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the hunt for the right acoustic guitar... (long story)


brynte5

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Hi to everybody!

 

This is my very first post in this forum, so i just wanted to share the story of me and my first acoustic Gibson!

This post unfortunately means i´ll be stepping on some toes, but this is all imho and I guess most forum members here, know that each guitar is unique and 2 guitars of even the exact same model, can differ quite a lot regarding how they sound!

 

I used to play a takamine 523ec and was actually quite content with that guitar and the sound of it, so I hadn´t even considered buying a new guitar!

Actually I still have it, but i´m probably going to sell it!

I do own a Gibson les paul studio though and I guess I like to talk about it when i´ve had far too many pina coladas, so some people actually call me Gibson!

 

One day, maybe 2-4 weeks ago, I happened to see a new video on my facebook news feed, showing off 2 new (for me anyway) Gibson models!

They were advertising the hummingbird pro (with and without cutaway) and my initial thoughts, watching that video, were that they sounded fantastic, were very beautiful and also the price was set so low that I insantly started googling and youtubing Gibson acoustics for more info!

I found out about all the other awesome Gibson acoustic models, listened to soundclips, watched a ton of videos and read a lot about them!

In short, I guess I kind of did my research properly!

 

After a short while, I discussed my new and sudden interest for Gibson acoustic guitars with a friend of mine and he offered to join me for a trip to the city to try out all guitars of interest that was available!

The days before the trip, I made a list of guitars I wanted to play and their prices at different stores!

It was a list of about 10-15 different guitars!

All of them were made by Gibson!

Not that it had to be a Gibson, but it just turned out that way, watching comparisons of gibsons vs martins and taylors and imho Gibson won the fights almost every single time!

But even though I was primarily looking for a Gibson, if I had played another brand that sounded better, I probably would have bought that instead!

I just wanted to find the best sounding guitar for my budget, whatever brand or guitar that happened to be!

we played the following guitars that day (from memory, so we actually played some more models):

 

GIBSON

* Hummingbird pro

* J-45 standard

* j-45 true vintage (wine red)

* hummingbird ebony (black)

* dwight yoakam honky tonk deuce

* songwriter standard

* songwriter (black) with cutaway

* Sheryl crow standard

* Sheryl crow custom

* j-200 standard

* j-200 custom

* j-160 “lennon” (used)

* five star southern jumbo

* j-180 ec (used)

 

MARTIN

* john mayer signature

* eric Clapton signature (used)

* and some other different models made by martin that were somewhere around my budget, but unfortunately I don´t know the names of them!

 

TAYLOR

* some different models made by taylor that were somewhere around my budget, but unfortunately I don´t know the names of them!

 

 

after playing most of these guitars, the ones still standing were:

 

* j-45 true vintage (wine red)

* dwight yoakam honky tonk deuce

* hummingbird ebony (black)

* j-200 custom

* five star southern jumbo

 

 

we left the store and went to 2 other stores and played the remaining guitars on the list, but realised that the first store was by far the best one, for what I was looking for!

So we went back again for round 2 and played the ones still standing!

 

After this round, the ones still standing were:

 

* j-45 true vintage (wine red)

* hummingbird ebony (black)

* dwight yoakam honky tonk deuce

 

 

it was getting harder to choose between those 3 guitars, but pretty soon, only 2 guitars were still standing:

 

* hummingbird ebony (black)

* dwight yoakam honky tonk deuce

 

We played and compared these 2 remaining guitars for quite a while, back and forth...

In reality I knew from the first visit to that store and from the first chord played, which guitar was superior in sound, but it wasn´t the guitar I wanted to win, so I tried to convince myself that I was wrong, but no matter how hard I tried, everytime I played one of those guitars, I knew it sounded the best!

So... out of all of those guitars we played that day, no matter the price and no matter the brand, the best sounding guitar of them all, was actually and to my huge surprise, the Gibson dwight yoakam honky tonk deuce!

I really wanted the hummingbird to win, because I thought it had a better look and after hearing/ watching/reading about the huge success of that guitar, it felt like more of a safe bet and I knew nothing about the dwight yoakam honky tonk deuce, but the difference in sound was obvious to both of us and that is obviously what matters the most regarding an acoustic guitar!

There was absolutely no doubt that this guitar sounded the best!

(Well, actually we played a j-200 custom that probably sounded even better, but the price was more than twice as much so that was not an option)

It was also clearly louder, compared to the hummingbird and every time I listened to my friend playing them, I noticed that the honky tonk deuce sounded both better and louder!

 

One thing I noticed about most of the Gibson acoustics, was that the pick guards on most (if not all) of them, were more or less loose!

We asked about that and the reply was that all of gibsons pick guards get loose during the winter!

I live in sweden and we get pretty cold winters and the humidity gets low, so to protect the guitars from that, they use humidifiers and I guess that causes the glue to loose its grip!?

I don´t like that , but I guess I could apply some new glue, if needed!?

Actually I wouldn´t mind changing the pick guard anyway...

 

Another thing that I don´t like, is the sound of the LR Baggs Element Active Acoustic Guitar Pickup and Preamp System, included in this guitar!

miced up it sounds really beautiful, but lined in it sounds pretty cheap imho and very far from the beautiful sound I get miced up!

i´m going to check out other mic systems, so I can hopefully make it sound just as awesome lined in!

 

I changed the strings on it when we got home!

i´ve used elixirs for a couple of years and really like them, but this time I decided to try something new, so I put on a set of martin sp cleartone strings, 0.12!

the guitar sounds truly wonderful with those strings on!

 

regards from a new and very happy gibson acoustic owner!

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Very enjoyable post...!!

 

IMO there are few pleasures in life greater than shopping for guitars... [thumbup]

 

All brands mentioned and more are capable of satisfying the tonal wishes of players various...

 

Personally moi does not possess any Gibson acoustics...though some Gibson electrics... [thumbup]

 

For live work, easy to plug in and get workable sounds...

 

Ovation, Takamine, Taylor, Breedlove, Guild, Yamaha...each have quality and VFM to suit all budgets...

 

Enjoy your Gibson acoustic...

 

What we would like now is

 

A sound clip... [biggrin]

 

V

 

:-({|=

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Yeah , a sound Clip would be excellent. And maybe a few pictures. We all like pictures

 

Congratulations on finally getting a Gibson acoustic. All the coolest people play them ya know.

 

Oh yeah. And the pickguards loose ? Not a common thing like the shop guy said . at least , you're the first one in here that's mentioned that scenario. Some have pointed out that they are shipped not fitted these days to give the new owner the chance to fit them in the correct (in the players mind) position. Maybe its something to do with that ? But surely then the shop guy would've explained that. Strange for sure

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Congrats on the new guitar. Get us some pics and sound files if possible........Never heard of or experienced Gibson (or any other pick guards) that get loose in the winter). Don't know where your sales dude acquired that information...............I hope your new guitar is everything you need it to be. [thumbup]

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some of these sales guys a cluless aint they

 

The main acoustic guy in Guitar Guitar in Newcastle told me you only get book matched tops by accident..he said the lutheirs assistant goes for the tops and by accident they might match..

 

I left the store shortly afterwards ! :)

 

may start a new thread with the most ridiculous things told by guitar sales people ?.. could be a good un

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Hello. Glad you found one you liked. Actually if you put aside the Dwight Yoakam endorsement, you've actually bought a style of Gibson which has even more success historically than the Hummingbird. The round shoulder jumbos have been going strong since the 1930s, while the square shoulder Gibsons started up in the 1960s. So I wouldn't be surprised that it sounded good. The question is whether you've in fact discovered that you like the sound of slope shoulder Gibsons more than square shoulder ones, or whether it's just this particular one which you like. Six of your original list were slopers - more represented than any other group. Your short list of 5 has 3 slope shoulders, and 2 of your top 3 have them. Could a pattern be emerging? In any case, for all that both styles get a lot of love here, you have bought the one which most here would consider the better all-rounder.

 

As for replacing the Baggs, you'll get a huge variety of advice here. I would say, though, that I'm not convinced that any direct pick-up system will ever sound exactly like a miked instrument. And nothing sounds the same through speakers as it does in the flesh. What does your Takamine have installed?

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Congrats.

 

I don't think I have played that many guitars in the past 50 years. I tell you though in the circles I travel with that John Mayer Martin is getting a whole lot of attention. Not that any of us have played one but it seems to be high on a lot of folks lists of guitars to get their hands on.

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Regarding the bags element. I have about 8 amps and the only ones my Gibson acoustic sound nice through is a Fishman 220 tower or...Fender twin reverb tube amp.

 

I f you have a tube amp just for kicks plug into it, turn down every knob and work with the volume, slowly turning up reverb lows, trems, etc until you get a sound you like (clear and clean no effects)

 

Ultimately purely miked though is best.

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Brynte5,

 

Congratulations on your new guitar. Next time you go to buy another invite us along: it's fun to watch someone else spends lots of money.

 

As to the pickguard, there was a thread on that about a month ago. Basically, a solid wood guitar top expands with high humidity and contracts with low humidity (they're built at around 50 percent humidity). Too much of either and the pickguard can come loose. But that beats the alternative of using a really strong glue and having the pickguard stay and crack your top. So if you have problems, best to take it to a luthier you trust (Gibson authorized if there is one in Sweden) and have him/her reattach it.

 

Hope you enjoy your guitar.

 

Now where are the pictures and clips?

 

FMA

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Del Nilppeznaf

 

thanx:-)

well, we spent pretty much all of that day playing those guitars back and forth and one of the stores had almost all of them hanging in a room dedicated to only acoustics, so that helped speeding things up a lot, having them at one place!

and several of those guitars on the list were eliminated after just about a couple of minutes or so of playing them, because it was obvious right away that they weren´t as good as one of the previously played guitars!

 

they actually have a store in gothenburg, that had all the guitars on my list, except for the two used ones, so that was very conveniant;-)

 

actually they also had the j-35 in the store, but unfortunately i didn´t play it for some weird reason!

i guess i should have, considering all the nice reviews it´s getting...

i did however play another model of the hummingbird, that cost about $500 more than the hummingbird ebony...

to my huge surprise it sounded aweful though and was definately not an option!

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Versatile

 

thanx:-)

yeah, that was a very nice day, indeed:-)

it´s fun to just look around for guitars and stuff, but those rare times when you´re actually serious about buying, it´s really something special:-)

 

i´ll see if i can manage to record something in a few days...

do you guys prefer it untouched or mixed, if/ when i do upload a clip?

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blindboygrunt

 

yeah ok, a soundclip might take some time, but some pics should be up within a couple of days, hopefully!

a lot of work right now, so not that much time...

 

thanx:-)

ok..., so i guess i´m one of those people now, huh;-)

 

the pick guards on all (i think) the gibsons were more or less loose and they all seemed to be fitted properly...

i got lucky with my guitar though, because only a little bit of an edge i loose, so not that big of a deal, but it gave the impression of bad quality, since this was happening to all and not just one of the guitars...

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Mojorule

 

thanx:-)

 

and thanx again for that interesting info!

didn´t know that!

i read something about it being modeled after the j-160...!?

 

about slope shoulder vs square shoulder models, that is interesting, but i honestly have no idea!

you could definately be on to something, but i´ve actually never thought about that at all!

 

the takamine has TK40 three-band preamp installed!

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Mojorule

 

thanx:-)

 

and thanx again for that interesting info!

didn´t know that!

i read something about it being modeled after the j-160...!?

 

about slope shoulder vs square shoulder models, that is interesting, but i honestly have no idea!

you could definately be on to something, but i´ve actually never thought about that at all!

 

the takamine has TK40 three-band preamp installed!

 

Well I learned something about the Deuce from MOP, as I hadn't realized it is a rosewood guitar. To be honest that might also be the key thing you prefer in this case. Lots of factors to consider. Anyway, as a rosewood SJ, in one respect, it actually comes closest in the current range to the first ever SJs from 1943. The original Jumbo, Trojan and J35 models from the 1930s were mahogany, as were the first J45s from 1942.

 

I take it you like the amped sound of the Takamine.

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zombywoof

 

thanx:-)

well, it was a pretty busy day;-)

 

what i can tell you about the john mayer guitar is that, first of all, the strings on it were really bad when i played it!

actually my friend was/ is interested in that guitar, but when he gave it to me, i played it for maybe just about 1 minute, but actually i only needed about 10 seconds before we both knew that guitar wasn´t right for me!

it was out of my budget anyway, so it was never really an option, but the sound was nothing compared to most of the gibsons i played that day and some other martin models also sounded better to me!

BUT this is just me and my style of playing the guitar!

i think john mayer is great and that guitar is probably great for his kind of playing style (fingerpicking), but i´m not very good at playing and i do mostly simple strumming with no pick and for what i was looking for, it just wasn´t right and i would have had the exact same opinion, if it had been within my budget!

i did play another signature that i think also was made by martin, that i liked a lot more than john mayer, but still definately not good enough (for me) to be an option and that was eric clapton!

they had a used one, that actually was within my budget, but like i said it didn´t sound good enough for how i play!

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E-minor7

 

thanx, hehe;-)

 

it´s getting late here and i´m really tired, so unfortunately i´ll have to make this short and just give you the links to that info!

i hope that´s ok with you!?

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/gibson-dwight-yoakam-honky-tonk-deuce-acoustic-electric-guitar/580344000017000

 

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Acoustic-Instruments/Round-Shoulder/Gibson-Acoustic/Traditional-Southern-Jumbo.aspx

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Motherofpearl

 

i hope you get the chance to experience that, some day!

 

thanx:-)

my ears and my friend guided me in the right direction;-)

 

cool!

to be honest though..., i had actually never heard of him, before i saw this guitar...;-)

did you go?

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