Phelonious Ponk Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 I'm a big fan of mahogany jumbos. I love to new SJ-100 reissues, and would have one if they weren't too rich for my blood. Did you pay too much? Technically, yeah, if you paid nearly the cost of a new one, that's high, but I'm not sure I blame you. The simple pick guard and belly bridge look fantastic on that guitar. Congratulations! I'm 63 myself, retired in July. Retirement is the best thing this side of grandchildren. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ServantOfGod Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 (side note: Servant of God; was the J-100 you a/b'ed your new J-150 against a mahogany model? Was curious- Gibson has made these available made from different woods (back/sides) through the years, didn't know if they were still doing that) [/size] Hey 62burst, I played the newer SJ-100. http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Acoustic-Instruments/Super-Jumbo/Gibson-Acoustic/1941-SJ-100.aspx Pickleweedpete's looks way better! I didn't like the tuners and the bridge on the newer SJ100. About the sound of the SJ -100. I think they sound amazing, just not for what I was looking for. The one I tried sounded darker and not as strong as my J -150 ,but has excellent sustain and think it's a great strummer. If I could have both would, I think those are two very different jumbos, not only in sound, also in look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motherofpearl Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Welcome pickleweed. Damn fine guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickleweedpete Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 Thanks again everyone. I respect your opinions very much, actually, and I'm relieved that you approve of my choice. It's exactly like you have said. A brand new 1941 SJ100 probably sounds much the same as the one I bought, and of course the lifetime warranty is nothing to laugh at, but I MUCH prefer the looks of this one. If I hadn't found it I may have gone for something entirely different. Retirement is great, that's for sure. I love it but wish I could have done it sooner -- like thirty years ago. I can't complain though. My hands still work okay, and me and that gittar will get to know each other pretty good. I think it was an excellent investment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 All I can say is that I wish happiness in retirement. My little brother who just turned 64 and I had a long talk when he was "retiring" after something like 42 years in law enforcement. Both of us have been in "high stress" careers our entire adult lives. I'm still doing 60-80 hour workweeks. The "talk?" It's that after a lifetime of an adrenalin trickle, "retirement" can be something along the lines of withdrawal; and there's a fact that folks in our lines of work have a bad habit of dropping dead six to 18 months after "retiring." Well, he's now working federal court security half time. I'm still doing my thing and on call 24-7 with no vacations or time to get "sick." So I guess we ain't doing so bad. The guitar is a great bit of opportunity for mind and body, but so's whatever it takes to maintain a bit of consistency for that mind and body so they don't have a degree of shock at lifestyle change. Best of luck. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickleweedpete Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 Milod, you might be interested to hear that one of my old drinking buddies is from a little town in southern Illinois called Albion (in Edwards County, as you probably know), and a few years ago he did some research and discovered that in 1862 his great-great-grandfather enlisted in the 87th Illinois Infantry. He's told me that hundreds of men in the 87th died early on in a nasty epidemic of measles, but they replaced their losses and went on to join a lot of other boys from Illinois in the siege of Vicksburg. I'm sure you know all about that! Later the 87th reformed as mounted infantry, and after August of 1864 they were officially part of a Union cavalry brigade. He's got other interesting stories about gangsters in southern Illinois who were as big in the 30's as the city boys from Chicago, but here's another one that's more appropriate for a guitar forum. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but I'll ask him to refresh my memory if you like. In 1963 (before the Beatles first toured the United States, anyway), George Harrison's sister was living in a little town not far from Albion, and he paid her a visit. While in the area he bought an electric guitar (sad to say only a Gretsch) in a little store that he later played on the Ed Sullivan show, and performed with a pickup band at a local venue, a club or union hall, something like that. How cool is that??? Southern Illinois is backwoods, but some interesting stuff has happened there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-minor7 Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 In 1963 (before the Beatles first toured the United States, anyway), George Harrison's sister was living in a little town not far from Albion, and he paid her a visit. While in the area he bought an electric guitar (sad to say only a Gretsch) in a little store that he later played on the Ed Sullivan show, and performed with a pickup band at a local venue, a club or union hall, something like that. How cool is that??? I knew about this incident, but would love to hear details. The Civil-war history is also interesting, but for me Harrison anecdotes come in first. Please tell more. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2PoFoAGibSon Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Hello, im kinda new here my self but, WELCOME.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorrisrownSal Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Welcome, and congratulations on that great guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickleweedpete Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 [The Civil-war history is also interesting, but for me Harrison anecdotes come in first. Please tell more. . I'll get more details from my friend and pass them on ASAP. First an update on my Gibson however. An employee of the store I bought it from has called me to say that when they fetched it from the warehouse they discovered to their surprise some scratches (at least one of which is quite deep and ugly) on the side. I told the man I was still interested in buying the guitar at a reduced price if their luthier would first fix the damage, but after consulting with the owner he informed me they preferred to send it back to the factory for repair. He promised however to give me first chance at it when it comes back. Well, there it is. I am still guitarless, at least for a while. I don't know what to say. I do believe however the man and his employer are acting in good faith. I will just have to be patient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duluthdan Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Pickleweedpete - love the name, and that is one fine looking Gibson there! Great retirement gift. Welcome aboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickleweedpete Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 My friend is difficult to reach at work, but I did a simple google search and got lots of hits on Harrison's visit to southern Illinois. It really happened, evidently, although it looks as though the guitar he bought might have been a Rickenbacker and not a Gretsch as I said. http://illinoistimes.com/article-10994-they-saw-him-standing-here.html ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Do you guys believe it about my guitar????????? I am broken hearted here. How long does Gibson usually take to repair something like this? I have pictures of the scratches that the guy sent from his phone but so far I'm unable to download them to my computer so I can show you. Will keep trying however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Pete... I didn't know about your unit, but the 112th - hanging around the Chattanooga area - was mounted and dismounted twice as readying to go over the mountain to Georgia. I think at the time they were trying to go as fast as they could before the Confederates might be able to rally. Meanwhile on the western side of stuff, another relative from Iowa got himself captured with a runaway horse. In the "territory" where I live now, the territorial capitol was under seige and had an earth berm as a fortress wall. It was a different time, for sure. I hope your relative didn't have the "satinet" uniform. They didn't last much past initial training. But that war helped give us Eminor's guitars and such. Never before had there been such a rapid call for supplies from uniforms to rifled musket barrels, shoes and caps; the sewing machine was in its infancy so much was done by hand - but time and cash helped develop machines and methods. Imagine having to order even today a million minie balls of .58 caliber or paper-wrap cartridges of powder and those bullets. Or of tens of millions of proper-sized percussion caps. Or - thinking of such work as gives us today's guitar necks imagine ordering half a million wooden rifle stocks. I think few would question it changed the world's concept of mass manufacture forever. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slinky1 Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 My friend is difficult to reach at work, but I did a simple google search and got lots of hits on Harrison's visit to southern Illinois. It really happened, evidently, although it looks as though the guitar he bought might have been a Rickenbacker and not a Gretsch as I said. http://illinoistimes.com/article-10994-they-saw-him-standing-here.html Very sorry to hear of the scratches pickleweed.I understand the disappointment. I don't know how long it would take to repair the scratches.there are a lot of good people here that have a lot of knowledge that can help you. Don't lose faith though.I really hope things turn out well for you. Good luck! :D ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Do you guys believe it about my guitar????????? I am broken hearted here. How long does Gibson usually take to repair something like this? I have pictures of the scratches that the guy sent from his phone but so far I'm unable to download them to my computer so I can show you. Will keep trying however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slinky1 Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Sorry about my post being mixed in with yours. I guess I'm still figuring out this forum stuff. Stay the course and good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickleweedpete Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 No problem, Slinky. Thanks for the consolation! Well, I've given up trying to attach a photo of those scratches, but for what it's worth there are five or six, mostly very small, covering perhaps a couple of square inches. The largest one is maybe just an inch long, but it's too deep to buff out. They tell me it has to be filled with something and then the spot refinished. Oh well. Things could be much worse. I don't even care if the guys at Gibson can make all the marks disappear completely. I just don't wanna wait weeks to play my damn guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickleweedpete Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 Pete... I think few would question it changed the world's concept of mass manufacture forever. m Interesting point, milod. For good or ill, war always brings with it big changes. I don't know what the satinet uniforms were, though. I've seen a photograph of some Illinois infantrymen however and not a one is wearing a kepi. They all have the wide brimmed hats we (I anyway) usually associate with the cavalry. Do you know if that was always the case with the western regiments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 At the beginning of the war, even in the more "industrial" north, you've gotta figure there just wasn't the kind of mass production we think about. Anything that sorta worked would ... work. Sorta. That satinet ... the sources I've read describe it as: a satin-weave fabric made with cotton warp and wool filling, fulled and finished to resemble wool. Didn't last after a cupla weeks of life in camp. One reason for the lighter blue trowsers was lack of dye. Different regiments, especially early in the war, would wear whatever was scrounged for them that seemed "uniform." Many officers' sabers - such as the one I carry throughout that period from the 112th - were actually cavalry sabers. Wristbreakers more or less. Later in the war the officers supposedly were given more appropriate hilts. That's basically what I carry. Plus, of course, I carry my '58 Remington .44 with the '68 patent conversion cylinder that I'd gotten in a pre-patent form in '67 when I headed out to Fort Phil K at the request of Inspector Gen. Randolph Marcy. I met him in Washington City while I recovered from a horse wreck chasing guerrillas on the west side of the mountains. We had discussed my experiences mounted and dismounted as infantry, changes in equipment and tactics since he had written his "Prairie Traveler," and he asked me to investigate and suggest changes given the new technology with cartridge arms, improved wagons, rail troop movements and even uniforms - and even consider writing an update to his Prairie Traveler for pilgrims headed west. His son-in-law of course was a great writer of equipment and training, but... this wasn't George's strength and it appeared to be one I might find appropriate. I left Ft. Phil that winter after Fetterman's debacle with the Carringtons and Grummond's widow. Sad, sad. I learned far more than one might wish, and I can tell you Carrington was damned with the equipment and orders he was given. *** Out of persona... the revolver is marvelous, the saber horrid. Some years ago I did a piece for a sport fencing magazine on its use and training. I can easily understand why Patton's pattern was preferred by a good fencer, but then it was not a good cavalry weapon. As for uniforms... they really weren't as we think today. Oh - and George McClellan, Marcy's son-in-law... a great trainer and a doggone good writer of military manuals. Just not very imaginative, which likely led him to remain a Democrat against the tide of history even as he tended to put too much stock in overblown estimates of the opposition. Then again, for all of us, it was a new world of war with the new rifled muskets that were the greatest improvement in the infantryman's arms in centuries. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickleweedpete Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 EXTREMELY INTERESTING! milod, you've certainly done a great deal of research, both on the war in general and on your man in the 112th Infantry Regiment-- sorry, I've forgotten his name. Question: Was this individual a real person or is he a creation of your imagination? 'Nuther question: Why did you choose the 112th out of the many from Illinois? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Because as I said, were you to know my full name and do the research, you'd see the name and even the blood is of a man born July 15, 1842, in Washington, Vt. And did indeed enlist in the Illinois 112th in '62. I still have "my" watch given me by my wife on my 50th in 1892 in a later career on the frontier of selling farming equipment - another new technology mostly unimagined in the west before the war. What I do, however, is combine the persona of the original with my own... take a bit of fact, such as the captain in the horse wreck chasing guerrillas, and take that on as well as knowing a bit of Marcy and even McClellan. I find Marcy far more similar to myself, but then... Both now and in that prior persona, I'd not had the experiences of McClellan. A Captain "works" for the tale as major or colonel would and could not. The rank continued at Marcy's request that I might follow his direction in seeing and describing the results of our new technologies in meeting the challenges of the frontier. It's great fun not only to know the history as the books and even my final CW diary tell it, but to literally put oneself into the ethos of the times. Oddly when the blood of one born a bit more than a century earlier flows through one's own veins, it seems the character and perspectives are so much easier to accept, understand and portray. It's not at a certain point "acting," as much as "being." Something almost of a zen thing. A good friend did Marcus Reno for years, and did an incredible job of explaining not only Reno's great courage, but also the deep sadness that followed him as a dark cloud to his death. Oddly he himself had a life not dissimilar in spirit with darkness often following him to the grave as well. Oh here I am in 1890. I still smoke those little cigars, too, although during the war and for a dozen years after, I mostly smoked a turkish pipe. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuitarLight Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 Welcome! And congratulations on your beautiful Gibson! It's a great model and has a beautiful burst finish! Your going to love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickleweedpete Posted November 26, 2014 Author Share Posted November 26, 2014 Welcome! And congratulations on your beautiful Gibson! It's a great model and has a beautiful burst finish! Your going to love it! Thank you GuitarLight and all the others who have taken the time and trouble to post. This is utterly unlike the only other discussion forum I've ever joined! You guys are nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickleweedpete Posted November 26, 2014 Author Share Posted November 26, 2014 milod, I think this is very cool. Congratulations, you are really into it! Do you mean the Marcus Reno of Seventh Cavalry infamy however? I've done a bit of reading on the Little Bighorn fiasco, and I thought Benteen was the only senior officer who acquitted himself well on June 25-26th 1976. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
62burst Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 First an update on my Gibson however. An employee of the store I bought it from has called me to say that when they fetched it from the warehouse they discovered to their surprise some scratches (at least one of which is quite deep and ugly) on the side. I told the man I was still interested in buying the guitar at a reduced price if their luthier would first fix the damage, but after consulting with the owner he informed me they preferred to send it back to the factory for repair. He promised however to give me first chance at it when it comes back. Well, there it is. I am still guitarless, at least for a while. I don't know what to say. I do believe however the man and his employer are acting in good faith. I will just have to be patient. Un *%$#'n believable. 'Am so sorry to hear this, especially after being among those getting you all psyched up with three pages of foreguitarplay. I can't recall if it was with Gibson or Martin, but a return to the mother ship should probably have one expecting a six week turnaround. With Martin, much of the time, they warrant a repair by a factory authorized repair center, not necessarily a trip back to the Nazarene. That would be much quicker. A smaller shop (seller) may not know what would be involved with a trip back to Bozeman. If the seller was a shop the size of, well, let's say Willcutt Guitars, for example, they would probably know an expert refinisher that they routinely use, and, to keep a customer satisfied who's currently making a big splash on the Gibson Acoustic forum, they would want to move that repair along in short order. A most equitable offer of you to simply have them reduce the price of the guitar, maybe $400 (haven't seen the pics of the damage) or so, than to risk multiple cross-country trips in the winter weather. Especially if the scratching/gouging was lap-side down. Get it fixed whenever. I'm sorry to hear of this development; sounds like you have the option to back out, but a super jumbo with those specs would probably be pretty hard to find. If you were on the East Coast, I'd happily hand off to you something nice to use in the meanwhile. As far as the photos; what kind of phone do you have the pics on? Most nowadays give you the option to send an image to your home email. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 Actually I'd suggest Benteen was more likely easily described as something of a passive-aggressive villain in the piece. I've a hunch I'd not have cared much for him then, as I care little for those like him today. Perhaps best not go further. He despised Custer, and had little respect, if any, for Reno - both of whom had outranked him during the CW and afterward for good reason. At the Little Big Horn, Reno had brains and blood spattered into his face from Bloody Knife's adjacent gunshot head as something of a harsh awakening as things went as totally unexpected and totally contrary to any prior experience of any in the 7th at the time, given the circumstances. Not exactly a paragon of courage or leadership at that point, but all hell was breaking loose. For example, long enough before the Little Big Horn, Reno asked leave from the army to attend his dying wife. No. She died alone, he mourned alone. From roughly that point, the clouds formed over him. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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