j45nick

Mamie is good.

If a little bit of heat will loosen the hide glue holding in the saddle, I would be concerned that same heat might loosen the hide glue holding on my bridges. (all my Gibsons are hide glue guitars.)

Sorry. I was going to answer, and decided not to. If the saddle fits well in the slot, I see no particular reason it needs to be glued in. If you want to change or modify a glued-in saddle, it can be tricky to get it out. If it is not a good fit, what JT says is absolutely correct. The break angle over the saddle will determine how much leverage is being put on the saddle, trying to split the bridge. Very high saddles pose more risk than lower saddles. I have one extremely tall saddle, which happens to be in a tapered bridge. I keep an eye on that one, but the saddle is also a very

I have four Gibson flat-tops with slot-through saddles. This was standard on most up until around 1953 or so. None of these saddles is glued in. These really are not hard to keep in position when you change strings. You just keep them lined up with the wings of the bridge, then gradually tune. If the saddle slides you back off on string tension a bit to be able to move the saddle into position. Yes, if you sand off the bottom of the saddle, the taper at the ends of of the saddle won't line up perfectly with the taper in the wings of the bridge, but the proper position of the sad

That's exactly what I use.

You know I've always liked that song, Buc. It's good to hear from you again.

You may need to get a professional setup on the guitar. Depending on the store you bought it from, they may have someone who can do this, or may be able to recommend someone. It is possible the string action is too high, requiring excess force to fret it. If you are used to playing electrics, the transition to acoustics is not always easy, since electrics generally use much lighter strings. It may also take several weeks of playing, say, at least a half hour per day, to begin to develop the type of fingertip calluses you often need to fret some acoustics. The J-200 strings from Gibs

Agree. I would probably use an X-Acto knife with a fresh blade for this, so you can scribe a "break line" if it is actually excess finish. I also have a headband magnifier for this type of work. Probably start with inspection with a high-power lens to try to confirm what is happening. As Em7 says, don't try to pop it off without closer inspection and scribing where you want it to break when it pops off.

Welcome to the Gibson acoustic forum, a place where people discuss some of the world's best acoustic guitars. We hope you enjoy your time here, as well as the lively discussions. Many of us here own both Gibsons and Martins, as well as other guitar brands. Sorry you seem to have had such a poor experience with people who work on acoustic guitars. If you let us know where you live, we may be able to point you to a shop, repair person, or luthier with the appropriate skill set and level of experience.

If it's made of wood, it will be impacted by changes in humidity unless it is completely encased in an impermeable membrane , such as epoxy resin. This goes for conventional acoustics and acoustic/electrics, semi-hollowbody electrics, and even solid-body electrics. Obviously, the more pieces of thin wood are involved, the greater the risk of damage is from changes in humidity. A solid-body electric like a Strat will be less affected than an ES-335, which will in turn be less impacted than a J-45. I treat all my wood guitars the same. They live in their cases in an environmentally-

Well done, Really nice changes, thoughtfully executed.

The price of that on is absolute top dollar. It's your call. It is nice, very nice, but it is no bargain. The fact that it is an early SJ Natural probably adds little to collector value at this time. Ironically, it would probably be more valuable if it were a conventional 1953 SJ sunburst in the same condition. Natural-top Gibson slope-Js typically sell for less than their sunburst twins. I looked for a really good sunburst SJ from 1946-1952 for about a year. (I own two 1950 J-45s, one of which I have owned since 1966. ) I never found one that was what I wanted, and ende

15741 is a serial number from early/mid 1961.

The real steal is the 1947 J-50 he has at $5.5k.