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Mickthemiller

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About Mickthemiller

  • Birthday 05/21/1946

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    Yorkshire UK
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    Music of almost all genre, not saying which not. Guitars - collecting buying and selling, mostly inexpensive ones. Art, painting, sketching, art history, Impressionists - Computer programming - History - Travel - Walking - Atheism spreading the knowledge of science rather than belief in myth - charity helping those less fortunate - Socialism. All in no particular order

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  1. I'll stick with the J15 if we're talking walnut. Ciav's seems to like a 15 anyway. What are Gibson playing at.
  2. Even though the pound had fallen against the dollar these HP series are dropping in price and dealers like Andertons seem to have a lot in stock. Maybe they will turn out to be a bargain in the summer sales.
  3. It's not cricket old boy, simply not cricket!
  4. I'm still trying to work out what the question means! So I tried to break it down in my head. Price, bling, sound, general quality etc. Any guitar with an over inflated price, talking over $15000 or over here £12,000, just has to be over rated. You don't pay that sort of price for sound and playability. Bling, any guitar with more than decent wood, good tuners, reasonable binding etc must be over rated. MOP on every edge and nook and cranny does not improve what a guitars does. Sound, any guitar that sounds good to the player is not over rated, unless it falls into the super price or super bling category. Under rated guitars are generally those that are cheap but have good tone and playability. It all boils down to value for money really, but then that depends on how much money you have, or in some cases, want to invest. Personally, I think Epiphones make some good acoustics, Recording Kings always feel stiff to me, I like my J15 and generally think Martins and Gibsons fall into the middle ground, not over or under rated. One of my favourite guitars is a Harley Benton all sold dread cedar/hog which just sings, £220. I have never seen a Taylor that I lusted after, but I think they are over rated because so many seen to be priced far too high for laminate B&S. Just me trying to work it all out in my head! I could be totally wrong, mixed up or just plain ignorant
  5. My point about the finish (natural) being cheaper to produce on a J15 was that it would take less labour, therefore less time, therefore lower costs. I do accept that guitar manufacturers will choose better looking fronts for natural finish guitars, but I would not call the spruce on these J15s a being exceptional quality. I would also accept that there could be a conversation at the point of spraying the sunburst in which some one says "hold it, that's a beautiful top, we'll make that a natural finish and get a premium price for it" - It's a business - so any way to get a bit more is worth a try. I bend to Hogeye's greater knowledge but as I stated I have never seen anyone ask advice about a guitar back collapsing or twisting, but I have seen many regarding fronts and necks.In all the guitars I have had I have seen two fronts collapse, many bows in necks and twisted headstocks (take a look at yours and see that this is common)
  6. Summing up. The J15 is an inexpensive guitar in comparison to other Gibsons. Agreed? There has to be a way this was achieved. Agreed? We seem to agree that the wood was sourced in the USA, making it cheaper. The neck seems to be constructed well, three piece like many top end guitars with quarter sawn timber. The top is spruce, it seems to me that it is not the finest spruce out there but it is quarter sawn too. The bracing is reasonable but it does not look like quarter sawn timber to me, I'm open to opinions that differ here. The kerfing looks like mahogany. The back is not quarter sawn, it's just solid walnut. The finish on the guitar is minimal. No stains . No fancy inlays. No sunburst. The tuners are about the cheapest reasonable tuners on the market. Nut and saddle also cheapest reasonable. So we are left with a guitar hat is made at probably the lowest outlay possible. I don't know if it makes much profit for Gibson. It could be a loss leader to encourage players to use Gibsons and maybe move up to higher priced guitars. At this point I think I need to point out that a lot of Gibsons do seem to be very expensive for what you get above and beyond the ordinary. But then so are Martins. Anyway, as I was saying we end up with a guitar made from the cheapest components out there, well sort of. IMHO it sounds fine and plays well. Now that back! Well any guitar back for that matter. Backs, as I see it, do not take as much strain and stress as the rest of a guitar. They are braced generally more heavily than tops as they do not have to vibrate/flex like a top. Necks and tops take all the stress as does the bridge. Let's look at complaints regarding, "my guitar is breaking up, twisting, lifting, bowing", etc. How many times have we read in these pages, "the back of my guitar has collapsed". I can't think of an instance. So if Gibson were thinking of saving money all round on the J15 which bit would they take the greatest risk on? You got it in one!
  7. One of the major uses of walnut is gun stocks. Now I could be wrong but wouldn't gun makers want to use a reliable timber that is not going to fall apart? All I read about walnut is that it is a durable timber and the reason it is inexpensive is because the trees are cropped for generations then replaced.
  8. Here's the link to the Taylor Youtube vid about maple And here's the walnut one In fact there is a whole series of these about other woods So J15 owners - quit fretting - as if you were??
  9. Well I've taken this very seriously and spent some time trawling the net especially our sister board AGF. There is some dispute re quart sawn and flat sawn timber. It seems many guitar builders see little difference in strength and or tone. Interestingly I read that curly maple (much desired amongst some guitarists) cannot be sourced from quarter sawn timber. It seems Taylor Guitars (spit) have done a video on the subject. Finally, well maybe not, I love the back on my J15.
  10. Thanks, my misreading, although I thought we were talking the neck in this thread. Doh!!
  11. I refer you all to mojos second post (3rd in the thread) with the picture of the head stock. Look at the end grain. If that is not quarter sawn I will eat my J15, and that too has quarter sawn neck wood.
  12. I keep hearing/seeing that the glue used is stronger than the wood. I'm waiting for the all glue neck
  13. Wow even that small section of the Olson is super duper fabo !! Reminds me must by a lotto ticket
  14. Had mine a couple of months. I do like the walnut stripe on the neck, multi-piece necks look sooooo coooool and boutique acoustics often have multi layered necks. One thing I would have missed out is the extra thin ring on the rosette. The one inner ring would have been fine and maybe saved a few pennies!
  15. How do i remove 7 duplicate posts? Ipad with a mind of its own!!!

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