Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

My Baby's Back


drathbun

Recommended Posts

I finally have my Golden Age SJ200 back in my arms again. I have missed this guitar!

 

I took it in for warranty repair when I discovered a loose brace in early January. There was a total of NINE loose braces! It actually took three weeks to fix but it took 12 weeks for them to get to it because of the Christmas backlog of guitars.

 

The culprit was OVER-humidification! Our temperatures here in Calgary dipped to -26C before Christmas. I have all my guitars out on stands in my basement studio/office. I had two humidifiers going day and night and it was still a struggle to keep the RH to 40%. I couldn't see how the Gibson was being over humidified until I realized I had one warm mist humidifier close to the SJ200. It must have sucked up much more moisture than the 40% RH reading my two digital hygrometers were reading. The guitar swelled, and with all that hide glue, it popped nine braces.

 

The luthier that did the work told me it was the finest sounded acoustic guitar he had ever heard. He didn't want to give it back.

 

I have to agree with him. My Taylor 814ce that I was playing in the meantime, just doesn't cut it although it is a fine instrument. I am selling it, and have sold my Martin 000-17sm to purchase a new Martin 000-28vs which should arrive the end of the week. With the SJ200 as my big main guitar and the Martin as my fingerstyle guitar, I don't need anything in the middle.

 

Also, while I was waiting for the Gibson to be fixed, there was a Gibson night at my local Long & McQuade (where the SJ200 was being fixed). I met Don Ruffatto from the Bozeman shop and asked him about the fact that my (second hand) SJ200 came with the orange label stuck to the certificate. He was kind enough to send me a duplicate that I can put in the guitar so it doesn't appear to be a fake. Thanks Don!

 

Here's my baby: (one large photo.. the rest as links)

IMG_3402.jpg

 

Headstock

Soundhole

Body

BackBack of Headstock

Neck

Link to comment
Share on other sites

as J200s go, that is a beauty. I dig the imperial tuners on yours! [thumbup]

 

3 mos would be a long wait, hopefully it was worth it!

 

over humidification is just as nasty as not enough!

 

Darned winters anyways.......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very nice looking J200

 

I have a low humidity in Winter too. I keep all my guitars in their case and use the planet waves two way humidification system. Works perfect, never had any issues. Planet waves changed their design of the sound hole bag however, so I've been purchasing these from the actual manufacturer that Planet Waves use anyway.

 

These are nice and soft:

 

https://www.bovedainc.com/store/music/boveda-for-guitars-fabric-pouch-holder/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Christmas in April ! It would certainly be tough being separated that long from a guitar like that.

I've just recently realized that there are some songs the SJ200 was made for.

I've been messing with "Bad Moon Rising" and it sounds 100% better on the Super Jumbo than my J45 or H"Bird.

There have been others as well - but this one was a real eye opener.

If your luthier said yours is the best he's ever heard and didn't want to give it back ... I would consider getting it 'chipped'. Just saying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doug,

 

Any recording of that beast?

 

Would love to hear it !

 

 

JC

 

Hi JC! As 40yrspickin' said... Christmas in April! He's the last recording I made before the guitar went into the shop in January. It was while I was recording this video that I noticed a creaking noise. I thought it was the strap rubbing or the guitar rubbing against my chair. But when I squeezed the guitar against my chest, the back creaked as the braces were loose!

 

Anyway.. Merry Christmas!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx0JftGjq2o

 

The SJ200 was recorded with a Rode NT1A large diaphragm condenser microphone to a Zoom UAC2 interface into Sonar Platinum with plugin compressor and reverb.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stunning guitar in looks and voice.

 

Greg Lake would covet that guitar.

 

I've always liked the mix of Lake and Prokofiev in this song.

 

Me too Nick! Funny thing is, I was watching some videos of Greg Lake talking about the J200 guitar and then saw a video of him playing this song. I thought it would be a great recording for my annual CD I put out for friends and family at Christmas. So I recorded it and within days Lake had passed away. I don't think there is a correlation between events but it makes you think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have all my guitars out on stands in my basement studio/office.

.............it popped nine braces.

Good looking guitar, sir. Keep it in the case when not in use........much smaller volume of air to control than a whole room. Lesson learned?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good looking guitar, sir. Keep it in the case when not in use........much smaller volume of air to control than a whole room. Lesson learned?

 

If I only had one guitar, I'd keep it in the case. I like them out and available. However, when it gets intense around here (lower than -15C outside) this one will go in the case for sure!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glad to hear that your big baby is back; there's nothing like that feeling, especially after that long an absence.

 

Thanks also for the observations on the humidity thing though; it's one reason I'm quite glad to not be on your side of the mountains! Come by and visit 'down by the sea' sometime!

 

Fred

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a lovely sunburst - my sunburst on my songwriter has that lovely "brown" quality to it, but all the pictures I take of it always make it seem more ORANGE than it really is, but your photo looks right. Love the Imperials as well. I'm not much on 'bling" but the J200's can pull it off.

[thumbup]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a lovely sunburst - my sunburst on my songwriter has that lovely "brown" quality to it, but all the pictures I take of it always make it seem more ORANGE than it really is, but your photo looks right. Love the Imperials as well. I'm not much on 'bling" but the J200's can pull it off.

[thumbup]

 

Thanks, Bryan. Yeah, this SJ200 is a 2012 Golden Age 1930's of which only 75 were made for the 75th anniversary. So this guitar is a replica of the Ray Whitley guitar from 1937 which had the Imperial tuners. It came with a certificate of authentication and a faux ostrich skin, plush lined, six latch case with a built-in analogue hygrometer.

 

2015-08-29%2016.10.20.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a lovely sunburst - my sunburst on my songwriter has that lovely "brown" quality to it, but all the pictures I take of it always make it seem more ORANGE than it really is, but your photo looks right. Love the Imperials as well. I'm not much on 'bling" but the J200's can pull it off.

[thumbup]

Doug's maple version + the rosewood versions of this 30's edition came with a "Double Antique Vintage Sunburst" so maybe that's why it does not appear orange !

 

 

 

 

JC

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doug's maple version + the rosewood versions of this 30's edition came with a "Double Antique Vintage Sunburst" so maybe that's why it does not appear orange !

 

JC

 

Bursts are notoriously difficult to photograph with digital cameras. The camera are getting much better. This was photographed with an Apple iPhone 7 Plus. The camera is amazing in its colour rendition.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...