GENERATION GAMES THE STORY OF GIBSON’S GENERATION COLLECTION

One of the joys of taking the helm of a heritage brand such as Gibson must be having unfettered access to the company archive, which in this case extends back as far as the late 19th century. Imagine the sense of wonder, then, that came with the discovery of a blueprint in the Gibson vaults from 1964 illustrating what was, for the time, a startlingly innovative approach to acoustic guitar making.

Labelled the Modern J-45, the blueprint depicts the familiar outline of Gibson’s iconic slope-shoulder jumbo but with some surprising additional features – most notably a large, circular soundhole in the lower side of the guitar. Rather like fanned frets and body bevels, soundports have been a not uncommon sight in modern luthier-made acoustic guitars since the late 1990s. But this is Gibson – in 1964!

From that initial spark of inspiration provided by the Modern J-45 design came