PrairieDog

Yeah, the back of my question mark one was so dark you could barely make out the grain… I think the vertical bits of the grain didn’t take the stain quite as strongly, so they showed through and were more visible than what I call the hog swirls. so that made me second guess and entertain what the sales dude was saying, even though RW didn’t seem right given the badging and other plain finish details. I’m bummed I couldn’t get away soon enough after you reassured me it would be hog. Dang company that keeps us in kibble and guitars needs attention sometimes.

Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately this fish got away, but this info will be helpful for future casts.

Right on! It was Emmy Lou Harris’s My baby Needs an Angel that turned me, and made me realize what a vast archive there is I was missing out on. I’m really into vocals, and female singers like Emmy Lou, kd, and Rhiannon Giddens can knock me flat.

I’m finding I’d like to go back and do it all over again now that I’m more far more egalitarian in my tastes. I find I’m playing the “old” roots and Americana stuff that my gang I derided and sneered at when we were 20-something thrashers. And I’m pining for all the great shows and poets I missed, like Dylan, or Leonard Cohen, or the warm-up bands I ignored, waiting for the “star” act to get on stage. Of course we didn’t see it at the time, but we were such effing pompous snarks.

I wonder if Mick sings that ironically now?

There will be variations in the tortoise sheets the guards are cut from. Maybe contact Holter and send them a pic of what you are looking for and they might sort through what they have for one that matches closer than what they show on their site?

Maybe. Just saying, there is no sealer inside the guitar. The moisture can move out the back, it doesn’t have to go out the finished side. Not to mention, years of vibrations makes the wood more pliant and flexible. Like when you loosen up new leather. Or possibly the tones have changed with you, so you aren’t noticing they are different? Do you have recordings of the guitars when they were new to compare to? It’s a slow and subtle process. It’s like you don’t notice how the carpet faded until you move the furniture. I’m aware my experiences have no weight here, but I’m sure you can talk to lots of other folks who will vouch for the tone of a well-aged, well-built, solid woods acoustic guitar. As I said before, it’s a thing even the makers recognize and go to great lengths to try to replicate.

Ummm, congrats on graduating on time? 😫

I don’t know if any of you guys saw it, but they got spoofed last week by a scammers who put up a fake clearance page. I got fed it on FB marketplace. Site had a big SAM ASH CLOSING SALE banner and photo of a SA shop front with a page of big name guitars “selling” for less than $100.00 bucks. At quick glance it made you look until you realized the bane of scammers: they were too lazy to do their homework and put up “real” original prices to take the “90%” off of. That was the biggest tell. Last time I checked a Black Beauty LP was retailing for a bit more than $800.00. And a J-45 custom for $700.00 was tasty enough, without the mark-down to $70. 🤣 I called the real Sam Ash to let them know. The kid appreciated it and said they had just had another call about it that morning. He shot a notice to their enforcer thugs as we chatted. Sad thing is, you know how websites have those little flags that pop out when someone buys something saying “X just bought a ES-335?” That little thing was flashing like mad. I’m hoping that was just part of the scam, to make people think things were flying out the door. Not that real people were getting hooked and shelling out their money and credit card accounts to a computer farm in China. They are probably counting on that nobody is going to the hassle of reporting they were scammed for 80 bucks and by the time the victim realizes it, they’ve already cloned all the card info and sold it on the dark net.

When I was in kindergarten, we were visiting the rellies in the TX hill country. My g-g-uncle showed me all sorts of exotic critters including scorpions, carefully told to stay away from those. We were staying in the screen bunkhouse, and a couple nights in I was suddenly bedridden, delirious with fever, and going in and out of consciousness. Nobody knew what was going on, trying to decide if it was just a passing kid bug or if I needed a doctor, when my older brother spotted a black widow perched in the rafter right over my bed. I guess they trundled me to town. I don’t remember any of it, but apparently I have lived to tell the tale.

Ope! Hold on… we are stuck in a midwestern nice, “no, after YOU!” doorway stand-off… 🤣 Not only am I Minnesotan, but I was raised Quaker, so I have a double dose of what helps the “other person” is more important than a gain for myself… What shall we do? What shall we do??? Okay, like trading gift cards at Christmas where you come out even in the end, let’s make a pact that if we find one, we buy it for ourselves in “honor” of the other’s intention of generosity. The only thing missing would be the pm-ing. “No, really honey, I have to buy this one because SheepDog would *want* me to have it if he had seen it first. It’s really only to protect his Karma… He’s doing the same for me .” ☺️ I will call mine “Shep” as a tribute to you!

Chuckle…. Preparedness, I like that. Grin thanks for that, but seriously if you found one you think I’d like, chances are you better grab that puppy up for yourself and I would cheer you on! 😁

All spiders eat insects, and are vital for bug control. just saying, even the dangerous ones, they all still serve a purpose, so trapping gently under a cup with a card underneath and a ferry ride outside away from the house I don’t think is unreasonable.

Yeah, at this particular moment, I’m relegated to cheaping out. As some of you know we’ve been on a bit of a spree this year, and the fun money has finally been run low, picking up the 1938 Cromwell, Godin 5th Ave, and the Lucille all in quick order. I’d love a reissue J-45, or custom, as long as it’s hog. And bling definitely does not bother me. The music room is pretty sparkly right now. But prudence says wallet minding is in play at the moment. Of course the longer the Standard eludes, the more pennies get put back in the piggy bank. Maybe my parameters can expand if it takes long enough…😁 I admit, I have hovered over more than one real Banner pondering how short life is, and how much do we really need to eat? 😆

Funny, there is a j-160E that keeps popping up in my searches that makes me look every time 😁 It might be at Dave’s? If it is, they are really cool, highly reputable, and you can trust their descriptions. We have gotten some great deals there. And, they are good with returns if you call them right away. Anyway, I’ll keep an eye out for where it is.

Chuckle, yeah I think I’ve heard about that Reverb place 🙂 j/k I appreciate you are being helpful, grin. Sure, there are over 300 j-45s out there, but if you look closely most are studios, throwbacks, real vintage, or special/customs. Percentage-wise very few of the good ol’ Charlie Brown of guitars. And to my question, there is not a single one within 250 miles of me. I check everyday. GC only has five listed nationwide. Carter only has high-end vintage ones, Daves doesn’t have any used, and Willies only has hight end collector models. Music-go-round nationally has diddly worth looking at because of their return policy. The other small shops around don’t have any used. Ironically, it was a beater at our local MGR that sent me down this road. A 1985, it looked like a bocce ball dropped on it, there were so many repaired cracks below the bridge. But it did sound great. I put it back thinking, okay time for a J-45 but I’ll hold out for one in better shape. Yet another in a long list of life mistakes. I could have one fairly cheap right now. This is what prompted my question in the first place. I’m curious why here, in what is considered a sort of music capital, I got zip to choose from. If I wanted any other popular model guitar, I could spend weeks checking them all out. At least searching gives me something to do.

Yeah, the hundreds of different builds was why I was asking. I wanted to make sure there weren’t spoilers out there. This one was labeled “Standard” which up to that moment of doubt, I assumed always meant the original sitka/mahogany aka “standard.” Dave confirmed that other builds, at least in 2017, would have different details like fancier fret markers or orange labels. Nod, the sound of rosewood is terrific. I just already have a great sounding RW 12-fret parlor and RW dreadnaught from the company that shall not be named 😎 So I’m looking for a mahogany j-45 to go with the L1 adi/hog parlor. (Wish I could pop for one of the customs with an adi top to make it a true match, but that won’t happen with my thin wallet.)

Interesting. It’s a cool quality that older instruments take on when you hear it. Since makers offer versions of torrified/aged tops folks must be looking for the sound. It’s kinda too bad you haven’t experienced it. It’s just a natural progression of solid wood guitars that they dry out and the tones change, usually for the better. It doesn’t happen much with laminates, but that wouldn’t apply to yours. Sincerely, if you like how yours sounds it doesn’t really matter, right?

Just saying for you squishers/vacuumers if you have spiders in your house, there is a good chance they are there trying to be good neighbors eating things that are worse to be sharing space with, like silverfish, mosquitoes, and flies. They are really important in keeping other pests down. They are also fairly intelligent little critters. There was an article during the pandemic about folks making pets out of the little window jumping spiders. Folks were teaching them to do tricks and come when called. You can just catch and release ‘em outside if you really can’t stand ‘em. Except for the recluses/widows, (who just should be relocated carefully) they aren’t going to hurt you, and just go out wondering, “what the hell was that for?” when the shoe comes down.

Nod, sure, I’m thinking that be it. Just wondering if there is that much mystique in them that once you have a plain old J-45, do you really never let it go? Just compared to the churn in all the other models and looking at all the Studios, Customs, LPs and SGs, being offered, not to mention the comparable Martins and Taylors. You practically trip over them all, there are so many of the other models available. It seems weird so few J-45s, it seems off considering marketshare-wise since it’s supposed to be one of the best selling guitars ever.

What region are you in? I think it looks like a nice healthy, benign grass spider. I could be maybe a wolf. Hard to tell from the photo. It’s lost, so relocating it outside would be a kindness whatever it is.

Just for discussion, I’m curious about why there are so few used Standard j-45s out there. I couldn’t get back to the shop in time and lost the game of chicken with that nice used plain old recent standard, Standard J-45 I tried. So I’ve been poking around looking for another. I’m mostly looking locally within about 200 miles (driving distance) and for how popular and how many have been produced over the decades, there are surprisingly slim pickings out there. This search range includes several major cities, and many guitar shops and private sales, including five Guitar Centers, and 3 indie shops, our main resources for easy used options, not to mention the whole Marketplace/Craigslist world (which scares the c*ap outta me). But for every five Studios and customs (or 10-20 LPs or arch-tops) there may be one plain, Standard J-45. And the ones that are available have been sitting a while, either the price too high, or there are issues. I’m just looking for the “normal” sitka/mahogany. I don’t need a throwback custom, or gussied up rosewood, signature model, etc. (Okay, if a Keb-mo 12 fret dropped in my lap for 2k I wouldn’t kick it to the curb, chuckle). You think with how long they’ve been made, being the “workhorse” model it sounds like everyone eventually buys, the marketplace would be dripping with ones that need re-homing as folks move on. So whatdya think? What could be the reason folks just aren’t parting with them at the same rate as other Gibsons? Are folks so attached to them they just don’t move them on? Or are there really not so many of them out there, and they really are more limited than the shop talk would suggest? At this point, while I prefer to have a few years on one, since I don’t have the time left to wait for it to open up, I’m thinking about just buying a new one and trying the speaker trick 😎

I think you perhaps were typing when I posted my comment: just fyi, they stopped using “mandolin” in the name by 1932. So yeah, it would have to be Kala. But still, the wording is not right even for the pre-war era. I have a 1910 L1 and the guarantee language was standardized by then.

The label also does not appear to be worded correctly. Vintage Labels with the Gibson-Mandolin name on them start “….against faulty...” after the bold capital letter GUARANTEED isolated on the line above. I could not find any start “This Instrument in guaranteed…” (Also note the oddly capitalized I in instrument that gets repeated) Sorry about the college fund.

I like the idea that I can take down a something as big as a tree with a simple piece of metal with teeth cut into it. When I was young and had more time on my hands than what I knew to do with, I was helping my ex-MIL with reclaiming her backyard. It had become a hazard from neglect, and she had gotten a note from the city about cleaning up the alley side. I found there were a couple of young trees that needed to be dealt with and I realized I hadn’t brought a proper saw. So I pulled out my Swiss army camping knife and took ‘em down with the little saw blade. Course it took me some time, chuckle, but MIL was impressed.