Left Handed Gibson J-50 Natural 1953 - restored guitar - lefty LH J45

here's an interesting guitar. It is a 1953 Gibson J45? J50? Hard to say, because it was partially stripped by the previous owner. It was a project guitar when I found it. There were some badly done "repairs" to the top which included some sort of caulking or glue. Photo 3 and 4 show what it looked like when I got it. No bridge. No nut. No tuners. Some loose braces. But OLD WOOD and it is a Gibson! I knew it had good bones.

NOTE: this is a right-handed guitar that I had converted to Lefty. it could easily be swapped back:)

Fretboard looks to be Brazilian RW.

So I took it to Steve Beckwith in Grafton Mass. Steve is the proprietor of Beckwith Strings. He is a luthier who has build over 50 guitars and does all manner of repair work. 

This is what Steve did.

• repair loose braces
• routed out 3 poorly repaired top cracks; set in color and grain matching spruce
• remove remaining finish, sand and prep for finish. refinish with clear nitrocellulose laquer. buff and polish.
• fabricate left hand bridge
• fabricate left hand polished bone nut
• install new tuning machines. widen peg holes.Gohoh Vintage tuners.
• D'Addario Light Strings

So after all that work, we now have a left handed 1953 Gibson ready to play! I added a vintage style pickguard from Terrapin. You can see it in photos #1 and 2.

The guitar sounds great! Well balanced, with the classic old Gibson sound. 65 years of aging!

I'll include the old plastic case this guitar came with for protection.