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Advanced Jumbo Herringbone


Victory Pete

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Absolutely agree with Buc here. My old AJ HATED medium strings, with the forward shifted bracing you don't need all that tension to get the top humming. The best strings I found for my AJ were Martin SP Lifespan 12-54s. A nice thick sounding string with a bell-like top end that really sang on my AJ.

 

I've got long-term plans to own another, but probably a Maple one this time.

 

Mine is coming around. I have been upgrading to an unbleached bone saddle and bone pins. I am also doing my fish glue mod for the pins holes. Gibson and Martin do not taper their holes anymore. I have done this to all my acoustics last winter and the changes are amazing, more of everything. I have everything back together except the b string which needed its hole treated with another layer of glue. If after the mod the pins still wiggle, I add another layer of glue, wait 12 hours and then carefully ream again. The small Tusq pins that came on this guitar had a ridiculous amount of wiggle in their holes. The pins need to be absolutely tight in there for maximum transfer of string energy. Playing without the b string I can already hear this baby coming to life. BTW, the bracing on the AJ is not forward shifted, its X bracing is opened up near the bridge by 5 degrees. It allows a larger bridge plate to be used. I do not have a Maple acoustic, I was contemplating the SJ-200 Vintage but could not get past the rough finish. I stumbled upon the AJ last weekend and then it was a no brainer what to do. I do need to get a Maple guitar at some point. I am definitely a Rosewood Fellow, I have only one Mahogany guitar, my 2016 Southern Jumbo.

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"Allows for a larger bridge plate"- not necessarily a good thing

 

maybe next time you are in for the fish glue, measure plate size difference with your southern jumbo

 

And while in there, measure distance from soundhole or distance from bridge plate distance to the cross brace-

 

the very reason the model is called the Advanced (as isn forward shifted) Jumbo

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Mine is coming around. I have been upgrading to an unbleached bone saddle and bone pins. I am also doing my fish glue mod for the pins holes. Gibson and Martin do not taper their holes anymore. I have done this to all my acoustics last winter and the changes are amazing, more of everything. I have everything back together except the b string which needed its hole treated with another layer of glue. If after the mod the pins still wiggle, I add another layer of glue, wait 12 hours and then carefully ream again. The small Tusq pins that came on this guitar had a ridiculous amount of wiggle in their holes. The pins need to be absolutely tight in there for maximum transfer of string energy. Playing without the b string I can already hear this baby coming to life. BTW, the bracing on the AJ is not forward shifted, its X bracing is opened up near the bridge by 5 degrees. It allows a larger bridge plate to be used. I do not have a Maple acoustic, I was contemplating the SJ-200 Vintage but could not get past the rough finish. I stumbled upon the AJ last weekend and then it was a no brainer what to do. I do need to get a Maple guitar at some point. I am definitely a Rosewood Fellow, I have only one Mahogany guitar, my 2016 Southern Jumbo.

 

Very interesting re the fish glue mod! I’m sort of the other way with tonewoods. I’ve always been a Maple player, I love my Dove and SJ200, but I’ve recently found myself heading more towards the land of Mahogany with my ‘41 Reissue SJ100, ‘67 J45 and ‘90 Hummingbird. My Epi Texan is Mahogany too, and I have a Hummingbird 12 string coming my way very soon, but I’m currently entirely Rosewoodless...I need a good parlour to add to the arsenal next year, so I’d quite like to go in the Rosewood direction with that. Perhaps a RW Nick Lucas, CJ165 or AG.

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Mine is coming around. I have been upgrading to an unbleached bone saddle and bone pins. I am also doing my fish glue mod for the pins holes. Gibson and Martin do not taper their holes anymore. I have done this to all my acoustics last winter and the changes are amazing, more of everything. I have everything back together except the b string which needed its hole treated with another layer of glue. If after the mod the pins still wiggle, I add another layer of glue, wait 12 hours and then carefully ream again. The small Tusq pins that came on this guitar had a ridiculous amount of wiggle in their holes. The pins need to be absolutely tight in there for maximum transfer of string energy. Playing without the b string I can already hear this baby coming to life. BTW, the bracing on the AJ is not forward shifted, its X bracing is opened up near the bridge by 5 degrees. It allows a larger bridge plate to be used. I do not have a Maple acoustic, I was contemplating the SJ-200 Vintage but could not get past the rough finish. I stumbled upon the AJ last weekend and then it was a no brainer what to do. I do need to get a Maple guitar at some point. I am definitely a Rosewood Fellow, I have only one Mahogany guitar, my 2016 Southern Jumbo.

 

Very interesting re the fish glue mod! I’m sort of the other way with tonewoods. I’ve always been a Maple player, I love my Dove and SJ200, but I’ve recently found myself heading more towards the land of Mahogany with my ‘41 Reissue SJ100, ‘67 J45 and ‘90 Hummingbird. My Epi Texan is Mahogany too, and I have a Hummingbird 12 string coming my way very soon, but I’m currently entirely Rosewoodless...I need a good parlour to add to the arsenal next year, so I’d quite like to go in the Rosewood direction with that. Perhaps a RW Nick Lucas, CJ165 or AG.

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"Allows for a larger bridge plate"- not necessarily a good thing

 

maybe next time you are in for the fish glue, measure plate size difference with your southern jumbo

 

And while in there, measure distance from soundhole or distance from bridge plate distance to the cross brace-

 

the very reason the model is called the Advanced (as isn forward shifted) Jumbo

 

Already have 5 strings back on. I would be interested in a comparison though. It seems to have the characteristics of Rear Shifted: Loud and clear treble, the bass seems to be improving each day, especially after the modifications..

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Very interesting re the fish glue mod! I'm sort of the other way with tonewoods. I've always been a Maple player, I love my Dove and SJ200, but I've recently found myself heading more towards the land of Mahogany with my '41 Reissue SJ100, '67 J45 and '90 Hummingbird. My Epi Texan is Mahogany too, and I have a Hummingbird 12 string coming my way very soon, but I'm currently entirely Rosewoodless...I need a good parlour to add to the arsenal next year, so I'd quite like to go in the Rosewood direction with that. Perhaps a RW Nick Lucas, CJ165 or AG

 

I was told by the powers that be that they are making 3 12 strings soon, Here is a quote from the e-mail:

 

 

As far as 2018, we are doingsome dramatic color variations on J45’s, HB and J200’s (neon green, pink, bigsky blue, olive green, orange and white), it is not everyone’s cup oftea. Some cooler models are a 12th fret rosewood L00, an Fhole L1 with floating bridge, 12 string HB, Dove and SW’s as well as a 1968J200 (only 68 will be made) and this is also the last year of the BobDylan models. This will remind me to bug our website host to update it!

 

 

 

I may be interested in a Gibson 12 String.

 

 

 

 

 

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Mine is coming around. I have been upgrading to an unbleached bone saddle and bone pins. I am also doing my fish glue mod for the pins holes. Gibson and Martin do not taper their holes anymore. I have done this to all my acoustics last winter and the changes are amazing, more of everything. I have everything back together except the b string which needed its hole treated with another layer of glue. If after the mod the pins still wiggle, I add another layer of glue, wait 12 hours and then carefully ream again. The small Tusq pins that came on this guitar had a ridiculous amount of wiggle in their holes. The pins need to be absolutely tight in there for maximum transfer of string energy. Playing without the b string I can already hear this baby coming to life. BTW, the bracing on the AJ is not forward shifted, its X bracing is opened up near the bridge by 5 degrees. It allows a larger bridge plate to be used. I do not have a Maple acoustic, I was contemplating the SJ-200 Vintage but could not get past the rough finish. I stumbled upon the AJ last weekend and then it was a no brainer what to do. I do need to get a Maple guitar at some point. I am definitely a Rosewood Fellow, I have only one Mahogany guitar, my 2016 Southern Jumbo.

 

Here is info from the e-mail I got from Gibson concerning the bracing on the Advanced Jumbo:

 

 

. These guitars definitelyhold their own and speak clear as a bell. Any models that have open slotbridges will either have the Lyric, or no electronics at all. Indeed, thebridge is historically accurate and does allow the break angle of the stringsto remain consistent across the board. In regards to the bracing,“traditional scalloped bracing” appears on all of our models, while the “WideX” bracing is found on J35, AJ’s and Song Writers. Basically, the Xbracing is not pushed forward, however, it is wider than the typical X bracingby 5 degrees. The idea being that it opens up the section where bridgeplate is located. Allowing for more surface area, and a larger bridgeplate. We describe it as being able to match the dynamic levels of theplayers, and you can really push the volume of strumming and the guitar willkeep pushing out sound. Where as the traditional bracing will eventually“compress” like a warm tube amp.

 

 

 

 

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VERY interesting that there’s a 12 string Dove on the way. I love my Dove but would imagine the Maple dread format would be a bit zingmungous for a 12er.

 

My HB 12er is secondhand, I’ve done a deal with a friend and fellow forumer on it...it’s an absolute beauty, I’m just getting the last of the funds together for it!

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Just played after supper, like night and day, full loud bass and very punchy. I cant believe that new guitars can be so temperamental. It makes me wonder about all the guitars being dismissed in music stores when they don't sound good when first played.

 

I wonder whether it was the strings coming in with a bit of play? I remember my AJ was a VERY string sensitive guitar and always sounded best with a bit of age on the steel.

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I wonder whether it was the strings coming in with a bit of play? I remember my AJ was a VERY string sensitive guitar and always sounded best with a bit of age on the steel.

 

I don't know if it is the strings or the guitar "breaking" in. I suspect it is the guitar. Whenever I put new strings on any guitar I do not recall it ever doing this.

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I love my AJ. It kind of is like a hybrid between a Martin and J45. Also, for having rosewood back and sides, at least mine doesn't necessarily have that softer, rounder (some say mushy?) lower end a lot of rosewood Martin dress have, while my AJ is crisp and articulate. It's a fairly loud guitar compared to my J45TV, but has a long scale neck like a Martin. It's a monster strummer and great to take to a jam or group, but also can sound super sweet and articulate finger picked. What ai like about the AJ over a Martin (have owned an HD28 and D28) is the AJ stayed a bit fatter and thicker sounding in the higher strings and has that Gibson midrange, where the Martins seemed more unbalanced to me, having a big, fat low end, but the high end always sounded thin in comparison. AJ's are great guitars. Only time I don't reach for my AJ is when I'm playing quieter, singer/songwriter type stuff, where, if I'm not careful the AJ can be a little overpowering.

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I love my AJ. It kind of is like a hybrid between a Martin and J45. Also, for having rosewood back and sides, at least mine doesn't necessarily have that softer, rounder (some say mushy?) lower end a lot of rosewood Martin dress have, while my AJ is crisp and articulate. It's a fairly loud guitar compared to my J45TV, but has a long scale neck like a Martin. It's a monster strummer and great to take to a jam or group, but also can sound super sweet and articulate finger picked. What ai like about the AJ over a Martin (have owned an HD28 and D28) is the AJ stayed a bit fatter and thicker sounding in the higher strings and has that Gibson midrange, where the Martins seemed more unbalanced to me, having a big, fat low end, but the high end always sounded thin in comparison. AJ's are great guitars. Only time I don't reach for my AJ is when I'm playing quieter, singer/songwriter type stuff, where, if I'm not careful the AJ can be a little overpowering.

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I love my AJ. It kind of is like a hybrid between a Martin and J45. Also, for having rosewood back and sides, at least mine doesn't necessarily have that softer, rounder (some say mushy?) lower end a lot of rosewood Martin dress have, while my AJ is crisp and articulate. It's a fairly loud guitar compared to my J45TV, but has a long scale neck like a Martin. It's a monster strummer and great to take to a jam or group, but also can sound super sweet and articulate finger picked. What ai like about the AJ over a Martin (have owned an HD28 and D28) is the AJ stayed a bit fatter and thicker sounding in the higher strings and has that Gibson midrange, where the Martins seemed more unbalanced to me, having a big, fat low end, but the high end always sounded thin in comparison. AJ's are great guitars. Only time I don't reach for my AJ is when I'm playing quieter, singer/songwriter type stuff, where, if I'm not careful the AJ can be a little overpowering.

 

The one thing the Martin HD28 does not have that most Gibsons do, a Rosewood bridge. Rosewood is better at transferring string energy than Ebony. So why does Martin use Ebony on most or all of their high end guitars? I am not sure, maybe tradition.

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