The SJ From Back in the Day

The allure and legend of the Gibson Southern Jumbo lives on in the GIBSON Custom Shop Murphy Lab Acoustic Collection 1942 Banner Southern Jumbo (CSRSSJVSLA). Inspired by the holy grail of vintage acoustic instruments, luthiers in Montana meticulously crafted a Southern Jumbo just like the most popular and celebrated version in structure and components.

Gibson introduced the Southern Jumbo also known as the Southerner Jumbo or SJ guitar in 1942, as a Deluxe version of its popular J-45 model. It featured a sunburst Spruce top, Mahogany back and sides (a few rare early examples had Rosewood back and sides, or Rosewood sides only), Rosewood bridge and fingerboard, with Gibson's "deluxe" split parallelogram pearl inlays.

The 1942 Banner Southern Jumbo includes a Thermally Aged Adirondack red spruce top hand-sprayed with a historic-style burst, hot hide glue top bracing for better tonal response, and a bone nut and saddle.
"Thermally-aged" is a special high temperature drying process which is commonly known as "baking" or "torrefaction". It makes the woods light and hard and provides stability and better resonance.

The GIBSON Custom Shop Murphy Lab Acoustic Collection 1942 Banner Southern Jumbo (CSRSSJVSLA) acoustic guitar belongs to the Tom Murphy's Lab collection.
It is not just a tribute to the priceless original models -- it's a clone of them. From laser-scanned dimensions to chemically-recreated plastics to color-matched shades of sunburst, every element has been rendered in unbelievable detail.
It represents the culmination of decades of work by Custom Shop's expert team -- a tireless quest to bring accuracy and authenticity to the hands of fans.

Instruments built in Murphy Lab department are ultra accurate recreations of iconic Gibson models, that perfectly mimics the broken-in feel of Gibson from the Golden Era.
For 25 years, Tom Murphy has been replicating the vibe and character of vintage guitars. In partnership with the master luthier, Gibson scienfically reverse-engineered the original imperfect and brittle 1950/60s Gibson lacquer which was causing checks under the finish.

Every Murphy Lab aged creation takes a completely separate path through the Custom Shop, receiving the Murphy Lab special lacquer formula and hand-applied Murphy Lab techniques. Each Murphy Lab artisan has been trained by Tom Murphy to become an aging expert.

Specifications

Neck

• Profile: C
• Scale Length: 628.65 mm / 24.75 in
• Fingerboard Material: Rosewood
• Fingerboard Radius: 304.8 mm / 12 in
• Fret Count: 19
• Frets: Legend Wire
• Nut Material: Bone
• Nut Width: 44.95 mm / 1.769 in
• Inlays: Mother-of-pearl Parallelograms
• Joint: Compound Dovetail Neck-to-body

Body

• Body Style: Round Shoulder
• Body Shape: J-45
• Top: Thermally Aged Red Spruce
• Back: Rosewood
• Side: Rosewood
• Bracing: Traditional Hand-scalloped X-bracing, Red Spruce Braces with Hide Glue
• Binding: Multi-ply Top and Back
• Body Finish: Thin Finish Nitrocellulose, VOS

Hardware

• Bridge: Belly Down, open slot
• Saddle Material: Bone
• Tuning Machines: Open back cream button
• Pickguard: Tear Drop
• Truss Rod Cover: Black
• Bridge Pins: Bone

Miscellaneous

• Strings Gauge: 0.053, 0.042, 0.032, 0.024, 0.016, 0.012 (Included)