Brucebubs

I have this F-412 with a faulty top coat from when the Corona Fender were having teething problems with freshly installed finishing equipment - no structural problems, plays perfectly and sounds superb.

I love my Historic 1957 SJ-200 Vintage Sunburst but that blonde Original is still a mighty nice looking guitar - as you pointed out, it has the 4-bar insert bridge and keystone tuners. It even has the vintage style wider white border truss rod cover. It's a great guitar.

James Taylor used a Gibson J-50 earlier in his career and he made it sound wonderful - maybe go look for one too?

Bought my Rick from 'Olivia's Vintage' in the USA and shipped it here to Australia. They packaged it beautifully and did a superb set-up.

I think I'm also lucky to have my Historic 1957 SJ-200 here in Australia. I've seen this model listed in a couple of stores here but 'Not In Stock'. A Historic Pre-War SJ-200 arrived in a big Melbourne store and sold on the same day.

My 2002 Guild F-412 is red but I'll happily stay with the Vintage Sunburst on my SJ-200.

Check that again ... I don't think they sell their own their own 'Martin' branded tuners to the general public - too easy to use them on a fake guitar. I had some gold tuners that needed replacing on my Martin Grand J12-40E Special after a poor set-up job that buffed the gold plating off half the tuners - I was only able to replace them after Jon Garon at My Favorite Guitars pleaded my case to Martin - I had to order them through the dealer who then shipped them on to me.

These cattle bone pins from China on ebay are mighty close in size - seems a pity Gibson won't sell me theirs. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/183747610856

My 2020 Historic 1957 SJ-200 comes with bone nut, saddle and pins. Making a bone saddle copy was easy because it's not compensated but I emailed Gibson with the serial number and asked for a spare set of bridge pins - they refused. The pins are an odd size 30.17mm long, 7.72mm across the top, 5.40mm collar and 5.30mm under the collar.

Head is a 1968 American satirical musical adventure film written and produced by Jack Nicholson and Bob Rafelson, directed by Rafelson, starring television rock group the Monkees (Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith) and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film featured Victor Mature as "The Big Victor"and cameo appearances by Nicholson, Teri Garr, Carol Doda, Annette Funicello, Frank Zappa, Sonny Liston, Timothy Carey, Percy Helton and Ray Nitschke. Also appearing on screen in brief non-speaking parts are Dennis Hopper and film choreographer Toni Basil.

I'm an SJ-200 owner but I liked them both. I'd be happy to own a J-45 like that one too.

I saw The Who live without Entwhistle and Moon, not the same but still very, very good. No reason Nesmith and Dolenz can't pull it off too.

It's funny that I'm a huge prog fan and I also really like Peter Gabriel's solo work and Steve Hackett is an amazing guitarist but I just can't get into Genesis for some reason. Tried again recently after reading Gabriel's autobiography but same thing. Have you heard the album Hackett did with Chris Squire called 'Squackett'? It's actually really good!

Actually, these are the strings I have put aside to try out on my SJ-200.

On my very first string change on my maple 2020 Historic 1957 SJ-200 I went from factory PB's to John Pearse 80/20 lights and they were superb. My guitar is super warm and I don't think those JP New Mediums would work - it doesn't need any more bottom end. I bought more JP's but I'm also trying different brands and types in between string changes. GHS Bright Bronze were just a little too bright and didn't show signs of warming as they wore in - D'Addario Nickel Bronze have great volume, were also quite bright when new but settled down after a couple of days and are sounding really good too.

I sold 3 guitars on consignment at a store in Melbourne. Their pictures were excellent too.

I'll never look at a meatball in the same way again.

Easy, it's an SJ-200 with 50 good things missing.

Nice but it's like a flat chested Raquel Welch - if you have an SJ-200 there's just too much missing.

I'm so paranoid I clip mine on the buttons of the keystone tuners - I clip it on 4D first then I move it to 6E.

Pete's signature maybe but no, I spent $400 having it framed anyway .... or should that be Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere?

There was also a Korean made EJ-300 with rosewood back & sides. I bought this one on Reverb but returned it for a full refund - frets were a mess and all the tuners were shot and it didn't sound or play anywhere as nice as my Indonesian EJ-200.

Bought a high quality 24" x 32" print of the Tommy album cover artwork by Michael McInnerey from 'Visual Gallery' in the USA. Still listed on their site for just US$49.00 http://www.visualgallery.com/who_tommy.html Superbly packaged it arrived in mint condition and I had it professionally framed.

Swapped the plastic saddle on my Epiphone EJ-200 to bone and could hear an improvement - the very next day the bone pins I ordered were delivered so I swapped them too - sustain and volume both improved again.

Nice review but I'm taking your advice on board regarding unsuitability for an already warm guitar. My '57 SJ-200 is extremely warm out of the box. I'm trying a set of GHS Bright Bronze at the moment but they might be just a little too bright. The GHS Signature Bronze are rated in between their Bright Bronze and PB's on their Bright/Mellow spectrum. I'll give them a try next. I've got J Pearse 80/20's to fall back on, they sound superb on this guitar.