❌SOLD❌ Gibson Country Western SJN Acoustic, 1957

The Gibson Country Western began its life as the SJN, or Southern Jumbo Natural finish, in 1956 and was quickly renamed. The SJ itself first appeared in 1942 and replaced the J-55 built from 1939 to 1942. As one might suspect, this model was targeted towards the Southern American States, especially those south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Using the proven round-shoulder Dreadnought – or Jumbo, to differentiate Martin and Gibson names – the Country Western or SJ featured a Spruce top paired with Mahogany for the sides, back, neck, body blocks and back bracing with Rosewood for the bridge and bound fingerboard. In 1957, this would have been sourced as Brazilian Rosewood.

At this time, the bridge is a traditional wooden piece with insert saddle.   A few years later, Gibson replaced this with an adjustable bridge,  still with the two positioning bolts hidden under the Mother of Pearl dots at the ends of the bridge pin hole line. 

As a ‘fancier’ model, the position markers are split parallelograms, and the Gibson headstock logo is Mother of Pearl. The unique oval label has a rope border suggesting a lasso, and reads ‘Gibson Country Western Model’ with no ‘made in’ notations.   

This example dates to 1957 and is in good all original and playable condition. It has lots of honest play wear. Fret wear is moderate to heavy, particularly in the low positions – the guitar is presently 62 years old! The greatest amount of wear is to the top, which has a fair amount of pick abrasion. There is a glued crack right next to the treble side of the fingerboard tag, and a splinted crack one on the bass side of the soundhole.

This is a lovely guitar to sit and play – it has that warm, rich Gibson round-shoulder tone. It is quite playable as is, and has the look and feel of a vintage piece.

The original hard shell case is included.