Historic Hardware: Gibson J-200

We take a look at Gibson’s ‘king of the flat-tops’ with Walter Carter, author of the spec check bible Gruhn’s Guide To Vintage Guitars and proprietor of Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville, Tennessee

Beginning life as a custom order instrument, the guitar that later became known as the Gibson J-200 was born into the Hollywood limelight in 1937 against a backdrop of Western films and country music. An icon of Gibson’s status and heritage for over 80 years, its flamboyant, larger-than-life design also made it the ultimate statement guitar for those icons of the silver screen whose hands it originally appeared in.

“The ‘singing cowboy’ movie star Ray Whitley is always credited as being the first to own [a J-200],” begins world renowned vintage guitar expert Walter Carter. “They sort of became a badge of recognition for country singers. Others, like Gene Autry, followed. Gene also had the first Martin D-45, which is another very fancy flat-top.”

Following Ray Whitley’s initial collaboration with Gibson, similar prototype guitars that followed were labelled as ‘L-5 Spec.’ and these were available as custom orders only. In 1938, the instrument entered production as the Super Jumbo and it was renamed Super Jumbo 200 the following year (hence the SJ-200 moniker) as an indication of its $200 retail value. In the late 1940s, the model name was shortened to J-200, although it was often still labelled as the SJ-200 well into the 1950s.

The earliest examples have a scale length of 26 inches and measure 16 inches in width, while regular production Super Jumbo 200 models and onwards share the same 25¹/2-inch scale length and 17-inch body width as Gibson’s ‘Advanced’ L-5 archtops.

“The original ‘L-5 Spec.’ label was short for L-5 Special. In Gibson’s mind, from an engineering point of view, they were just making a flat-top L-5,” explains Walter. “The body shape of the J-200 is pretty much the same as the early Orville Gibson guitars, or Gibson archtops with the rounded, circular lower bout. It’s quite different from the evolution of Martin flat-tops, which at that time had emerged as the Dreadnought with a thick waist and squarish body.

“There were three main factors that initially led to the development of the J-200: one, there was a market among the Hollywood cowboy movie stars; two, was the perceived need to blow the competition out of the water with an over-the-top guitar; and three, there was generally a move to larger guitars. Gibson had been competing head to head with Martin Dreadnoughts since 1934 with the Jumbo, followed by the J-35 and the Advanced Jumbo [in 1936]. That’s what Gibson used to enter the war of big guitars. At the same time, in the archtop arena, Epiphone had challenged Gibson with bigger models [in its Masterbilt range], which led to Gibson’s 18-inches-wide Super 400 [in 1935].”

Moving To Maple

In 1941, the L-5-style pointed fingerboard material changed from ebony to rosewood, and in 1942 the guitar’s double X-bracing was superseded by a lighter single X-braced design. Perhaps the most significant design alteration occurred in 1947, however, when the tonewood used for the J-200’s back and sides changed from rosewood to maple.

“The war changed a lot of things for Gibson,” says Walter, “and the switch from rosewood to maple could’ve had something to do with wood supplies. It also may well have been something to do with Gibson tradition. They’re not as rooted in rosewood guitars as Martin and maybe Gibson figured that making flat-tops out of maple would be another way to distinguish themselves from them. It’s also possible they realised

“There was a market among the Hollywood cowboy movie stars… which [in part] led to the development of the J-200”