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J-45 Vintage comes with compensated saddle?


Pete'67

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FYI, my 2007 J-45TV did not come with a compensated saddle. Just a regular bone saddle. However, my 2015 L-00 Red spruce Limited did come with a compensated saddle.

 

Gibson's "vintage" models always have an item or two that wasn't on the vintage guitar it is supposed to be replicating, i.e. reverse belly bridge rather than the rectangle bridge and the 19 fret neck rather than the 20 fret neck they come with. It's all a mystery!!

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FYI, my 2007 J-45TV did not come with a compensated saddle. Just a regular bone saddle. However, my 2015 L-00 Red spruce Limited did come with a compensated saddle.

 

Gibson's "vintage" models always have an item or two that wasn't on the vintage guitar it is supposed to be replicating, i.e. reverse belly bridge rather than the rectangle bridge and the 19 fret neck rather than the 20 fret neck they come with. It's all a mystery!!

How do you like the nice "black" case that it comes with,also?

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How do you like the nice "black" case that it comes with,also?

 

This new J-45 Vintage comes with a black case? My TV came with the Brown/pink case. I don't use it because I have a Calton case. I would think that with what these new guitars cost, and labeled "vintage", they would have the period correct brown case.

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Purchased my J-45 Vintage 2016 new from an official Gibson dealer.

I was of the opinion the Vintage line does not come with compensated saddle (H is compensated on mine) but straight bone saddle.

Just curious.

 

Gib3_zps7dxt13e8.jpg

 

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IMG_3199_zps28wncfiv.jpg

 

Gib1_zpsfboej3cs.jpg

 

Beautiful guitar

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This new J-45 Vintage comes with a black case? My TV came with the Brown/pink case. I don't use it because I have a Calton case. I would think that with what these new guitars cost, and labeled "vintage", they would have the period correct brown case.

Hey, mking, I was just looking at the site that bbgrunt put up and had to chuckle at their photo of a brown case that they described as black. Glad you got the brown one BTW.I guess they cut back on proofreaders over at Gibson.

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Hey, mking, I was just looking at the site that bbgrunt put up and had to chuckle at their photo of a brown case that they described as black. Glad you got the brown one BTW.I guess they cut back on proofreaders over at Gibson.

 

Ollie, too too funny. Yeah, I got the Calton so when I fly the brown case won't get messed up, and neither will the guitar. The brown case is heavy as is the Calton.

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Hey, mking, I was just looking at the site that bbgrunt put up and had to chuckle at their photo of a brown case that they described as black. Glad you got the brown one BTW.I guess they cut back on proofreaders over at Gibson.

 

 

Ollie,

I like at the beginning of the description they state "The 2017 J-45 Vintage, this model stays true to the original in every way."

 

That is a bad picture of a "brown" case. The pink inside pretty much indicates the outside is brown.

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Is that saddle on your 45 bone? Sure looks like CNC-cut Tusq..........but maybe not.

 

My Hummingbird Vintage came with what is obviously a hand-shaped bone saddle, compensated and oddly radius-ed. But it works very well........ And the pins holes are not countersunk. And a corner of the pick guard lifting.......I just push it back down every now and then as it is not an issue for me.

 

IMG_1844_zpsvq7jfu92.jpg

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I bought 4 Gibson acoustics recently and replaced all of the saddles with unbleached uncompensated saddles. They are supposed to be denser than the bleached white variety. I like uncompensated because I think the compensation doesn't really add much, if anything, to the intonation. I think a saddle should remain as thick as possible for best string contact and sound transmission. It is important though to have a nice rounded top for a good take off point. Not enough and the string gets choked.

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I bought 4 Gibson acoustics recently and replaced all of the saddles with unbleached uncompensated saddles. They are supposed to be denser than the bleached white variety. I like uncompensated because I think the compensation doesn't really add much, if anything, to the intonation. I think a saddle should remain as thick as possible for best string contact and sound transmission. It is important though to have a nice rounded top for a good take off point. Not enough and the string gets choked.

 

This interests me as I'd like to carve a saddle myself for the sake of saying i did so , but was worried about the compensated part ... I'm no soloist so I've wondered how much I care about a slight deviation at the twelfth fret

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Pete,

Congrats on the great looking guitar but ditch that machine cut saddle. I've never cared for the look of those machine cut saddles like that. You can re shape that yourself to take away the hard edges. Looks like it belongs on a Taylor.

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This interests me as I'd like to carve a saddle myself for the sake of saying i did so , but was worried about the compensated part ... I'm no soloist so I've wondered how much I care about a slight deviation at the twelfth fret

 

StewMac has everything you need. http://www.stewmac.com/ I ditched compensated saddles a while ago, until then I was obsessed with them, no need to be. Electric guitars are a different story.

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Can you elaborate for the sake of a novice ?

Ta

 

Sure, to do a saddle you may already have what you need. Calipers are nice to have but not always needed. You will need files and sanding blocks and some patience. If you are simply replicating a saddle you already have you are half way there. Thickness is important, StewMac does make preformed saddles for both Martin and Gibson. Then it is just a matter of tracing the old one and reshaping the new one. The top of the saddle needs to have a nice smooth round contour for proper string take off. I have some blanks here already if you want to send me your saddle.http://www.victorygu...itar/index.html

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My opinion is a saddle does not count towards having to be a replicated item on a vintage reissue. It's a changeable item much like bridge pins are. If someone puts s compensated saddle on a 1965 Gibson to improve its intonation...no one thinks anything about it. Likewise one is on a new guitar or a new vintage reissue. A bridge is a major factor to replicate not a saddle. This issue is kinda ridiculous in my opinion, especially since compensated saddles are improve intonation not detract from it and can be inexpensivrly swapped in or out of any guitar.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

QM aka Jazzman Jeff

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My opinion is a saddle does not count towards having to be a replicated item on a vintage reissue. It's a changeable item much like bridge pins are. If someone puts s compensated saddle on a 1965 Gibson to improve its intonation...no one thinks anything about it. Likewise one is on a new guitar or a new vintage reissue. A bridge is a major factor to replicate not a saddle. This issue is kinda ridiculous in my opinion, especially since compensated saddles are improve intonation not detract from it and can be inexpensivrly swapped in or out of any guitar.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

QM aka Jazzman Jeff

 

And my $.02 - I don't give a hoot about authenticity, period correctness, etc. I bought the Vintage model because I liked the way it sounded. I had to have a new saddle made due to some bad setup work by a tech, and the new saddle is compensated.

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