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drathbun

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drathbun last won the day on December 11 2016

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About drathbun

  • Birthday 04/21/1956

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    Calgary, Alberta

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  1. I know this isn't a Gibson, it is my Martin 00028vs, but I'll put my full cover of the same song using my Gibson J200 and Gibson Songwriter on this post as well for Gibson eye-candy. 🙂
  2. I did this cover of Cat Stevens' "If I Laugh" about nine years ago. It is a J200 Standard maple which I have since sold to make way for my SJ200 Golden Age.
  3. Thanks, Red! Later on the MC was going through the crowd with a mic asking people for jokes (as the next act was setting up). So I got a chance to tell one of my favourite Stephen Wright jokes... "All here who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand." Thanks, Seagull!
  4. Thanks, Bill. We've been singing together for many years, usually at parties and get-togethers for friends and family. Thanks, Nick. We had three prepared but they needed time for the rappers. 😞 Thanks, PB! The more we practice, the less rehearsed we seem! 😉
  5. Last Friday night my wife Winn and I played the "Free For All Fridays" gig at the Tribal Connections cafe in Okotoks Alberta. Once a month this small store/bistro/club opens their stage to locals who wish to perform anything they wish; standup comedy, poetry readings, music, rap, whatever. I played my Hummingbird 12 string there last month. This time I brought my SJ200 Golden Age. This guitar has no internal pickup so I used the iRig Stage pickup system. I cut a hole in a feedback buster to accommodate the iRig and it worked pretty nicely. The feedback I got was from the stage mics not the pickup. When I got there, I noticed they had added to the guitars they put out for anyone to come up and use. They added a very nice looking and sounding, sunburst, Gibson Songwriter. Next month I might leave my guitars at home and play the Songwriter. I owned one a few years ago and loved it. FWIW, here is a video of our performance mistakes and all.
  6. Awesome guitarist extraordinaire though he was, Chet was ever so much more than just a guitar player. He had a huge influence on the music business as a music producer and co-inventor of the "Nashville Sound".
  7. drathbun

    SJ-200

    My SJ200 is a vintage reproduction model; the Ray Whitley Golden Age 1930's. So there was no pickup option of course. I've decided to keep it unaltered by an onboard pickup. However, when I'm recording with it, it is sometimes more convenient to plug in rather than set up a mic. So I bought an iRig Acoustic Stage pickup that clips to the sound hole and the lead run on the exterior of the guitar to a beltpack. I've never played it live with this setup but this coming Friday I'm playing at the Tribal again and have decided to take the SJ200 with me. I was concerned about feedback (small club with two Bose L1 Compacts close to the stage) so I've improvised a feedback buster to accommodate the iRig. Sorry for seemingly hijacking this thread, but I thought it might be instructive that you don't actually NEED to install a pickup in your guitar if it doesn't come with one already. Here is the YouTube I did when I first got the iRig Acoustic Stage.
  8. drathbun

    SJ-200

    This is excellent advice. An underset neck means the guitar is screwed right out of the gate. They should never get out of the factory this way but stuff happens I guess. There are a few good ways to check for an underset neck: Sight the neck. Put the end of the guitar on your toe and look down the neck trying to align the edge of the treble or bass side of the neck until it becomes a straight line to the bridge. If the top of the bridge (not the saddle) and the end of the fretboard align, then the neck is set properly. If the line of the fretboard points below the bridge towards the body, then it is underset. Put a straight-edge down the fretboard, on edge, between the D and G strings. As you slide the straight-edge towards the bridge, the bottom edge should slide smoothly over the top of the bridge and then butt up against the saddle. If it hits the front thickness of the bridge, the neck is underset. Check for a low saddle. If the guitar is new or just a few years old, the saddle should have substantial material above the bridge. If you are looking at a new guitar and the saddle is low, then the neck was underset when it was made and the factory lowered the saddle to compensate. Once the guitar ages, there will be no saddle material left to adjust the saddle down to lower the action from the rising neck. In EVERY case, a new guitar with an underset neck should be avoided as more trouble than it is worth. I don't care if it is a new $5000 Gibson or Martin, they aren't worth being reset. Find a good one. On a personal note, any SJ200 with an Adirondack (red spruce) top will be superior to a standard J200 in my opinion.
  9. I agree 100%. I've never agreed with blind fanboyism or brand chauvinism. It is blinkered thinking. However, I have NO problem waving the flag for a superior product which I love. So I can proudly proclaim my love of my Gibson SJ200 guitar as one of the finest guitars I've ever played or owned. And I've played guitar close to 50 years now. Plus, I've sold thousands of guitars while I was a guitar salesperson. At the same time that I sing Gibson's praises, I feel comfortable calling them out when they are just plain BAD! I have the same feeling about Martin and Taylor. I own a stellar Martin and have owned incredible Taylors. Guitars are like people; there's good in bad in all and you don't fall in love with everyone. At least I don't.
  10. I agree with everything Nick just said. In addition to "chasing the tuning" around, I had just replaced a broken octave G string. Although I stretched it a bit, it was only an hour old and when I went to capo 2 and detuned the low E strings down a full step, the whole fretboard was out of whack. The Hummingbird 12 stays in tune really well I have to say. But under these circumstances, no 12 string would be in tune. I just had to decided which was worse, hearing an out of tune guitar or listening to an amateur tune a 12 string for five minutes. 😉
  11. Thanks, BBG! Six string next time with two mics; one vocal and one guitar. It doesn't matter how good you are as long as people are entertained. So playing a song where people can sing along or clap along gets them involved and they don't notice (or don't care) you aren't hitting the notes. I got so involved in my story about my G string, that I forgot to tell the joke I had prepared... "Everyone here who believes in psychokinesis, raise my hand." - Stephen Wright
  12. Thanks Phil! Oh there is no sound engineer. The lady that owns the cafe has a small mixer and she turns stuff up and down. I had control of my own pickup volume and should have turned it down but I seriously couldn't hear myself. When the guy adjusted my mic, I tried to get closer to it but then started popping my P's so I backed off. Each time is a learning experience. Next time, before I go up, I'm going to turn the Bose L1 Compacts slightly to see if the stage can get some of the mix.
  13. Please forgive the mistakes and the horrible tuning when I capo up and drop D. I was too nervous to even attempt to tune on stage! Next time I'll be using either my Gibson SJ200 or my Martin 00028vs but neither of them have pickups. 🙄
  14. First thing that came to my mind was the finish being softened by bug repellent on player's hands. Just once is enough to soften the nitro finish and then it gets tacky and wears, flakes and chips off.
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