Vintage Acoustic Guitar

Here’s a guitar you won’t see every day. And it has a sound
you can’t hear from any other Gibson model. You’ll recognize that vintage
Gibson voice, but this one has a fuller, more resonant sound than a normal
square-shouldered jumbo from the same era.

Gibson introduced the FJ-N (FJN) in 1963 and produced them
until 1967, but according to Gibson’s Fabulous Flat-Top Guitars only
about 600 were made. I think that qualifies this as a rare guitar. The serial
number dates it as 1964. The model name FJ-N stands for Folksinger, Jumbo,
Natural top.

This guitar is braced more lightly than a J-45 or Southern
Jumbo because it was intended to work with either nylon or steel strings. I’ve
never tried it with nylon strings, but it sounds great with light steel
strings. The sound is really enhanced by the 12-fret neck, which pushes the
bridge deeper into the lower bout. And, unlike other Gibson jumbos of the time,
this doesn’t have an adjustable saddle.

The back and sides are mahogany. The top is spruce. The neck
is mahogany and the fingerboard and bridge are rosewood. I believe that
everything’s original on this guitar except the bridge pins and saddle. The big
white “flamenco-style” pickguards are original. It was part of the “folk” look.
The nickel-plated deluxe tuners are original as well.

The neck joins the body at the 12th fret and the
fingerboard is 2” wide at the nut and flat, like a classical guitar. The neck
has a flat oval contour to it, though, so it doesn’t feel anywhere as big as a
classical neck. It feels really comfortable. The position markers are double
parallelogram mother-of-pearl.

This guitar is structurally sound, but it tends to show its
age. The top shows a lot of finish crazing and there are lots of little dings
and about four spots of more significant damage to the finish. The back has
some buckle rash and, again, several little dings.  As you can see from the pictures, there are two places on the
sides (one on the top, one on the bottom) where the finish is worn clear
through to the wood. (It’s anyone’s guess how that happened.) On the back of
the neck, there is a ¼” by ½” chip in the finish in the areaof the 8th
fret and another much smaller one behind the 6th fret.

The action on this guitar is comfortable. The low E string
is 7/64” at the 12th fret and the high E is 6/64”. The bridge is
perpendicular to the strings, like a classical guitar, not compensated like
most steel string ones. I suppose this affects the intonation, but I can’t hear
any problems. To be honest, I think the bridge may have been shaved down a bit
at some time in the past, but I might be wrong. It has the two screws typical
of so many Gibsons, and I think it would be pretty hard to work around them.

This is a fun finger-style guitar or a fabulous boom-clutch,
boom-clutch rhythm guitar. You’ll absolutely love the sound of it.

It comes with a vintage Gibson hard case that I’m pretty
sure isn’t original. (Most Gibsons were sold with a chipboard case in 1964.)
The case shows a little wear, but it’s in good shape. All the latches work.

Please feel free to ask any questions you have. I’ll answer
to the best of my ability. This is a standard NO RESERVE auction. I’ll start
low and see what price the guitar will bring.