Now, I know that most of my posts are about guns, but I hope you gun guys will stay with me for just a few minutes. Because we kick ourselves just as much over guitars that we’ve let get away as we do for guns that we never should have turned loose of.

Gibson Guitars has been building the J-45 Dreadnought guitar since the 1930s. It got the “45” designation because it sold for $45 back then (they cost somewhat more today). It is designated a slope-shouldered dreadnought that was built with a solid spruce top and solid mahogany back and sides. Over all these years the J-45 has been Gibson’s bread & butter guitar and they’ve sold a bunch of them.

But, back about 2000, Gibson decided to offer the guitar with solid rosewood back and sides along with a factory installed pickup. One of my readers was kind enough to use his influence with Gibson to have this guitar, one of the first ones built, sent to me. It’s what we call a cannon, with a tone and sound to die for.

A few years back (2008, as best I can remember) I got to longing for a Martin D35 dreadnought guitar. It’s a great guitar and is the one pictured on the cover of my West Of Somewhere album. The stupid thing was that I traded this Gibson J-45 in on it. Does that sound familiar to you gun traders?

The good news is that the J-45 was immediately purchased by our county constable, and my good friend, Henry Ogletree. Henry takes better care of guitars than most people would a trophy wife. And, just a few weeks ago, he was kind enough to sell it back to me. And, just to show that I am not entirely stupid, I’ve still got the Martin D35.

I am so pleased for this Gibson J-45 to have come back home that I think it will be my primary guitar on my little mini-tour through New Mexico and Arizona in June. You can get the dates and locations for my shows off of my Performance page on this web site. If you’re in the area, I hope you will stop by and say hello. Me and Mr. Gibson will do our best to entertain you.