Brucebubs

Best I have at the moment is ...

Look at this picture of a 1952 SJ-200 again - not a new 2020 Historic - it's 68 years old- I just think my SJ-200 should have a TRC that looks as good as this one.

My wife does that too. I bought her one of those 'Mood Rings' once - it turned black as soon as she put it on .. then it caught fire .. my fault again apparently.

It is silly, the white base has clean sharp edges it's just that black overlay that's rough - it just needed a little gentle cleaning up with sandpaper or something before it was stuck down.

Ha ha - you should hear it! There's not a Maton on earth that sounds like this ... now Lowden might just be a different story! 🙂

Hey, by coincidence I bought my Rickenbacker bass in 2018 from Olivia's Vintage - they were absolutely fantastic, double boxed and the set up was perfect.

What if I told you it cost the equivalent to US$8,888.00 here? That gives you a good idea of how much US made guitars cost outside the USA.

For the record, this is the difference between the wide white border TRC and more common type.

Update - store owner just got back to me and agreed the TRC is pretty poor quality and he's taking steps to replace it. Meanwhile, I found these on ebay here for $1.90 each, think I'll have a little fun with some white paint and see how it turns out.

I'm in contact with Gibson and let them know I feel like I'm being passed around at the moment - no-one wants to own it! Then there's always this ....

I can find plenty of the correct shape covers but this black with wide white border is not so common. Any links would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Which is ... ?

Loving how my new Historic 1957 SJ-200 plays and sounds but I'm not impressed with the Truss Rod Cover - black over white but the black panel looks like it was cut out with a rusty butter knife - very rough around the edges. I have a bad feeling no-one is going to do anything about it - I contacted Gibson USA Customer Service and they passed the buck to the Australian distributor and they passed the buck on to the dealer who .. surprise, surprise .. hasn't replied to my emails or returned my call.

OK, I'm not a big fan but I wouldn't throw rocks at one.

Truck loaded with 100 Maton guitars was parked overnight with the doors left open. In the morning they found 187 Matons in the back.

Morning coffee - checked the US election results - shook my head - checked emails - Gibson customer service let me know the strings on my new guitar are PB's, not 80/20's - played some guitar, boy this thing is good! - Breakfast - more guitar - fed the wild birds waiting for me - more guitar - read latest motoring magazine, then some more C.J. Box novel - little more guitar - checked election results again - shook my head some more - ran a bath and had my weekly soak - 2nd coffee coming up.

Thank goodness they were all electrics - no acoustics.

Excellent point about damage from leaving that tuner attached. I'm so paranoid with my new SJ-200 that I clip the tuner on the 5A Gotoh keystone button - tune the 6E string - then clip the tuner on the 6E string button and tune the rest! p.s. Back & sides are stunning on that guitar too - I like it a lot! Grover Sta-Tite tuners - have they used round shaped push-fit bushes or have they used a washer with the push fit bushes? Martin guitars used a washer with these at some stage and they became notorious for causing buzzing from the headstock - remedied by simply removing the washer.

If you watch the Jethro Tull performance you'll see Tony Iommi on lead guitar - he didn't stay long, just 2 weeks, left and formed Black Sabbath

I have a really nice Epiphone EJ-200 too, plays beautifully but you need a firm right hand to get the most out of it. There was even a time when I worried that it might be really close to a real and much more expensive SJ-200. Boy was I wrong! You're welcome to come play my guitars if the world ever gets back to what it was. Takamine D-70 - Morris B-50 - Guild F-412 - Martin Grand J12-40E Special - Martin JDP II - Epiphone EJ-200 - Dan Dubowski #61 - Alvarez ABT-60 - Kittis RBJ-195 - Huss & Dalton MJ Custom - Rickenbacker 4003 and my new Historic 1957 SJ-200.

That comment about the bass may be one of the differences between a SJ-200 Standard and the new Historic SJ-200 with torrefied tops and hide glue? Bass is definitely deep as you say but I'm finding no problem with the volume with my Maple 1957-SJ-200.

Thank you for the replies regarding the bone saddle. There is a straight brace on the top between the soundhole and the neck block and looking the other way toward the bridge there is definitely no straight brace and the 'V' of the upper 'X' brace is obvious - sitting just forward of the 'V', almost in the 'V' itself, is another small brace shaped like a pyramid! No side supports at all. Planning to use my phone and wife's ipod to take pictures when I do my first string change.

I'm also a strummer and have used plain ol' Jim Dunlop .60mm nylon picks for as long as I can remember but just 2 days ago I tried a celluloid pick and the guitar went up another notch - louder and clearer. Some other strings you might like to consider are Ernie Ball Aluminum Bronze - great volume and a touch brighter than PB's and GHS makes 'Signature Bronze' and 'Americana Bronze' series strings and both are recommended for adding brightness to warm sounding guitars.