j45nick

Baez was pretty much the model when it came to vocal qualities for female folksingers in those days. Most of them sang with a fair amount of vibrato (exceptions were folks like Mary Travers and Judy Collins). I personally find excess vibrato a bit distracting, although I can make an exception for Emmylou, just because...

That guy has some seriously nice guitars at rational prices, particularly his vintage Martins.

Judging from that tire print, that case was run over by a 2 1/2 ton SUV. I wouldn't want that running over my guitar in a Hiscox case, either.

Leon Redbone had a lot of influence, and made great music. He certainly was an inspiration to guys like Pokey LaFarge. If he didn't get your feet moving, nothing could.

The process is irreversible once it starts, in my experience. I've only had it happen once, on the original pickguard on a 1947 L-7. It damaged the finish on the side of the neck and the top in the area of deterioration (where the thick celluloid spacer was glued to the underside of the guard next to the side of the neck), as well as corroding fasteners and adjacent frets. It seems to be a chemical breakdown that escalates. Even after removing the guard and leaving it in open air, it continued to deteriorate. I've always suspected that the thicker celluloid pickguards of archtops makes them more vulnerable to out-gassing. I've had several vintage Gibson flat tops with celluloid guards, and haven't had the same problem. If this link works, it's probably more information than you want. http://cool.conservation-us.org/jaic/articles/jaic30-02-003.html

After reading this, logged in with my screen name, and it worked. It would have been nice if that had been pinned at the top of the thread so we'd know what to do. I had just about given up on this after three days of frustration, after being on this forum for a decade. How can you expect us to intuit that the registered user name would not be supported, as it has been for years? How counterintuitive is that? Sheesh!

For some reason, I can no longer log in and stay logged in. When I go to the existing user log in and click on it, the log-in block comes up and is populated with my email address and a password that I can't view. When I click sign in, it says user name or password invalid. If I then empty the password field and enter my last password and try to log in, it says user name or password invalid, and locks my account until I go through the password re-set protocol, which allows me to log in once, but then I have to go through this same password re-set protocol if I come back to the page later. I'm not a casual user either of the forum or of computers. I work at a computer about 10 hours a day. I have not experienced this issue anywhere else. I have tried several different browsers to see if it functions differently, but it does not. I'm primarily using Microsoft edge, but have also tried Chrome.

Can't wait to hear your new album. It's been awhile. It's a beautiful thing when you find a guitar that works for you.

Really, really nice job!

There should be a serial number embossed on the back of the headstock. When you get access to the guitar, either post a photo of that number or just tell us what it is. It will help pin the guitar down by year.

Nice job. That 'bird is glorious!

The tooling certainly exists to build the SJ200 as a cutaway. The SJ200 has the same body plan as Gibson's L-5 and L-7 17" archtops, both of which were built as "premier" models with a Venetian cutaway.

So, I checked the two Gibsons I have with "modern firestripe" factory pickguards. The L-OO Legend does show the adhesive sheet through the lighter areas of the pickguard. The 1943 SJ re-issue pickguard was re-positioned properly by Ross Teigen when he set the guitar up, and shows minimal air entrapment through the pickguard. Installation differences probably explain this, as well as the humidification of the top when the guard is installed.

That was a good article. I was surprised he could clean up that dried glue with water after it had set. One problem with these modern non-celluloid firestripe guards is that they seem to be semi-transparent, especially in the lighter areas. This makes it difficult to get a "clean" installation with adhesive sheet, so that you don't see the pattern of the sheet through the pickguard. Someone here who has installed one of these painted the back of the guard before installing the adhesive sheet, as I recall. This was not a problem with real firestripe celluloid, which seems to be less transparent.

What glue would you use for that application? (Serious question, since you may want to remove it for some reason at some point in the future.)

I thought the J-35 was an exceptional value, given both the construction and the period-correct details. However, with two 1950 J-45's and a 1943 re-issue SJ in the stable, I've probably got the Gibson 'hog slope-J spectrum covered pretty well. I suspect the J-35 was a loss leader for Gibson, and ended up eating into the J-45 standard market in a serious manner, since it was a lot less money for what is essentially the same guitar except for a few cosmetic things.

All his available contact info is on his website: www.guitarsaddles.com Email I have for him may or may not be current: rcolosi@tds.net

I've spent much of my lifetime turning large stacks of endangered tropical hardwoods into a few good things plus large piles of worthless sawdust. Probably won't stop at my age. I understand the sustainable woods approach to guitars, but still prefer the classics: mahogany, spruce, maple, rosewood, and ebony. At least maple is sustainable, and Mr. Taylor is trying to do the same for ebony. It is entirely possible to plantation-grow all these woods, but it takes a very long-term approach that our thirst for instant gratification renders difficult. Teak has been plantation-grown for years. Just call me a threat to the planet.

link test imgur j-45

All Gibsons in the 1950's were made in the Parsons Street plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Someone else will need to answer the question about lefty guitars in this period. I suspect they were special order. By the way, those late-50's CW's are great guitars.

That is truly a beautiful guitar. The background and history lesson were a big plus. Worth the wait.

You can't see it without cranking the saddle all the way up. It's a slightly curved piece of thin spring steel with the same shape as the footprint of the saddle. It fits into the saddle slot underneath the saddle. Check it out the next time you change the strings. Don't ask what its purpose is/was. None of us seems to know with certainty. It may not even be there in modern versions of this bridge and saddle.

You don't need to loosen the strings, but de-tuning a bit will make it easier to raise/lower the saddle.

It's amusing how similar that headstock is to the custom headstock we did on my J-45 more than 45 years ago. You can see it in my avatar.

Fuller's Vintage had a history of commissioning special runs from Bozeman. I have a "1943 Southern Jumbo" from a run done in 2006. It has a lot of authentic features, including serial number ink-stamped on the neck block rather than embossed on the headstock, belly-down bridge with slot-through bone saddle, bone nut, centerline black stripe on the back, pseudo-firestripe pickguard, 19-fret neck, five-ply top binding, etc. It's supposed to be an adi top, but looks like sitka to me. The non-authentic features are a bound fretboard, which is a post-war characteristic, and the luthier's choice neck with a 1.78" nut and 2 3/16" pin spacing. I can live with those compromises in authenticity, since sonically it's a great guitar. Fortunately, that guitar does not have a "custom shop" decal on the neck (nor does my L-OO Legend, another limited run guitar that is even more "authentic") , which would sort of compromise the overall effect, even though it is a special limited run. On the electric guitar side, Gibson seems to use the "custom shop" designation on a large percentage of the guitars that come out of Memphis, few of which seem to have anything "custom" about them. The old Nashville "Custom, Art, and Historic" shop, where my '59 ES-335 Historic was built, was probably a closer analog to Bozeman's old custom shop. A few shops like Fuller's (then) and Wildwood (now) have been able to commission and sell unique runs of guitars from Gibson Acoustic. The fact that they may not have the "custom shop" logo on them doesn't bother me at all.