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64 J-200


rhythmman

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I have a 64 j-200 with the adjustable bridge. I've had it since grade school & am now in my 40's. It went to college with me & numerous hayrides, campfires, etc. She is still in pretty good shape. The original owner had a sound hole pu in it & drilled a hole in the lower bout for the jack.

 

I'd like to either sell it or fix it up. The tone is terrible. My son's cheap Yamaha has more projection. With the hole in it is it still worth anything? Should I spend some money to make it a player?

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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I have a 64 j-200 with the adjustable bridge. I've had it since grade school & am now in my 40's. It went to college with me & numerous hayrides, campfires, etc. She is still in pretty good shape. The original owner had a sound hole pu in it & drilled a hole in the lower bout for the jack.

 

I'd like to either sell it or fix it up. The tone is terrible. My son's cheap Yamaha has more projection. With the hole in it is it still worth anything? Should I spend some money to make it a player?

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

A '64 J-200 still may have a lot more value than you might think, R-man. Even with the ADJ bridge. I would try to get that guitar to a good Gibson repairperson and have it evaluated for potential improvements to the sound output -- it may be not just the bridge. I have played some early/mid-'60s J-200s with the ADJ bridge and the ceramic tune-o-matic deal, and surprisingly they sounded pretty good even with all that stuff in 'em.

 

So if you can locate a nearby guitar repairer who has solid experience with Gibsons, I would go that route first.

 

The input jack hole could always be plugged -- that's not a big deal.

 

Where are you located? Perhaps some suggestions of who to take it to can be listed, once we know where you are.

 

Fred

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I have a 64 j-200 with the adjustable bridge. I've had it since grade school & am now in my 40's. It went to college with me & numerous hayrides, campfires, etc. She is still in pretty good shape.

Great !

 

The tone is terrible.

My son's cheap Yamaha has more projection.

Haha he. . .

 

 

The original owner had a sound hole pu in it & drilled a hole in the lower bout for the jack. I'd like to either sell it or fix it up. With the hole in it is it still worth anything? Should I spend some money to make it a player?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Listen to J-1854M - and treat that babe with care from now on. . .

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In my opinion, the jack should be left in the hole whether or not it's connected. I've never seen a repaired jack hole that looked any better than it did when the jack was still in it. Just my .02.

 

As for the tone, I wonder if that big ol' extra brace is still in the guitar? You may find a surprise in there underneath the bridge plate if you take a cell phone and a flashlight to look inside. That extra brace can be removed easily by unscrewing that hex bolt. It's also possible that there are some loose braces that are causing the weak projection.

 

 

I'd like a crack at that J-200 if you decide to sell. There's a link in my signature.

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Hi Rythm

 

I own a 68 J 200 and when purchased sounded as crappy as your 64.Here what I had to do to make mine a really good sounding guitar:

 

1) Got rid of the adjustable bridge

 

2) Got rid of the stupid hex bolt found inside just below the sound hole

 

3) Had this done by a fine luthier plus a complete set up including nut, saddle & pins

and needed refret job.

 

 

Advice: Unless you are willing to spend some serious money to have your J 200 really

reworked right to have it sounds really good, leave it as original as possible

(it will still sound crappy) and sell it for good money which it should bring unless its a total beater.

 

Regards,

 

Moose

 

P.S. Talk about heavy-A baby grand piano couldn't weigh more than my J 200

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Here s a dumb question for you. Does the guitar still have that big old nasty brace screwed to the top?

 

Zomb, are you referring to the one tv-guit already mentioned ?

 

No matter what I would like to see those/that not-needed-brace.

 

Obviously not the popsicle thing. .

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks everyone.

 

I live close to St. Louis. I know of killer vintage. Their amp tech is Obeid Kahn. Pretty good credentials.

 

I'll try to get a pic up but I just have my phone. Not much of a computer guy.

 

Yes the big brace & screw or nut & bolt are still in there. Always been scared to take it out.

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Zomb, are you referring to the one tv-guit already mentioned ?

 

No matter what I would like to see those/that not-needed-brace.

 

Obviously not the popsicle thing. .

 

We are talking about the same thing.

 

This is a floating brace running down the center of the top that is attached by a bolt. Gibson started putting these in the J-200 in 1961. I am a bit foggy on it but I want to say there are two varieties - a long one and a shorter one that is down toward the lower bout more. While you will hear this or that described as a "tone killer," these braces are at the top of the heap. They just kill off the vibration and muffle the top. If it is in there they are easy to remove and from the number of folks I have known who have done it your top will be just fine. There is a ton of top bracing in those guitars as it is.

 

Other than that well into the 1960s Gibson only made these guitars in very small numbers and starting around 1960 every J-200 sent out of the factory was made in the newly created Custom Department on the 3rd floor. While they were subject, as were all Gibsons, to some very unwise design decisions, the build quality remained as good as you were going to get.

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We are talking about the same thing.

 

This is a floating brace running down the center of the top that is attached by a bolt. Gibson started putting these in the J-200 in 1961. I am a bit foggy on it but I want to say there are two varieties - a long one and a shorter one that is down toward the lower bout more. While you will hear this or that described as a "tone killer," these braces are at the top of the heap. They just kill off the vibration and muffle the top. If it is in there they are easy to remove and from the number of folks I have known who have done it your top will be just fine. There is a ton of top bracing in those guitars as it is.

 

Other than that well into the 1960s Gibson only made these guitars in very small numbers and starting around 1960 every J-200 sent out of the factory was made in the newly created Custom Department on the 3rd floor. While they were subject, as were all Gibsons, to some very unwise design decisions, the build quality remained as good as you were going to get.

Uaakkk sounds like heavy stuff and hopefully was a J-200 construction only.

 

Haven't managed to find photos of that locked log.

 

 

 

 

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Uaakkk sounds like heavy stuff and hopefully was a J-200 construction only.

 

Haven't managed to find photos of that locked log.

 

The J-200, was not exactly what you would call a lightly built guitar. My wife's 1960 J-200 is a flippin' tank. Gibson always seemed to be edgy about that top so messed with the bracing constantly. I do not think any guitar built by Gibson went through as many bracing changes as the J-200.

 

As far as I know, the J-200 was the only guitar to have been subjected to that big old floating brace. As I said the blessing is they are easy as it gets to remove. Then again, the build qiuality of these guitars was amazing. Gibson was meticulous about selecting the wood and took their time building them. Supposedly they matched the tops and tone bars for each individual guitar.

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.

The J-200, was not exactly what you would call a lightly built guitar. My wife's 1960 J-200 is a flippin' tank. Gibson always seemed to be edgy about that top so messed with the bracing constantly. I do not think any guitar built by Gibson went through as many bracing changes as the J-200.

 

As far as I know, the J-200 was the only guitar to have been subjected to that big old floating brace. As I said the blessing is they are easy as it gets to remove. Then again, the build qiuality of these guitars was amazing. Gibson was meticulous about selecting the wood and took their time building them. Supposedly they matched the tops and tone bars for each individual guitar.

 

Good info there. .

 

Unfortunately I never played a vintage J-200 apart from a yellow 1968'er in Denmark Street a couple of years back.

 

That one had tunomatic bridge and sounded deep, rich and mably-warm. Bad luck the guitar had the narrow 5/8 neck.

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I've got two Bozemans, an '89 and a '00. I know they are excellent quality and likely better than many Kalamazoo made J200s.

 

However.

 

I grew up viewing the J200 as the Holy Grail. My father bought an early 50s one in 1969 for $50. I still remember the smell and patina. A Kalamazoo J200 is still on my bucket list although it's likely I'd have to sell BOTH of my Bozemans to make it happen.

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Btw. I played a between 10 and 15 year old 200 a month ago. It had Emmylou Harris' signature in black felt on the blonde top and sounded like I believe they have to sound.

 

Many 200's I've met up through time have either been dull, 'socked' or just kind of banal roomy, , , there must be a certain soft extra space in there that blossoms from the hole without hollowing the voice at all.

Then a Jumbo can be the dream it promises by its looks. .

 

This one had it - but also had a fairly chunky neck (I'm not out hunting).

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My advice would be to put some new strings on it & sell it now.

 

There's no guarantee that it'll ever put out the tone you're after, even if you spend serious bucks to have it reworked. Bottom line - you currently own a guitar that you do not find satisfying, when there's a whole world of great instruments out there to choose from.

 

Get some decent money out of it, and then go buy the guitar that really pushes your particular buttons.

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My advice would be to put some new strings on it & sell it now.

 

There's no guarantee that it'll ever put out the tone you're after, even if you spend serious bucks to have it reworked. Bottom line - you currently own a guitar that you do not find satisfying, when there's a whole world of great instruments out there to choose from.

 

Get some decent money out of it, and then go buy the guitar that really pushes your particular buttons.

 

I think you may be right & that's the way I'm leaning. I just bought an Epiphone 500mce to play in my bar band & am extremely happy with it. This is the only vintage ANYTHING I have and don't really want to sell it but - it doesn't have the tone I have heard from other Gibson's. Vintage or not, I guess getting a few $$ wouldn't be a bad thing. Shoot, I'm going through a divorce and could use the money anyway.

 

I think I'll clean it up and put some strings on it & see what I can do. I think I'm going to chance taking the big screw out first and see if that helps at all. You never know...

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If you are selling the guitar becauise you need the money that is one thing. But if you are selling the guitar because you do not like the way it sounds and it still has that floating brace in there then that is nuts. With the brace still in there you do not know what the heck the guitar sounds like. Those of us who know these guitars will tell you that brace dampens the top to the point that sound can't escape.

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If you are selling the guitar becauise you need the money that is one thing. But if you are selling the guitar because you do not like the way it sounds and it still has that floating brace in there then that is nuts. With the brace still in there you do not know what the heck the guitar sounds like. Those of us who know these guitars will tell you that brace dampens the top to the point that sound can't escape.

 

Yup and it's because of you guys that I have faith enough that I won't ruin the guitar that I'm going to take the brace out this weekend before I make a decision to sell it or not.

 

Thanks for all the information.

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Rhythmman - I missed the post where you confirmed that the brace is still in there.

It'll be interesting to see what you think of the instrument's tone after removal,

so please get back to us with an update!

 

Well I removed a big screw from a large "floating" brace & a thick metal washer. I don't see how to get the actual brace out as it appears to be glued in. Is that correct or am I missing something? Does the brace still need to come out? If so, how?

 

FWIW, the tone improved somewhat after doing this. I put new strings on & adjusted the neck. It plays as good as it always has but...

 

Sorry for the stupid questions but after deciding to attempt this after all these years, I'd really hate to ruin my guitar!

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Well I removed a big screw from a large "floating" brace & a thick metal washer.

 

I don't see how to get the actual brace out as it appears to be glued in. Is that correct or am I missing something? Does the brace still need to come out?

 

It's glued in indeed. You have to find a pro to get this done properly. It's like pulling a tooth and we don't want to destroy the jaw.

 

A good advice regarding sound comparison, would be to keep the same strings on as you experiment. Far the best way to test sonic results.

 

Look forward to hear about the next step -

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It's glued in indeed. You have to find a pro to get this done properly. It's like pulling a tooth and we don't want to destroy the jaw.

 

A good advice regarding sound comparisson, would be to keep the same strings on as you experiment. Far the best way to test sonic results.

 

Look forward to hear about the next step -

 

Well crap, so much for doing it myself! Thanks, I will have someone who know what they're doing take it from here.

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Well crap, so much for doing it myself! Thanks, I will have someone who know what they're doing take it from here.

 

Good idea - you have to realize this is not something one just do (like the bolts, screws and washers).

 

In reality it's a trick for rather advanced players and even some less experienced guitar-docs might scratch their hair before the job. .

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