1969 Gibson Blue Ridge Blue Ridge Natural Brazilian Rosewood

According to George Gruhn’s Guide to Vintage Guitars, the Gibson Blue Ridge is a jumbo-style guitar with a solid spruce top and rosewood back and sides and a mahogany neck. The standard Blue Ridge guitar has a 14/20-fret rosewood finger board with pearl dot inlay, a black pick guard, and full black body binding. It has three-per-side “Gibson Deluxe” nickel tuners and a screened logo on the blackface Gibson headstock. It is clearly designed to represent a rosewood version of the mahogany J-45 guitar, with no frills and no fuss—nothing but the huge sound for which vintage Gibsons have been famous for decades.

However, this is evidently a significantly upgraded edition of the Blue Ridge, starting with the beautifully figured Rosewood of the back and sides. While the instrument’s label is long gone, its embossed serial number (844514) indicates it was probably made in 1969, although Gibson’s serialization is notoriously slippery. Now, in 1965 the Gibson Heritage was introduced with a solid rosewood back and sides, and some of the first ones were solid Brazilian Rosewood. In 1968—the year the Blue Ridge was first officially distributed—the Heritage also began using laminated Rosewood for their guitars. What I believe to have happened is that this Blue Ridge guitar and a few of the Heritage guitars in the transition period of 1966 to 1969 shared in the last of the Brazilian Rosewood supply, which was being stretched by slicing it into sheets of laminates to be parceled out among whatever guitars were in production at the time. Including this one.

I am not really a wood person, but I have not seen the contrasts in color and grain of this guitar’s back and sides in Indian Rosewood, and I know of no Gibson guitar which has used the similarly figured Coral or Jacaranda Rosewood exploited by Kazuo Yairi and others after him—certainly not in the 1960s. While the grain inside the guitar does not match the dramatic figures of the outside, the highly figured outside grain is almost certainly therefore Brazilian Rosewood. Whatever: it looks gorgeous, it sounds great, and you won’t be seeing any more of it from Gibson outside of custom shop instruments costing thousands of dollars more than this one!
The original nickel tuners on this guitar are labeled “Kluson Deluxe,” rather than the “Gibson Deluxe” described as the norm, the headstock is not the blackface veneer described by Gruhn, but obviously solid mahogany. The highly figured rosewood of the fret board also is clearly Brazilian Rosewood, chosen for its beauty. The multi-stripe ivoroid binding is also an obvious upgrade from the plain black of the “working man’s” Blue Ridge. This is a really striking guitar, not because of abalone inlay or cute designs, but because of the careful use of the best materials available. This is essentially a 53-year-old Brazilian Rosewood J-45, which makes it the vintage guitar equivalent of the Indian Rosewood Martin D-28—except this guitar’s Brazilian Rosewood is laminated--and this particular guitar is probably rarer than a D-28, fine though they are.

Structurally, is only some very slight fret and fret board wear visible. The action is too good to be true for a half-century of playing—the original spec 3/32” at the 12th fret low E—with easy adjustments with the working truss rod possible if so desired. Cosmetically, this veteran has almost no nicks or dings in the beautiful rosewood back and sides, but the softer spruce of the top has two carefully repaired cracks, one below the bridge and one below the pick guard. And of course there’s some slight crazing of the finish all over—“to let the sound out,” as my luthier says. The 1 11/16” nut, bridge, and pins look to be original, but the saddle has been upgraded to a compensated bone saddle. And after that half-century of seasoning, this ol’ boy sounds and plays great, truly as full and resonant as I’ve heard in years.

The case is obviously not original, being a deluxe Gator thermoplastic hard shell case rather than the typical Gibson chip board case. The plush scarlet interior is in great shape, the straps to hold the top are intact, and the guitar fits perfectly. It’s an excellent—and very safe, including a key--complement to this fine guitar.

Buyer pays a flat rate of $75 for insurance and shipping to the lower forty-eight states; shipping costs elsewhere will be negotiated as necessary. Payment by Paypal is preferred; cashier’s checks are acceptable, but checks must clear before the guitar will be shipped.

I have tried to be perfectly clear and accurate in describing this vintage instrument and its case, so its return will not be accepted unless it can be shown that it was egregiously misrepresented in this listing. Please check out the pictures and ask any questions you might have before offering to purchase it.

Thank you for your interest in this outstanding and rather rare Gibson guitar.