on what players grade means in this particular case. £850-1000 Less if you can squeeze it. That’s not necessarily the ‘going rate’
  
Theres some insane prices for these out there at the moment. Utterly insane. I’m also not entirely sure why anyone would want one at 2k+ must be for the headstock logo only 

lovestrat74

Andy79 said:

Depends on what players grade means in this particular case. £850-1000 Less if you can squeeze it. That’s not necessarily the ‘going rate’
  
Theres some insane prices for these out there at the moment. Utterly insane. I’m also not entirely sure why anyone would want one at 2k+ must be for the headstock logo only 

Thanks Andy  

earwighoney

I'd rather get a Eastman E10SS if I had a grand or so for a J45 style guitar.

ICBM

Andy79 said:

  
Theres some insane prices for these out there at the moment. Utterly insane. I’m also not entirely sure why anyone would want one at 2k+ must be for the headstock logo only 

The cult of old things over good things.

You can buy a second hand modern Gibson of almost any model for less, and nine times out of ten it will be a better guitar.

Lewy

If you could get one cheap it could make a cool plugged-in stage guitar but they are so heavily braced that they're not really anything special acoustically. 

I believe they also have some repair issues relating to the bridge-plate because for some reason they braced all around there too making it very difficult to get at but @ICBM will know more about that than I.

ICBM

Lewy said:

If you could get one cheap it could make a cool plugged-in stage guitar but they are so heavily braced that they're not really anything special acoustically. 

I believe they also have some repair issues relating to the bridge-plate because for some reason they braced all around there too making it very difficult to get at but @ICBM will know more about that than I.

I haven't had to work on the inside of a 70s one personally, but that's correct - the bridgeplate fills the space between the braces, which makes it strong but also very difficult to replace since you can't get at the edges of it. And apparently still not strong enough, even when combined with heavy bracing, to stop the top bellying...

http://www.learn-guitarsetups.com/articles/gibson-j45-bridge-replacement-with-jld-bridge-dr-install

p90fool

I borrowed a '72-ish one once thinking it would be ideal for a studio project, but in all honesty it was just a beach guitar. 

RonnieHotdogs

My Red Lines for used acoustics 

What's the action like?
Does the truss rod work?
How much saddle is left? 
How flat it the top, does it have any belly bulge?

Andy79

Just ran through a few of mine...

Awful
No idea or there isn’t one
Not much 
Wasn't it built that way?

On a serious note if it’s a 70s Jumbo with double X bracing the top is unlikely to shift, even when being played