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zombywoof

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zombywoof last won the day on April 27 2023

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  1. An "E" followed by another letter does indicate a 1939 build date. I would expect an L12 though to have a EA prefix which was used on certain high-end guitars. While I have spent time with a 1939 L12 (which somebody had hopes I would buy) I do not recall the FON and do not know enough about archtops to narrow year built down by features. This one though apparently rolled out of Kalamazoo early enough in the year that it still had X bracing instead of parallel bracing.
  2. It is, of course, believed that Robert Johnson never owned an L1 but only posed with it for the studio photo. Johnny Shines who traveled with RJ recalls he played an Oscar Schmidt Stella and a Kalamazoo archtop (either a KG31 or KG21) before he acquired the KG14. The story is he lost the archtop in a fire but who knows. If there is an archetype "blues" guitar though it is the Schmidt Stella. Not only Robert Johnson but Charlie Patton, Blind Blake, Willie Brown, and a host of others, favored them. I still have a couple - an all-birch slot head 12 fret concert and a scary rare spruce top, 14 fret, solid headstock jumbo.
  3. That would be easy - how about a guitar with three tone bars, one with non-scalloped bracing, an L-00 which clocks in at around three pounds, and instrument with a hand rubbed instead of sprayed finish, etc., etc., and so on.
  4. A search quickly revealed Legends where the model number on the COA was typed or hand written. Here you go. Gibson 1942 J-45 Legend - Vintage Sunburst | Reverb
  5. If I recall the rap is that with Legends built up to at least 2010, Gibson went as far as to resurrect old machinery so they could duplicate the saw marks on the bracing. The biggest difference I can see between my 1942 J50 and the 2016 Legend is the back braces. Those on my guitar are far more delicate. They are barely 1/4" wide tapering upward to a depth of around 1/16". Very similar to those on my 1932 L1. But as has been said, specs being what they were at the time, consistency was not exactly a strong point when it came to Banners.
  6. There are times when I see a specific year attached to a "Reissue" that I think Bozeman must have pulled it out of a hat. What is truly strange is that had Gibson simply gone with another year for some of them such as 1941 or 1942 for their 1933 L-00 and 1936 J35 they would have been a whole lot closer to hitting the mark as by that time Kalamazoo had gone with scalloped X bracing and two scalloped tone bars on every guitar which rolled out of the factory.
  7. I get that and that a 12/4 plank is 1/2" deeper than a 10/4 board. You would think that the savings in scrap cost by going with a 10/4 board would be enough to rationalize it. The addition of wings were more about strengthening the headstock than adding width to it.
  8. Regarding headstock shapes, while I could be dead wrong, I have always heard that as obtaining enough suitable 12/4 size mahogany to satisfy production needs started to get more difficult to come by, builders began going with smaller size stock. Hence the addition of wings. As for the rest of it, as Master Luthier John Greven once noted, no builder, whether it be Martin, Gibson or whomever, made changes purely for sound. Changes more often as not had to do with cutting costs (both labor and scrap) and solving an engineering problem the biggest of which was how to avoid guitars being returned under warranty which was a major drag on the bottom line of any company. Bozeman is no different than others. There is a reason you no longer see say an L00 with a bridge plate the thickness of a couple of business cards with the whole instrument clocking in at maybe three pounds. Then you have to throw in the fact that Bozeman has its own ideas as to what sounds and feels best. There is a reason necks with a thickness at the 1st fret of 1.0" and a string spacing at the bridge of more than 2 3/16" are few and far between. And if Bozeman builds a guitar with anything other than a scalloped bracing rather than the delicate non-scalloped bracing my '32 L1 features and the version of that bracing my 1956 Southern Jumbo sported, I have yet to see it. While they do capture the characteristic Gibson voice there is enough of a nuanced difference to distinguish between "Old School" and "New School" Gibson Tone.
  9. What eludes me is how this issue could have gone unnoticed for some five months. Unless you happen to be a lefty, it would have been staring you right in the kisser every time you picked the guitar up.
  10. What fingerboard binding? What I see is the tang and end of the crown maybe not protruding but even with thew side of the board. If guess though, I simply label it fret sprout.
  11. As I just play them and do not build them, I am no expert. But it looks like a case of fret sprout to me. If so, it is not necessarily an example of poor build quality but as with other issues a reaction to the world surrounding the guitar.
  12. My J50 dates to 1942 so well before the batwing scratchplate came into vogue. More than likely, as noted above, somebody at Gibson made the call that a natural top J45 was more marketable than a J50. Me, I think I will wait until Bozeman comes out with a J50 sporting a burst.
  13. Given the scale, body shape and lumber used for the rim and back, the J60 is Bozeman's updated take on the Heritage. And yeah, that model was meant to appeal to the bluegrass crowd.
  14. Sorry but just going by looks (which is obviously all I got to go on) this one does not even come close to getting me to break my self-imposed guitar exile. If nothing ese it is not the best-looking burst I have run across. But give me one with a small amber center surrounded by all that black and you will pretty much send me running for the drool bucket.
  15. When it comes to guitars, I cannot think of them in terms of "good" and "bad" but just different. So, it comes down to those I really like and those I like not as much. Think of it in terms of a J45 built from 1955 to 1960 and the current crop of 50s Original J45s. Neither is what I would even think of calling a slacker but each has their own balance and as such their own voice. Me being me, I was a fan of NYC-built Epi flattops. Overbuilt as it got but to my ear, they had an early-Guild vibe about them. And to this day I will take a NYC-made Epi archtop over a Gibson. The low point for Epiphones though was in the 1970s into the 1980s when Gibson simply licensed out the name. More often as not what you got were bottom of the food chain Arias. In the end though, Gibson started doing right by the brand.
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