❌ SOLD❌ Gibson 1942 Banner J-45, Vintage Sunburst Limited Edition

We get to play a lot of different guitars and once in a while there’s something truly exceptional, like this brand new Gibson 1942 Banner J-45, Vintage Sunburst Limited Edition.

The Gibson 1942 Banner J-45 reproduces in as many ways as possible the initial 1942 models. I have to say that Gibson’s done a fantastic job in designing and building this guitar. It’s very light, as the originals were, and uses thermally aged Adirondack Spruce for the top, and Mahogany for the rest of the guitar, except for the Indian Rosewood bridge and Fingerboard. This model does have a truss rod; from time to time during the war, Gibson would run out of the steel rod, and some of their guitars from the era didn’t get them.

The finish on the Gibson 1942 Banner J-45 is a Vintage Sunburst, which is fairly dark – the original intent was that this helped hide visual flaws in the top woods. Gibson specifies this finish as “Thin Finish Nitrocellulose, VOS” and it is not exactly like a modern production finish. It is very thin, with very little finish applied. There is so little finish applied that it can’t really be level-sanded and buffed to gloss, like the 1942 originals. It’s a little jarring to see it on a high end instrument, but it is historically authentic. And then there’s the sound.

So we have here a Gibson 1942 Banner J-45, built at the Gibson Acoustic shop in beautiful Bozeman, Montana. This is hands down just a fantastic guitar, easily one of the best new acoustics we have heard. The sound is complete, with a huge dynamic range, sparkling highs, deep lows and all the mids in between.

If you’ve wanted a Banner J-45, or just a really good J-45, you should check out this Gibson 1942 Banner J-45.

The original Gibson hard shell case is included.

The early 1940s models were the last guitars built using Adirondack or Red Spruce. Very quickly, aircraft production took all of the available Spruce; Adirondack is slightly stronger than Sitka and was preferred for airframes. It has taken half a century for stands of Adirondack trees to grow large enough to support guitar-sized sections. Still fairly scarce and expensive, it is now mostly found on higher end models and is often thermally aged – every manufacturer has their own name for the process. Martin refers to it as VTS.

The J-45 was a new model in 1942 and replaced several other designs as wartime pressures began to cause materiel scarcity. During WW2, Gibson used a distinctive ‘Banner’ logo, with the banner reading ‘Only A Gibson is Good Enough’. Virtually all of the production staff were women.  There is an excellent book on this subject, ‘Kalamazoo Gals’ by John Thomas.