fortyearspickn

There's a song there.

Gbpkr, Conventional Wisdom always recommends 'Play It Before You Play It." I'm going to play devils advocate for The Road Not (often enough) Taken. I'm guessing if you randomly bought a standard J45 or H'Bird online - you would find it significantly 'better' in tone than your Epi. Strings will affect it a little, but not as much as your going to a 'high-end' guitar. These two are wildly popular for a reason. ( And as Jinder said - the J45 is probably overall most respected) And, as far as tone, it changes! It gets better over a year or two of playing! And some keep getting better, like his '67. Depending on where you live, your financial resources and your patience - you might find you are 95% happy with what you buy sight unseen. On the other hand, if you take the other path - you might find it takes you months to find 'the one'. You may pass on one and then realize you wish you'd gotten it - to find it already gone. Then you settle for the next best one, and always remember 'the one that got away'. Em7' s suggestion of ordering 3 at a time is great, if not potentially costly if you are paying for a lot of shipping and insurance. If you order one, have it delivered, play it 2 or 3 days , pass on it and return it and then order another one -then trying to remember how the third one back felt and sounded - you might find this linear approach not nearly as good as if you could travel to Music Villa in Bozeman and play a dozen side by side in the same day. Those who 'scientifically' have studied decision making have found the best decision makers do not wait until they have 100% of the information they would like. Often, by that time, the opportunity has passed, and having made No Decision - was in effect a decision to pass on the opportunity. Rather, it is those who can subjectively gauge when they have about 80% of the info and most of the critical info, and are then are 'decisive'. You know you want a Gibson Dread. You're halfway there already ! G'Luck.

Thanks Jax. Great song & video complements it well. I think he was nominated for a Grammy last year for this album. Tree of Forgiveness. He even forgives his critics, while finding a word that rhymes with 'critic' !

Great, open-hearted interview. Tnx.

Murf, Where's your banjo ?

GDECANT1, I an sorry if I offended you. I was trying to provide a perspective from the standpoint of how people will view the results of this crisis when we are all gone. I'm in my mid-70s. My wife of 49 years (a retired RN) had lung cancer 5 years ago and was diagnosed with breast cancer 2 months ago: Immuno-suppresed. As you might guess, I'm not really suggesting she and I should be thrown on the trash heap by our 9 grandchildren. My point, obviously not clearly made, was that we seem to have lots of information being thrown at us but the only solutions politicians are coming up with is to spend $4T, half of which will be on solutions to different problems, like air pollution. Therefore, I was hoping to imply that we should be more informed and challenge our politicians at all levels before our freedom and our economy are gone. Like many here, I've seen nearly 1/3rd of our 'retirement savings' disappear. I'm sorry you have family members affected directly by the virus. My son was laid off last week. My other son has applied for an SBA Stimulus loan at the direction of his boss, the partner of a restaurant franchise. Without that, the company will fold. So, if I had my 'druthers I'd personally rather get this virus, be very sick, but recover after a month - than lose half my retirement, my job, or my home. Of course, we don't get to choose! As a final note, I apologize to those of you whom I offended. It was not my intention. I only attempted to provide a perspective of people looking back at this in the year 2050. Of course, they will have 20/20 hindsight, which I do not. I should not have attempted in this format to suggest I had insight into their interpretation of today's events. Yes, Republican. Yes Christian. Yes Texas. Yes Acoustic Forum poster. Also, to complete the profile: US Military Veteran, MBA, father of 4, MBA, Hospital Financial Director for 35 years.

Our grandchildren will be paying for it. Wishing someone had just let their old granny die a year sooner. Meanwhile, speaking of old granny's - the Speaker of the House wants a Fourth Stimulus Bill. They had openly declared they want to use this crisis to implement The Green New Deal. Not defer or reduce 2019 Federal Income Taxes, or something logical. I guess closing the coal plants and putting solar panels on everyone's roofs will somehow turn the economy around. Declare coal miners jobs 'not essential' and declare 'alternative energy workers' jobs 'essential'. Get rid of cows. But we'll all be riding horses.

I've not used one, but I've heard good things about them. Regardless, for a '65 J45, you should pay attention to JWG's advice. Bridge plates used back then by Gibson were not high quality wood. At least the one on my '64 LG1 wasn't. So they often suffered from bridge pin hole enlargement syndrome. A fifty-five year old guitar, collectible to many, deserves to be restored to it's correct condition.

Disagree - the inmates are already running the asylum. Like the Zoom spokesperson quoted in the article: "Our product was designed to prioritize things other than safety and security." How can someone high tech in this day and age be that .... 'naive' ? .

Bozeman does accept requests for custom orders: probably through one of their 5 Star Dealers. But, I'd doubt they're taking orders now, due to the Wuhan Corona Virus. I'd expect, when a manufacturing facility faces something like this - the first thing they do is consolidate operations and cut back first on custom orders, and then on 'loss leaders' and then on models that don't sell well. If you're thinking of an older, say '20th Century' model - good luck. You might want to just take J45N's advice and consider the Custom Historic '42. Before they're all gone.

I remember the patriotism and sense of unity here, after 9/11. Everyone had an American Flag bumper sticker. For many, that love of country and fellow citizen faded along with those bumper stickers. We now seem to be more divided than ever: News stories every day attacking our leaders responses to this 'once in a hundred years' event. And of course, the attackers are people who couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel. I don't think 'a few changes' will turn the planet green. But we all know the 2 or 3 countries which produce most of the pollution - and if we put on our big boy pants and stop buying things from them, and outsourcing our entire tech industry to them - over time, we can fix a multitude of 'national security' issues our politicians and media have just awakened to. If we pay more for a flat screen TV or Apple Phone made in the US - that money will go to American workers. Globalism is fine in theory. Until you have a pandemic and your Congress votes to send $11 Billion to Africa while you have nearly 10 million people laid off in 2 weeks. Anyway - that's my take on how something positive might come out of this .

An 18 wheeler stacked full of TP crashed and burned on the hi way enroute to our city Monday night. You can't make this stuff up.

ESPgnlow - That is one beautiful guitar. I'm sure it sounds as good as it looks! Congrats !

The price ranges for the "J-45" are, like all things we buy and sell, a function of the cost of producing it and the demand for it. Demand or desirability is related to scarcity and cosmetic appeal. We'll pay more (and get charged more) for a black pearl translucent Corvette than one that is painted pea soup green. Some here argue the countless iterations of the J-45 are not all real, "official" J-45s. Take the J45 Studio - slimmer body, walnut B&S as well as fingerboard, which is not radiuses. Same Studio model guitar - is $500 more with Rosewood. And a Standard J45 is $750 more at $2750. While the the J45 Custom with Rosewood is $250 more than the standard 'hog. The Slash model is $750 more than the Standard, with a different neck profile and fingerboard radius, burst, hardware, etc. The most expensive currently offered - stepping up another $800 - is the 1942 Banner J45 at $4800, with thermally aged Adirondack Spruce, bone N&S and hide glue. Obviously at a price higher than the cost differential of the upgraded wood. With Walnut and Richlite and the popularity of 'endangered species' including RW and Ebony - the upcharge for those will continue to move proportionately higher. So - the low end for an actual J45 (standard) is $2750 and $4800 for a 1942 Banner. Nothing today at $6000. I don't think Gibson is charging double ($6k compared to $3K) for a few slight upgrades. There are lots of iterations, and choices, depending on what you want and what you can afford. Then, of course, you have added bling on the Southern Jumbos, the kissing cousin J35 with an AJ body and a short neck, etc.

A 25% increase in cases in just one day!? That seems to indicate a serious problem in the reporting system. Somebody was off work for the weekend, or more likely, some big city health district forgot to send in daily reports for the past couple of weeks. Similar issues existed when this all started over a month ago. We had no idea how many cases there really were in the US, and we sure didn't know how many there were (or how fast they were spreading in China.

"Better a diamond with a flaw, than a pebble without." I think that's from Confucius.

Loved them all. "A" seemed a little more natural to my ears. Really love this genre.

Everyone's ears are different, but I preferred the Old SJ. I think my SJ200 sounds 'better than his'. But maybe that's because I didn't crack the bridge and split the face in 3 places. Most amazing to me in this video - the two guitar cases in the background are in pristine condition.

Funny how language evolves.... "LOCKDOWN" use to be a term only used in prisons.

Immensely Excellente !

My first night in Boot Camp - June 5th, 1968, they told us of the assassination of RFK. It was surreal. When he was told of his brother's assassination 5 years earlier, Bobby said "I thought they'd get me first." There were some witnesses who testified there was a 2nd gunman there in that LA hotel kitchen. Like the Grassy Knoll testimonies from Dallas. Then, in another 5 years - the disappearance of Hoffa who had a few times told associates that JFK and RFK had to be eliminated ... questions surrounding MLK's murder. The race riots of those times - LA, DC, Newark, Chicago, Detroit in '67 and '68. It was clear to us at the time, Sir Bobster was right - The Times They Are A-Changin'. LBJ's Great Society and Vietnam War: They certainly didn't change for the better. To say the 60s were a turbulent decade would be a pitifully trite understatement. These lyrics paint the mural for those who care to see it. A tip of the hat to Em7 to surfacing this song.

Powderier Strangs? 2 year old Lights ?

Connect the dots: They lead right to where we are now.

This Is Us .... Modern Family ... Council of Dads ... we're being programmed by the programs.

Having one broccoli, re-fried beans and hard boiled egg burrito for dinner at night keeps them away the following day.