1945 Gibson "Banner" J45 with MAPLE Back and Sides!

"Only a Gibson is good enough" or at least that's what the golden banner on the headstock of most of the guitars that Gibson made during World War II read. This vintage Gibson J-45 was made in 1945 and is one of the nicest preserved examples of the model from this time period that I've seen. Not only that, but it also has a mixture of some of the best features that J-45s were made with during a time when materials restrictions and wartime production caused Gibson to pivot a bit (truss rods are more of the exception than the rule for Banner guitars!).

John:   / truevintageguitar  
Riggs:   / the_riggstaylor  

While most of the J-45 model guitars that Gibson made featured Mahogany back and sides, a select few batches were made with figured Maple instead. Gibson stained the typically bright colored Maple a dark brown presumably to hide the non-standard material. But if you look closely, you can see a beautiful set of ripple flamed rims and a boat load of figure on the back as well.

So many of these great banner era Gibson guitars suffered from poor storage, neglect, and bad repairs since they were made almost 80 years ago. But not this one! This has been stored inside its awesome Canadian export case since new. It came to me from the granddaughter of its original owner in completely unrepaired and unmodified condition.

You can check out the listing for this guitar here: https://truevintageguitar.com/product...

The player and videographer: ‪@RiggsTaylor‬ ! Thanks Riggs!