Gibson Southern Jumbo

For the first 20 years of its existence, the Southern Jumbo - along with its later "sister model", the natural finish SJN or Country Western, introduced in 1956 - possessed a round- or slope-shouldered design, which changed for both models to the more "modern" square-shouldered design (as debuted on the 1960-introduced Hummingbird) in 1962.

[2] The 1960 Gibson catalog listed the (round shouldered) Southern Jumbo at $165.00 (without case), as compared to the "SJN Country Western" at $179.50,[3] with the less deluxe J-50 and J-45 priced at $145.00 and $135.00, respectively;[4] at the same time, the most expensive flat-top guitar in the Gibson line, the J-200N (J-200 in natural finish) was priced at $410.00.

Of the square shouldered version, Whitford, Vinopal & Erlewine write: By far the most desirable of the square-shouldered SJs are those from 1962 to 1968, a period in which their bodies were lightly built, with top bracing wide-spread and set forward.

[6]Back in 1977, Tom and Mary Anne Evans in their book "Guitars - from the Renaissance to Rock" had this to say regarding a 1959, round-shouldered example of a Country Western (essentially a SJ in natural finish): Gibson's fourteen-fret-neck Dreadnought guitars of this vintage were among the most successful ever made.

[12][13] In 2015, Gibson also made a limited run of 65 round shouldered (original style) Southern Jumbos with a 12-fret neck (all other examples being 14-fret) and a larger, "radiused body".