62burst

I suppose there's a grey area between cork sniffing, and making it our own. Yours looks good from here. Looks like some fairly determined slotting/ramping for the treble strings at the bridge. Was that part of the transform?

Yes. Nicely done. Hard to say no to the guitar in the photo.

ok- I can see that analogy. . . . but we must keep in mind the size of the sample group. age differences, etc. And we're still waiting to find out about bracing differences.

:56 ->1:06- Strum The Strummer, sister, and I will hear the 'Bird.

It would be interesting to see that- the raising of wood fibers in a rosewood fretboard. Maybe combined with a serious plane of the fretboard. There was a little bit on the '46 Southern Jumbo that I had in the luth's for a re-fresh. . . came out very well, but I was concerned about going too heavily into those split parallelogram inlays.

Did you happen to come acoss CFH's "guitar hq" labor-of-love site? So much information there. Scroll down to the "L-00 Flattop" section. . . you might get some more information there. Like: http://www.guitarhq.com/gibson6.html

Fretboard divots are a real turnoff for me- a deep resurface of the 'board, or replacement is much preferred over filling, which almost always looks strange. Splicing in slivers externally and small cleats inside of spruce can be done for the top cracks. It might involve a slight overspray to blend, but would greatly improve their appearance. If braces need to be removed (even partially so) for that repair, the cost would jump some. Gibson guitars have some belly to them- get your J-50 to a vintage Gibson repair shop, and see what their thoughts are. You are now the steward of this old guitar. The repairs that it might need aren't going to be that terrible, compared to the good you would do by getting this guitar back into a better condition for it's path going forward. It won't get any cheaper in the future. Just take it to the best shop you can find, and get yourself some good guitar karma.

If that is a demonstration, then it is a demonstration of how the long scale Firebird acoustic can cover more bases than what most would think it could do, and to many, that is enough. Personally, it is hard to relate. Royalty? Is she playing to the maple, or just doing her avant thing, regardless of the bird-in-hand? . I actually liked the 2nd part, when considered in the culture from which it came. . . for the sake of perspective, 'had me looking at more YouTubes for traditional Japanese percussion pieces- then came the Hummingbird video, leaving no doubt. Just check the comments written in tategaki for both, on the YouTube. And- I must be so lame. . . I've never heard a Hummingbird sound like that. Steely, as it was (?).

Looks like the blue fuzz wore thru, and it's backing material reacted with the neck. A lot of play on this guitar ? When the case closes, it's not too snug up there, is it?

Hmmm. Just what did you get into last night?😎. Did you actually see any glue in that area? When is the last time you played that guitar and/or were the conditions unusually warm? What style case is it?

Expensive, you say, but maybe I could've saved a lot of time and trouble with a quick adjustment to the EQ via bluetooth, and gotten something like this:

Yes, you most likely have all of this stuff covered with your J-45 Granadillo- the Gibson sound is in it's bloodlines, and the rest can be made up with little tweaks and technique. . . . . . . . . but this is true, as well. And why not if you can swing it, at least for a while. You'd never know or appreciate the difference otherwise. It's helpful that you'd mentioned the kind of music you play. The sound I was searching for was bass note clarity. A lot of guitars came and went (mostly) to get to the J-185. Even the big daddy J-200 couldn't match a J-185 in that respect. . . the "mini" jumbo shape, it's maple construction, and scale length are all part of that recipe. The maple already gives the guitar enough "report" that I think a red spruce top might be redundant. If anything, you'd want to soften the sound, maybe with some tight-grained sitka. But if the red spruce is the fish on the line, that's fine, too. If you're up for that train ride, and it's looking to be an even trade, you'd be taking your J-45, so you could try the two guitars at the same sitting. The tight waist on the '185 not only helps with it's focused sound, but hopefully you'll notice it's comfort, too. Let us know what you hear from them.

Well, well, well. Yes, it has been a while. And an a/b with the help of an engineer in a recording studio helps when the two flies are from a similar gene pool. Giving an up-close listen on the powered studio monitors, these are close. . . close enough that the differences could be explained by many things. The '63 sounds like it has some mischief going on (1:14 & 1:49). It would be interesting to know what Mr Engineer's personal preferences are. . . maybe the '65? Any differences in string action/height? '63 might come off as lower, but string height over the soundhole is also good to know. They both sound wonderful, and make a case for not being too fast to prejudge the ADJ guitars. Since it's always been a mystery to me if tensioning/de-tensioning strings for alt tunings has an effect on string performance, I would also wonder about the string boiling, but the fingerpicking sections (of indeterminate gender🙃) make a good case for showing how either ceramic or old vase on an ADJ can still do "warm" (technique helps here, too). The '63 has the slight extra-crispy edge when the going gets hard, 1:42s vs :47 for the Country Western. Enjoyed that. . . any a/b when two guitars are similar can be a challenge, but looking closely at two flies or two flyers can be fun if that's what you're into.

Not forgotten. Fortyearspickn used to have an excellent photo, used as his avatar (?) that captured what might've been going through the minds of those who participated in Operation Overlord. . . Normandy Beach. Well worth seeing that photo reminder again.

A fine example of how circling back to an almost 10 year old post can be a good thing- filling in some blanks on a question asked by a forum member who's still active on the 'board. And- how comfortable is Hayes Carll with his trusty J-45 ? RobRoy was recently asking about removing the finish on the J-45 he'd gotten, thinking maybe it was too heavy. Nice patina on this one. 'Don't know if some of the finish has been removed on the rose' 45 here. . . maybe something added, too. Or maybe some combination of the two. To jump ahead on this 2-hr clip to where Hayes talks about the guitar: t = 1:24: 50

Apparently, I can't delete myself fast enough.

Quite the contrast from Tamio Okuda, and his being commemorated with the recent run of Tamio Okuda J-45 customs. Such a broad range of sounds Yeats has brought out of the humble J-45 here, both old and new. The ears almost deceive the eyes. Re: the Love Me Tender clip switching to the old guitar @ t = 3:33 - hey, who turned up the reverb/presence? Thanks for sharing, Juan Carlos

The 'guard wear did look to be unusually consistent across it's span- Regarding where the player spends their time with their pick hand, it's always interesting to see where the wear occurs. Unfortunately, on Hummingbirds, the bird begins to disappear before the butterfly.

. . . where some careless breeze left it long ago (last night). So close: 'almost made it to the place where spiders go to die. Horizontal storage, ready to go, is fine. In cases on the floor, on the sofa, etc, is fine too- but won't yield the fresh air & light if looking to help age the top. and/or strings. (80/20's on maple?) Good to see the f'bird getting enough play to wear down the panzer paint.

Despite the light look to the deeper sides on this one, looks like the Roy Smeck Radio Grande, which added the classic Smeck inlays, after the earlier run of Stage DeLuxe Rosewood 12 fret models . With guitars like these hanging out, a flight delay might be an easier thing to abide.

Juan Carlos- Yes, that's a nice 'burst. . . in the 2nd video you put up, it looks like a dark Honey burst, but the first clip. . . Burnt Umberburst? Scriv- yes, doubtful his guitars fall asleep. Definite opportunity there in a guitar wake-up service. Yes, Slim- looks like Japan has been very good for Gibson. L. McCoy- as a maple person, it's easy for you to hear "fantastic" when you hear the "report" he's getting out of that guitar as he does his unique thing. D. Dan- It did look like that headstock was tapered. Cameleye- maybe the J-45 Vintage or Legend model might have the neck carve you're looking for. Also- the sig John Hiatt J-45's neck was apparently spec'ed by John to have some girth. Em7- glad you're hearing rich, strong, & warm out of the 2- but with so much of the sound being driven by the right hand, it's hard to hear the guitar's other voice(s). BoSoxBkr & L. McCoy- That is a curious nut. Thx for putting up that closeup, LMcC. . . it almost looks like it was a set up post-Bozeman, for his uh, more agro style. Hard to find any info on his string gauge or set up preferences. The strings on the Sig model look fresher, but he seems to be hitting it with the same intensity/location. But the 1945 model goes smoother and sweeter, hopefully noticeable when setting up two YouTube windows, and giving a listen between 5:52 (the vint), and 6:40 (Sig model).

What first caught my eye on this old J-45 was the 'burst- how it has almost red-shifted to where it looks like one finished in another era. . . the forum's Lars68 has a beautiful '42 with a reddish tone, but the darker, outer area of the burst is wider. The darkening of the wear marks in the general area of the top is something often seen on oversprayed vintage guitars, and although factory sunbursts done in this era can have more of a tobacco burst, an overspray might've reacted with the brown->black area of the burst, allowing the red to show through. Looks cool, but it does devalue things. Of more concern might be the notorious Pickguard Crack, where as the top slightly expands/contracts with changing weather conditions, the original 'guard prevents the grain underneath move with those changes, pulling the grain open. It's visible north of the soundhole on the outside edge of the fretboard extension's treble side, and slightly so, on the bridge side, as well. The narrower 'board might be a little cramped, but fretboard divots are a bigger turnoff, since they can cause the guitar to fret sharp if fretted with too much pressure. Still, a cool guitar- and it surely still has that old J-45 sound in there somewhere.

You've been playing for about 6 months, and you can tell the difference between a phos/bronze and an 80/20 guitar string? Say, you do move fast. At 6 months in, I was using sticks and broken golf tees as bridge pins. D'Addario makes a mini tuner that is easily forgotten on the headstock, and is small enough to not be seen when putting the guitar back in the case, especially when the display is mounted to be on the back of the headstock, only visible to the player. So there it stayed, for a week or 2. Then I found it. And this: . . . The "D" shaped marks over the letters "s" and "o". The indentations in the lacquer were deep enough that Virtuoso Cleaner, which is a heavier compound than the Virtuoso Polish, had little effect. Ultimately, some microfine wet sanding paper was used (and for all that is holy, great care was taken to get nowhere near the edge of the headstock, where the finish would be thinner), finishing the job with the Virtuoso Polish. That was a few years ago, so the grit of wet paper used is forgotten, but it must've been no harsher than beat 1200/1500, or newish 2000g, being soaked first in warm water. Just took a look today at Rosie, the Hummingbird Rosewood: In doing this repair, and looking at the black lacquer finishes on other headstocks under truss rods, chips around the sides and nut, Gibson does/did put a fairly good coat of that black on the headstock, so there is a fairly good chance of pulling off a passable repair. This might, however, be an issue with the newer thin finishes used on the Historic models meant to simulate an older guitar.

Nice. And- imagine- hearing some GIBSON content around here(?) ‘Sounds like “Franken” is growing together quite nicely. . . perfectly matched to the material,too. Vocals suggest some real comfort with the Jerry Jeff and Gord songs- also a good match. Happy birthday, and many more to your father.