j45nick

That pickguard is...... ugly. Looks like a five-year-old created it. (no offense to five-year-olds intended.) The guitar itself is interesting, but not my cup o' tea. Hmmm, long-scale, square-dread, rosewood? Where have I heard those specs before?

That riddle stands in stark contrast to the questions you usually pose, in a matter of speaking.

You'll get used to it. One of the few guitars I own today that I saw or played before buying was my original beat-up 1950 J-45, which I bought for $50 off the wall of a music store in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1966. It didn't sound or play so great--loose braces buzzing, fretboard like a mile of bad road--but it was a J-45, and I was smitten. We do a lot of things in life without knowing what the outcome will be. It's part of the adventure.

The Smeck? If so, you can talk to me when and if you get tired of it.

You're in trouble now.

Interesting, but I would never guess that was any kind of J-45 by listening to it.

What an awesome guitar! It seems you can clearly hear every single string on every chord. That's probably not a guitar that blends well with others, but it makes a powerful statement on its own.

Let us know when you get that SJ. That's the rosewood one?

I'm with you on that one, brother. I've only bought one new guitar in my life, and that was a little Martin travel guitar a number of years ago. The modern guitars I own were all purchased used, but in near-mint condition. There's good value there, and I've saved a lot of money. It would take a very special guitar for me to buy brand-new. As yet, I haven't found that one.

Trying to choose between the OJ and '35 D-18 is like trying to choose between Domingo and Pavarotti. The OJ definitely brings something slightly different to the table, in the best possible way.

Tom, There's something about that guitar that says barely contained power. In all cases, it is being pretty lightly flatpicked, and it is straining at the leash a bit. I would love to hear it in a hard-core bluegrass setting with some aggressive flatpicking. I bet it would hold its own with most pre-war Martin dreads.

ZW, I can relate to this. A few years ago I went shopping for a vintage L-OO or similar model. I spent the better part of a year looking and test-driving, but came away disappointed not in the tone I was finding, but in the amount of work required to turn most of them into reliable everyday players. Then I found a modern L-OO Legend, which had most of the tone but none of the problems of its vintage cousins. Likewise, I spent time looking for a vintage SJ, after missing one which was pretty good value about a decade ago. Once again, price and condition of the vintage ones was pretty disappointing. I ended up buying a 10-year old 1943 SJ re-issue done for Fuller's in Houston, for about the price of a recent slightly used J-45. Once again, no problems, great tone. Vintage still floats my boat, but that's now down to my two 1950 J-45s, both of which are keepers, even though one has been heavily modded over the 50+ years I've owned it. The other is completely original except for tuner buttons, bridge pins, and saddle, and has been my number one guitar almost since buying it last year. So I will never give up vintage, but really appreciate the tone and quality of my two modern Gibson acoustics. Try it, you'll like it.

On boat joinerwork, we would use a hot iron on a damp rag to generate a bit of steam to raise the compressed grain. Not sure if that would work on a guitar or not, and that would be a "don't try this at home" scenario. Most luthiers would probably tell you to live with it, since they would be reluctant to try to fix it. I've had small dents drop-filled with lacquer and buffed down, but that doesn't raise the compressed grain.

That's an interesting question that might be worth its own thread. If you could only listen to one Dylan album, which one would it be? And I don't know the answer.

It is an awesome song that will take several listenings to fully grasp.