bobouz

Yup, the JF-30 is a very nice guitar. Mine is a '94. Congrats & enjoy!

Graduated from high school 50 years ago - thinking about the draft. Wasn't too concerned about what the Beatles were doing!

Once upon a time, I was equally attracted to Martins & Gibsons. But in the last twenty years, what I've sampled re newly constructed instruments has turned me solidly towards Gibson. Tone & playability (in particular fretboard radius & scale) all work in favor of Gibson for me. And interestingly, the other day I popped into UMGF & read a horrific thread in the tech section regarding many recent Martins with binding that has separated at the waist, along with many needing neck resets within the first five or so years of ownership. These are major issues, and I've not heard of any similarly frequent major problems with Gibsons. Martin has always been highly touted for it's build quality - I have two which I certainly do enjoy - but it may be that they're coasting a bit on the company's historical reputation.

This is just another test - to insert a photo from my attachment file.

Indeed, I tried deleting the post to see if it would remove the attachment from storage, and it does not. Regardless, thanks everyone for your input. At least I now know it's not just me!

So having never posted a picture before, I thought I'd try the new photo posting feature. The picture I posted was in the recent thread started by QM re the overall new format for this site. In the thread, it was mentioned how little maximum-storage there is in the new attachment section (accessible via your profile). By going to my profile page, the picture I posted was listed under my attachments, and I thought maybe if I deleted my original posting of the picture, I would also delete the photo from my stored attachments, thereby opening up more available storage for the future. Well, that apparently is not how it works. I deleted the original post with the photo I had attached, but the photo remained in my stored attachments. By right clicking, there does not appear to be any option for deleting a photo stored in your profile's attachments. I'm hoping maybe someone has discovered how to totally delete a photo. If this is not possible, it would only take a short while to use up the attachment section's storage capability, and you would then be unable to benefit any further from the new photo-posting feature. Not being any kind of a computer wizard, I could very easily have missed something!

James - Don't know what guitars you've been playing, but if you've come from a world of lesser expensive Martins with Richlite fingerboards, they will show no pores at all. If you've been playing more expensive Martins, Taylors, or Larrivees with ebony fingerboards, they will have very few pores of any significant depth. And finally, if you've been playing older vintage pieces with Brazilian rosewood fingerboards, they will typically exhibit fewer pores, and their depth will be rather minimal by comparison to the East Indian rosewood board on your new J-45. I, like everyone above, do not see anything unusual in the pictures - Enjoy your new guitar!

The poll doesn't work for me. J-185 & J-50. Martins don't make the cut.

Whether it's a new or vintage piece, I like to stick to reversible mods, unless there's a structural reason to be more invasive.

This would be coming out of the Breedlove facility. They have many years of fine guitar & mandolin experience to lean on. Picked up one of their mandolins from 2010 a few years ago - quality construction at every turn, and a lovely tone. Unfortunately, they are no longer building mandolins in the USA (outsourced to the pacific rim).

Well, if it's from the '70s, then it's not the last Heritage made. Their production continued into the '80s. Regardless, I had one from the early '70s, and a good one can tonally be quite a pleasant surprise!

Indeed, walnut can tonally produce some stunningly good results, and look darn good at the same time - enjoy!

Many Guilds from the '70s benefitted from an arched back, but there were plenty of flatbacked models built that also sounded very nice. Although Guilds from this period were generally rather heavily built, imho, two things stand out which made so many of them sound good. First, Guild's build quality remained high throughout the Westerly years. Second, the soundboard was not overbuilt. Tops were thin & responsive, even with the typical rosewood bridgeplate (which Martin also utilized during the '70s). So while the body (often with a massive neck & end block) might make the guitar quite weighty, the top could still resonate with abandon & produce very rich tones. Edit: Re the OP's Dove in question, although I owned a Dove & Heritage Custom from the '70s that I found satisfying, the "try before you buy" comments are spot on. There's way too much variation within this era to not have an iron clad return policy if buying online.

I actually like the heavier weight of Grovers & Schallers. My own theory (based on absolutely no scientific evidence!) is that the added weight dampens neck vibration, thereby enhancing the overall transfer of energy to the saddle. I also appreciate that with Grovers, you can change out buttons for other styles (including numerous Hipshot buttons), as well as tighten the mechanism at the knob - and their gear ratio typically allows for finer tuning. Kluson Revolution tuners offer these advantages in a drop-in package for most Gibsons. Just swapped out a set on my ES-330L, and they're a joy to use compared to the standard Kluson-clone "Gibson Deluxe" tulip tuners.

By golly, that's the fist Taylor I've ever found visually appealing. Very tasteful overall. Have fun with that one!

Duane, the Elite Casino was released in 2002. By the 2004 model year, the name had formally been changed to Elitist, due to a copyright issue with Gretsch if I recall correctly. It's possible that some Elite Casinos were manufactured towards the end of 2001, prior to their release in 2002 - personally, I've never seen one, but it's certainly within the realm of possibility. But even if that were the case, the labels on this guitar would be incorrect because they read Elitist rather than Elite. Another factor which assures that the OP's pictured guitar is not from 2001, is the fact that the headstock logo font pictured was not used on Elitist Casinos until approx 2010. In 2010, Epiphone began standardizing their headstock logo font to the one shown on this guitar. All Terada-Elite/Elitist hollowbodies from 2009 and earlier (except the Broadway) used a different font, characterized by a short-center-lined 'E'. Therefore, we're back to: Is this an Elitist from 2011? Again, going with probabilities, I would think not. The tuner change could be done with an aftermarket bushing as I noted above, but it's highly doubtful that a decal logo would have been applied over the finish by Terada. Anything is possible, but the origins of this guitar are suspect & worth investigating carefully before purchase.

All Elitist Casinos (except the recent Ltd Ed version sold primarily in Japan) have come stock with Grover Rotomatics, which require a larger hole for the threaded bushing. If someone has a true Elitist Casino & wants to go to the style of tuner pictured by the OP (faux-Klusons), an adapter-bushing is required. Conversely, the pictured tuners have been standard fare on Casinos made in Korea & China for many years.

The tuners & the decal/sticker on the back of the headstock are really problematic. They do not conform to any Elitist Casio I’ve seen from Terada. We know it’s not a 2001, because there was no such beast. If it were being considered a 2011, the tuners are wrong & a decal/sticker would not be applied over the finish. I’ve seen an Elitist decal/sticker available on eBay, so this would be easy to fake. My guess is that this is not the real deal.

Herein lies the rub. There are parts of capitalism that make sense & work well, and other parts that don't. Similarly, there are parts of socialism that make sense & work well, and other parts that don't. Unfortunately, people have forever been trying to make a buck by riding on the back of someone else's talent, alive or dead. That's opportunistic capitalism, sometimes at the pond scum level.

Gibson has certainly sipped from the Yoko approved Kool-Aid: - Assorted John Lennon Gibson J-160 models - Epiphone EJ-160 John Lennon model - '65 John Lennon Epiphone Casino - Inspired by John Lennon Epiphone Casino

Yes, New Hartford produced both a twelve & fourteen fret roundshoulder Orpheum.

Seems like there might also be a bit of a tip-of-the-hat to Ren's Orpheum series Guilds, built in New Hartford. Roundshoulder dreads were part of the series, as well as the cursive headstock logo. But for my money, rather than get a MIC Guild, Westerly Guilds built from the early '70s to 2000 can often represent a very good value on the used market, and many of them are simply great guitars. A few years ago when I decided to revisit my Guild past (had four of them in the '70s), I quickly ran into one fine sounding Westerly after another, and typically one great deal after another. Prices have gone up recently, so a little more patience may be required these days.

My dad had passed away a number of years before, so in 1965 when I was fourteen & we needed a new car, my Mom essentially let me pick out the car. I was already a Chevy fan, frequently going down to this one particular dealer to sit in their Corvettes & dream away. The car I picked out "for mom" was a two-door '65 Chevy Malibu Super Sport, with the 327 V-8. A while later on my learner's permit, that fine machine assisted me in landing a ticket for doing 90mph on the newly opened & relatively empty 605 freeway in LA. Fun car!

When I started playing in 1971, I first bought a Yamaha FG-160, but soon began lusting after a higher quality instrument. By buying older guitars super cheap at flea markets & fixing them up (had ten in the house at one time), I was eventually able to trade my way up to buying a series of new Guilds, which at the time represented one of the best values in a new guitar. Within twelve years, I'd gone small body/short scale & settled on a 1965 Gibson B-25n, along with a 1970 Martin 00-18. It wasn't until my 50th B-Day in 2001 that I began seriously looking at new Gibsons & Martins, and also started getting hooked on electrics. At that point, I figured I'd earned it by still being alive & having somewhat retained my sanity - So I bought a J-100xtra, a J-150, a Les Paul Special, and a custom Martin. Many more guitars & amps were bought, sold, & traded after my daughter graduated from college, which freed up extra dollars. Today in retirement, I look at my collection as the culmination of a very worthwhile lifetime hobby. I suppose that's my point - it might take a good portion of a lifetime to get to where you can afford high quality non-essential items such as musical instruments. So simply buy the best guitar you can at any given point in time, and enjoy the ride.

Well, not always - consider the pharmaceutical industry. And socialism can deliver some real pluses - consider S.S. and Medicare. But in the world of guitars, I agree, the forces of capitalism will prevail. One of the key factors being, instruments are not a necessity of life. If people can't afford Gibsons, they won't buy them. If too few people can afford your product to make production sustainable, you've got to alter the game-plan at some point.