j45nick

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

Neck twist can in some cases be mitigated by a talented luthier, but I would simply avoid a guitar with an obvious twist or other distortion in the neck. Small humps can often be planed out. Twists are more complicated.

I can see the appeal of the old banner, but it is overpriced, given the re-finish. It actually looks like a fairly decent re-finish, but it still compromises the value. It looks to have had numerous fairly sloppy repairs, such as re-glued top braces. There is a lot of excess glue on the inside, which often indicates non-professional "repairs."The fretboard is pretty rutted, and may need a bit of work if the guitar is re-fretted at some point. A properly-done neck re-set has no negative impact on value, and is considered normal maintenance. It looks like a one-piece back, which you see a fair amount in that period. That cardboard case is inadequate protection, and is probably not original. The wear on the case is not consistent with the wear on the guitar. Add at least $150 for a half-decent standard modern J-45 case, or up to twice that for a better one. Unless you have experience with vintage guitars, it can be difficult to evaluate both condition and playability. Things like fret and board wear, neck angle, neck twist, bridge and bridgeplate condition, etc, have to be considered. Without a re-finish, but in its apparent condition, the guitar might be worth a bit less than that asking price. The re-finish probably knocks at least 30% off the value, just because there are more original versions available, in better condition. Play them both, and make the call. The Legend is likely to be a really good guitar that will only get better with time. The banner has emotional appeal, but is compromised in collector value and may not be as good as a musical instrument. You're the only one who can weigh all these things.

Probably the Legend, unless the tone of the banner is exceptional. You haven't talked money, but the refinish knocks a big chunk of the value of the banner unless it's an exceptional guitar in both condition and tone. The Legend series guitars are superb in general. Since it's new, I assume it has a torrefied adi top, which will take you a good distance towards vintage tone. The right vintage J-45 is magic. I have several, including one I've owned for more than 50 years. I also have a great modern slope-J as well, and it is a great guitar. The Legend is as close as you can get to the real thing, without vintage problems. Unless you have a lot of experience with vintage Gibsons and know exactly what you're getting into, stick with the Legend.

I generally agree with everything you said. However, there were problems associated with the bridge and bridgeplate well beyond simply re-gluing the bridge. Both the top and bridgeplate appeared to be fractured across the pin holes, which was why there was a hard crease in the top. I've pondered the proper fix for that one, and every solution I came up with suggested at least a slightly larger bridgeplate, but not necessarily the chunk of tree he put in. At the end of the day, the transverse top fracture probably required a somewhat larger bridgeplate, plus probably trying to glue that fracture shut properly after the bridgeplate was replaced. Then maybe completely filling the oversize pin holes in the top with either glued-in spruce (similar to Erlewine's plate repair tool gizmo), or a reinforced epoxy, which might actually produce a better repair. Then maybe filling the saddle slot and chewed-up pin holes in the bridge before re-installing it, then re-drilling the pinholes through completely solid new material. Then lay out and rout a new saddle slot. Any way you look at it, the guitar had significant issues just to stabilize it enough to turn it into a player. Other than that, everything you said was spot-on. Ross Teigen, who works on my guitars, said that most of his repair time is spent un-doing poorly-made previous repairs. That's why he had such an easy time working on my "new" 195 J-45. No one had ever touched it to "fix" anything. I suspect the guy who worked on this J-200 might do a decent job on the new instruments he builds, but that says nothing about his repair abilities. That's a different skill set.

Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't be using a gig bag to transport my L-5 or 1937 Super 400 to a gig. I'd want them in their hard cases until I took them out to put them on their stands. I looked real hard at a beautiful one-owner 1937 Super 400 a few years ago, being sold by the son or grandson of the original owner at the Orando guitar show. It was a lot of money, but was fairly priced. There's not a lot of those around.

Exactly! In fairness, the guy turned something unplayable into a usable guitar. But a 1953 J-200 probably deserved better.

As I said, I'll stick with my guy. I would not let Jerry touch one of my guitars. Having said that, not everyone is as picky as I am.

Well, he brought it back to life, but I'll stick with my guy. Don't care much for that pickguard, particularly since it looks like the original went all the way to the soundhole, and this one leaves a big smile of bare wood showing around the soundhole. The painted-on flowers won't last very long in any case. He might benefit from watching Mamie Minch's (Brooklyn Lutherie) video on using lacquer reducer (not lacquer thinner, not acetone) to reduce the appearance of scratches and dings in old finish. I've done it, and it works. Won't help on bare wood, however. Having said that, he turned a pretty sad guitar into a nice player, which was the goal in the first place. The bridgeplate process and repair was worth the time it took to watch both videos.

I agree with this. You can't assume everyone here understands the difference between a joke and legitimate advice, particularly if they are new to the forum and don't appreciate the quirks that sometimes emerge.

What amazes me is that equally-skilled luthiers can have significantly different approaches to problem-solving and still come out with workable solutions. That guitar had a lot of problems, most of which seemed to come as by-products of the notorious moustache bridge and its lack of functional structural gluing surface. It was also a real lesson in the potential weakness associated with a lot of holes in a row going through thin pieces of wood. Once any part of the glued-together "sandwich" of bridge, top, and bridgeplate fails, there's big potential trouble ahead.

I suspect it goes a bit thin, and a lot more quiet. But I've never used anything lighter than "lights" on a full-sized guitar. I've got three slope-J's, a 000, and an L-00. All get lights, and it seems to work for all of them. A long-scale dread might be another issue, although Martin is spec'ing lights on all the D-series guitars, as far as I can tell. EL's would seem to be a non-starter on one of those if you care at all about tone and volume. I used to put mediums on my "old" 1950 J-45, just to try to hold my own with Martin D's. I wouldn't even think of that today. Why would you even bother with EL's? What are you trying to gain? (not saying you would, other than as an experiment to satisfy your curiosity.) I'm betting few here have used EL's.

There's nothing wrong with that, but I just wear a long-sleeve cotton T-shirt.

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.

In the first part of this video, starting about two minutes in, Tony runs through a series of hand stretches that are really useful. Tony Polecastro hand stretches

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.

It sort of freaks me out when she talks and you realize she's Scottish. What a little powerhouse she is! Just shows how universal the music really is.

Yes, she is. Great performance of a mind-blowing song. How many popular songwriters reference the poet Dante in their lyrics? "The only thing I knew how to do was to keep on keepin' on" is right up there as well. The are so many perfect gems of couplets in those lyrics that it makes your head spin. That is Dylan at his absolute lyrical best. Freakin' genius stuff.

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!