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tpbiii

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tpbiii last won the day on March 21 2023

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  1. I learned on my neighbors LG-0 1957. I tried to buy a new one in 1962 in Boston but I found a shop worn LG-1 for $75. I later bought a used one c 1990 for my son, but he sold it.
  2. Note that my original post was not so much about Robert Johnson but on pictures of Robert Johnson and model guitars he was holding. OTOH, since I own those (real vintage) models I can say IMHO they do make great traditional blues guitars. It is not weird to me that L-0, L-00, and HG-00 make great blues guitar. OTOH, the F-25 is a bit odd.😎 Best, -Tom
  3. At the end of our "folk era" -- late 60s and early 70s -- I was really into the history of American traditional music, and I still have quite a large library of books on the subject. Being a geek, I have always remembered stuff (less so now at 80) and at that time I had no problem doing lectures on blues history as well as traditional mountain styles and gospel and by the late 70s bluegrass too. I had (have) all the old recordings Robert Johnson as well as many more. I was always more drawn to the blue harp ( have played since I was 😎 and when I play blues, it is mostly on harp -- love Son Terry!. But blues never caught on with me -- other than harp. Even though I know hundreds of song lyrics, they are not blues songs. I have not kept up -- for the past 35+ years, we played almost exclusively bluegrass with some traditional folk, old gospel, traditional mountain, and folk revival. I did (and do) get hired now and then as a blues side man, but only on harp and no vocals. But when I came across this youtube video about Robert Johnson's guitars and where he got them, I was interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCPljsfaKmA&t=334 I knew about the L1, but I had missed the KG-14. I have them both and have always considered them my "blues" guitars, but since I play so little in that style, that is not very relevant. The other two that fit this category tonally are the 39 HG-00 and (oddly) 65 F-25. Just geeking out before breakfast. Best, -Tom
  4. Well I am really only interested in vintage, and there is no such thing as a vintage 12-fret J-45. There are two Gibsons that share some J-45 features and are 12-fret that were made as Hawaiian in the 1930s and that can be converted -- the ROY SMECK STAGE DELUXE (mahogany) and the ROY SMECK RADIO GRANDE (RW). The have the slightly deep body of the 1934-1936 JUMBO and the 1936-early 1937 J-35 Trojan (J-35). Th bracing is different from the banners and other J-45s and SJs.
  5. Either can mean many things. The reason I posted the videos of me playing three finger alternating thumb style with finger picks on the banner J-45 is to show what I do personally on my old J-45s and SJs. This is so you can interpret what I say from examples. I also have a bare finger instrumental style I use just to play songs -- but I seldom use a J-45 -- mostly 00 20s and 30s Martins, which are as sweet as honey, I have spent many hours playing this style alone -- the J-45s are usually played with/to people or practicing for same. I am not saying this is right or wrong -- just an explanation of what I have learned playing them for myself and friends over the past 35 to 50+ years. I guess showing you pictures of my old guitars that are the subjects of my posts is called carpet photo bombing. There seems to be so much interests in the old guitars, I thought I was being nice. Because of the recent crazy vintage guitar market I guess it is a fair statement that many people seldom see them and/or get to hear and play them a lot. I did not make those 1000s of recordings and 10000s of high resolution photos to show them to you, but as part of a serious 45 year effort to study the properties of the sound pallet of the early 20th century. Music -- at least my music -- is personal. I know yours is too. It is a wonderful obsession each of can enjoy in our own way. Let's pick, -Tom
  6. Of course, this stuff is very well known by a lot of people. Monroe did not like the genre to be called bluegrass music because he considered it to be his music until people started calling him the FATHER OF BLUEGRASS MUSIC. Since the question was about bluegrass music, guitars, and the J-45, it occurred to me I had examples of all the guitars in question with high quality recordings of their rhythm. Also since I played bluegrass and also often brought along a couple of banner J-45s and SJs, ( as well as herringbones, AJ, etc.) I could provide a pretty good demo of the issues. So I did. I hope some of you enjoyed it. Best, -Tom
  7. How about my song COLD REINDEER BLUES on a 1925 L-1 -- just like Robert Johnson.😎 -Tom
  8. I am guessing here you don't play a lot of traditional bluegrass. In the Monroe Brothers, Charlie played an original Jumbo. The Monroe Brothers were a raw traditional band, where the rhythm had very little in common with later bluegrass music. When he broke up with Charlie, Bill first teamed up with Cleo Davis, and tried for awhile to sound like the Monroe Brothers. In 1939, Bill bought a J-35 -- similar specs to the then discontinued Jumbo. https://imgur.com/rehwMbi Cleo Davis, 1939 https://imgur.com/CjskR7u by the time "Bluegrass Music" actually got define -- c. 1945 -- Everything had changed. Monroe used a 1939 D-28, with that power and mid-range RW roar so that it became a defining element of the all-important legendary bluegrass rhythm. There are Gibsons which will do that, but they were not being produced after about 1940. But not J-45s -- they could never do that or anything like it. They do make good ragtime guitars and county strummers. 😎
  9. The J-45 has never been used much in bluegrass and other strong string band music. It has had more of an impact in the milder "country" genres. The introduction of the J-45 c 1942 represented a clear reduction of power compared to the Jumbo, AJ, J-35, and even the J-55 of the 1930s. I have several (3) J-45s from 1943-1953, as well as three SJs from the same period. Except for a RW SJ I have, the SJs are basically decorated J-45s until the late 50s -- the 60s and later marked a drop off in power across the entire Gibson acoustic line. The guitars I use for bluegrass as mostly Martin D-18s, D-21s, and D-18s. The Gibson I use are (rare) (36) AJ, 35 RSRG, 43 SJ RW, and (40) (super rare) J-55 RW. So what do I use the J-45s for. Mostly traditional ragtime and gospel and flat picked traditional rhythm styles. IMHO, for that they rock. If I take a J-45 on stage in a bluegrass set, I mostly pick lead directly into the mic with finger picks.
  10. Here is my sad old banner -- now gone. It actually is a 1943. When I bought it waiting in line to camp at Galax, it has already been refinished. Here is what it looked like. $1000. Here is what it looked like. Then disaster -- a pipe broke in my house while we were away and poured water on it for several days. When we got home, it was a pile of wrinkled wood with all sign of finished washed away. All separate pieces. The insurance paid full insured valued at the time -- $1500 in 2006. So eventually I took the pieces to Randy Wood and said I had $1500 to make it into a guitar again. Here is what came back. All the pieces -- interior and exterior -- are original, so it sounded great! The guitar went to live in Nova Scotia -- our family retirement home -- and eventually I agreed to trade it to a local friend who wanted it badly -- for an original 1954 SJ. End of story. Best, -Tom
  11. It is later than 43 -- at least 44.
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