Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Boyd

All Access
  • Posts

    1,388
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Boyd last won the day on May 25 2020

Boyd had the most liked content!

Reputation

115 Good

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Not Telling
  • Location
    New Jersey Pine Barrens

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. Is it a J-50 Deluxe or just a plain J-50? I don't know if there's any difference, but my 1974 J-50 Deluxe (purchased new) has the batwing pickguard. I think I've seen some J-50's with teardrop guards, but they were much older. We have discussed the newer Gibson natural J-45's before. To me, it doesn't quite look like a J-50. The lack of a batwing pickguard and black nut are obvious differences. But it also appears to have some kind of pearl inlaid headstock logo. I don't recall ever seeing that on a J-50, it seems too fancy. When you add the big chrome rotomatic tuners, the overall effect looks really ugly to me.
  2. Another Truman baby here, although the first president I was really aware of was Eisenhower.
  3. I got my 1974 J-50 new and took very poor care of it. After it became unplayable I had a luthier fix it up around 2013 and he did a great job. When I picked it up I asked if there were any problems and he said the only problem was, he didn't want to give it back. 🤣 My son in law liked it so much, he's had it on permanent loan for many years now. But here are a few old pictures, you can barely see the label inside. It has some nasty stains, probably from kids and cats who liked putting things into it over the years. I checked and old receipt, and its serial number also begins with "A". The original tuners were a mess, one was broken and they were all very stiff from the start so I replaced them with the Gibson in this photo which I got at Guitar Center before I knew there were nice replicas of the originals available elsewhere. Here's what the originals looked like though.
  4. I can't make much sense of these photos, sorry. But, FWIW, I have a 2020 60's original J-50 that I bought in 2021 in 'like new" condition. About a year ago, the bridge began to lift on one side. This guitar has the new version of the adjustable bridge/saddle, so it's securely bolted in place and isn't going anywhere. Haven't done anything about it yet since it doesn't seem to affect the sound or playability, but one day will deal with it. Your experience makes me wonder if the cure would be worse than the disease though!
  5. I was a camp counselor as a college freshman and one of my assignments was the craft shop, where they had a peg board with labels for each tool. Just for fun, we put half of the hammers facing in one direction and the others facing the opposite way, then labelled them right-handed and left-handed. It was pretty funny, all the "right-hand" hammers would get snatched up immediately when the kids came in and most of the left ones would remain. Kids would come up and ask if it was OK to use a left hammer if they were right handed, we'd say, "well, I don't know, the balance is gonna be WAY off..." The best part of it was, if we needed a hammer ourselves, there were always plenty. Eventually we let everyone in on the joke. Have been taking a break from guitar for the past few months and got a Yamaha P-125 digital piano (had an earlier version about 30 years ago and they have come a long way, it feels and sounds like a grand piano). I studied classical piano for almost 10 years but quit in college. Kept playing on and off over the years, but my old digital keyboard became really bad and I completely quit about 15 years ago. Anyway, slowly getting back into it, and pleased that the muscle memory is still there. But that's a whole different right hand, left hand thing. As a "righty", of course I favor that. But you also really depend on the left hand and putting them both together is the real challenge.
  6. Maybe look for one of their 50's original J-50's or J-45's? I think it's the same guitar with a fatter neck (fatter than the J-45 standard). They also include a pickup which makes them a bit more expensive. There are a few threads about them here and the owners seemed really happy. I prefer the skinnier neck, so they wouldn't be for me. The "wannabe dentist" thing went over my head too. 🤣
  7. I have the J-50 twin of that J-45 (a 2020 J50 60's original) and really like it. Also have a real 1965 J-50 ADJ, and while the 60's original series is a nice tribute to the original, it's a completely different guitar in every way. I actually like the 2020 guitar better. Have been taking a break from playing guitar for awhile, but it was the only one I played for a couple years after purchasing it. I also have a 2008 J-50 Modern Classic (very similar to a J-45 standard) and the 2020 60's original is much closer to that than the real 1965 J-50. The neck is more narrow on the 60's original, but not by much. I might not even notice if I was blindfolded. True, it has the same nut width as my 1965 J-50, but the carve is much, much fatter. I compared the circumference of the necks (good indicator of what it's like wrapping your hand around it) on the 2020 vs 2008 J-50. IIRC, the circumference was about 1/4" less on the 2020 at the first fret. But by the time you got past the 3rd fret, they were exactly the same and the rest of the necks were identical as you went up the scale. So, I don't think the nut width is a very good basis for comparison. My real 1965 J-50 has the same nut width but is a much thinner neck. I like the sound of the tusq saddle on the ADJ bridge. Not going to attempt to describe it, because it's too subjective. But it sounds much more like a modern Gibson acoustic than any vintage guitar I've played.
  8. Just checked, and that is wrong! It was the Skip Weshner Show on WBAI, NY in February 1963. Just transcribed this, the discussion starts about 2 minutes into the show right after Bob opens with an excerpt from a song called (?) "If only ever she was lyin' by me" (I don't know that one). ________________________________________________________________________________________ Bob: Hey, there's this movie called The Time Machine, and ya gotta see it... Skip: HG Wells Time Machine? Bob: Yeah Skip: That came out about 1930 or something originally, wasn't it? Bob: Ooo... what's that again? Skip: I never saw it. Bob: Oh wow (laughs) Skip: Yeah... (goes into a long rant about science fiction) Bob: (chuckles and says "yeah, uh-huh" a few times) Skip: (eventually) ...where's it playing in New York? Bob: It's playing uptown around 42nd Street - yeah, in fact, it's on 42nd Street Skip: Oh, on 42nd Street? Bob: ...with a Sammy Davis Junior movie and Frank Sinatra and all them people Skip: Well, that's science fiction. Bob: Hmmm... yeah, right. (both laugh) ________________________________________________________________________________________ I'm wondering what rat pack movie they were running in 1963? Ocean's Eleven is my favorite, from 1960. But it might have been a newer one... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Pack
  9. There's a show from the early 60's with Bob Dylan on a New York City radio station where he plays a few songs and talks about random things with the host. Apparently, he had just seen The Time Machine film with Rod Taylor and says it was really cool. Bob asks the host if he's seeen it, but he's clueless and doesn't know what Bob is talking about. Kind of a funny moment. I ripped a recording of it that I found online somewhere a few years ago, just looking quickly at my playlists now... I think it was the Oscar Brand Show from WNYC on 10-29-61 but don't have time to check right now. According to IMDB, the Time Machine was released in 1960.
  10. I would buy the 1969 date for the natural headstock, although most of the ones I've seen are later. FWIW, this is my own 1974 J-50 Deluxe that I bought new Here's the headstock on my 1965 J-50 ADJ that I got in 2015 And the full guitar
  11. Here you go - a Custom Shop Hummingbird with an adjustable bridge/saddle. So, in the case of the Hummingbird, I think Gibson mentions "fixed bridge" to differentiate it from this. https://www.gibson.com/en-US/Acoustic-Guitar/ACC3PP294/Heritage-Cherry-Sunburst
  12. No, they are not. The 60's original series has an updated version of the adjustable bridge, just like the real 1960's instruments had. Bridge: Traditional belly up, Adjustable There were several variations of the 60's original J-45, think some have been discontinued, but the one at the link below is still on their website (look at the hardware specs). I have a 2020 60's original J-50 with the adjustable bridge, but apparently it was recently discontinued. I think there are one or two other vintage re-issues with the adjustable bridge in the current lineup, but not sure. Yes, you could argue that this is an "adjustable saddle" and not an "adjustable bridge", we've discussed that before. But they have been called "adjustable bridge" for a long time and most people who are familiar with Gibson acoustics understand what that means. This is not the same thing as the "tune-o-matic". https://www.gibson.com/en-US/Acoustic-Guitar/ACCJ5F910/Wine-Red?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIh_Lx6JSUgwMVjtbICh2D9gsREAAYAiAAEgIX8vD_BwE
  13. I simply don't care for their music anymore and stopped listening to them long ago. I enjoy a wide variety of musical styles and go through phases of listening to different things. But generally speaking, I rarely listen to anything as commercial as the Beatles or other bands that were "climbing the charts" back in my youth. If you still like the Beatles, that's great - nothing wrong with that!
  14. Sorry, I have not listened to it and don't really plan to. I loved the Beatles for many years, had most of the albums on vinyl, cassette tape and later CD. Saw the movies. But somehow, I just lost interest over the years. Tried listening to one of the albums awhile ago and didn't make it all the way through. I think they were brilliant, but they no longer appeal to me. But I'm concerned about AI - especially this recent decision https://news.artnet.com/art-world/federal-judge-sides-with-ai-companies-in-artists-copyright-dispute-2387654 "The judge made a distinction between works that are copyrighted and works that are not. Though the U.S. Copyright Office considers a copyright to exist “from the moment the work is created,” the agency notes that copyrights have to be registered to bring a lawsuit for alleged infringement" Granted, the fight is just beginning, but it seems inevitable that artists (in all media) will be the losers. In this case, the artists could prove their works were ripped off for use in AI-created "art" but they lost because they never registered a copyright. If you've posted music anywhere on the internet, get ready to start hearing your tunes and lyrics in AI-generated works. How many of you actually register copyrights for your works? I understand that this Beatles song is a different kind of thing that has its own merits. And there are plenty of good - even exciting - uses for AI. But it sure looks like it will change the arts forever... in a bad way.
  15. Boyd

    1968 J50

    Have been taking a break from the guitar for awhile to concentrate on other things, but I have a 2020 J-50 with the ADJ bridge and it's still my favorite guitar. Here's one of several threads we have about that model. I am rather disappointed however because the bridge is lifting up from the guitar body on one side. Doesn't seem to affect the sound (much) and the bolts that hold the ADJ saddle are keeping it from lifting too much but someday I need to get it fixed.
×
×
  • Create New...