BluesKing777
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Posts posted by BluesKing777
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Back to the new reissue model 34 Jumbo...
1 3/4" nut - tick
V neck - tick
Hmmmm.
Love to try a row of the Historics, especially this one against the J45 Banner 42 reissue, but when I rang a shop here, I was informed that they have only ordered the 'standard' models as the more expensive ones get too dear with the Australian dollar exchange rate and they sit on the shelf. They expect the 'cheapies' to start arriving maybe July.
BluesKing777.
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Congratulations KC!
So as far as I can tell by the official specs page, the "60's J50" has a 1.69" nut (1 11/16") and an adjustable saddle using Tusq. And those 2 little items probably make it play very differently than the "50's J50" with 1.72" nut and 'normal' bone saddle. I would love to play some of these lined up in a row at my preferred music shop but no sign of the new models in Australia as yet - plus the shops aren't open.
Have fun!
BluesKing777.
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Replying to my own thread!
I will you tell you about the J50 amplified and then I will leave it alone.
So plugged in we now have 2 choices I like.......the Baggs Anthem with the TruMic on full is great for my fingerstyle - it sounds very ‘close’.
And the reason I wanted the full Anthem system is that you can completely turn the mic section off and run just the undersaddle section to my Tonedexter! Or my Aura box..... Made a Tonedexter wavefile using my old, old, old Shure SM57 which I used live in about 1982. The Better Half bought it for me, must have been bust! Even though the Tonedexter people recommend using a high quality condenser mic, I have used the 57 for so many years that I know the sound. And the sound I have got with the 57, the J50 and Tonedexter is fabulous.......sounds like recording the guitar ‘live’. The guitar sounds further away than the Anthem sound, if that makes sense.
So we are dressed up with nowhere to go! (even though the Anthem is known for not feeding back much with its electronic heart crossing the nasty bits out, the Tonedexter has a DI, tone controls, gain control and the biggie for feedback - notch filter. Blues Club and open mic are in lockdown, my friend with the huge PA system is coughing and spluttering so we can’t go there to blast the pickup out! Patience....
BluesKing777.
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Thanks Sal!
There will probably be no guitar playing today as the (insurance co.) contractors are coming to replace the carbonate roof on my verandah that got damaged in a huge hail storm in early January. Delayed by the virus lockdown....
They will probably get loud.
BluesKing777.
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40 minutes ago, E-minor7 said:
Those 18 years didn't disappear in vain - they are heard in the instrument, which seems loose, but still with its core intact - warm, woody even smokey. .
Keep digging
Thanks Em7!
Yes I played it more, the guitar is unrecognisable from the other day, already, and instead of the usual Gibson dread type tunes, I stretched the limits a bit more with some more evocative fingerstyle things I play from the site ‘GuitarNick 100 Fingerstyle Tunes’. These tunes are more suited to a guitar with lots of overtones and fretboard room like a Lowden or my custom Cargill. (GuitarNick plays a nylon string guitar). The standard mod Gibson 1.72 nut is a bit squeezy but a capo on 3 or 4 gives a bit more room across the strings. And the J50 just sings in that position and a couple of the 1st string notes just cry out! 8th fret C in particular - I think that may have been the note I played in the shop that spoke to me and made head turns in the shop! And me buying a ‘junker’! I spent $980 on getting the guitar fixed and I joked to the Boss the other day that I now have a $20,000 guitar! After playing the fingerstyle things before, I told her I have a $40,000 guitar. It is very, very good!
BluesKing777.
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Thanks, (I think).
Another day, another dollar, shall I play the J50 again, or practice my holler? (Poet and don’t know it?).
I should play a different guitar today!
But I have a few things I want to try on the J50.....
BluesKing777.
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1 hour ago, Lars68 said:
I saw the nice pictures in your other thread. It sounds just as nice as it looks. You shouldn't have faded the song at the end. It sounded good!
Lars
By the way, I'm trying to learn to fingerpick better. You don't happen to know a good resource for learning basic patterns and variations?
Thanks Lars68!
I faded the track because hurried it all in some bits and made clangers - a guy on another forum said I need to learn ‘time’. I might but usually my timing is good but I was just enthusiastic to get a recording of my J50.....
Fingerpicking lessons?
Normally I get asked about Blues fingerpicking and I say Stefan Grossman Guitar Workshop - start at the beginning and they have enough stuff to keep you going for about 2000 years. If you want a more ‘general’ lesson in fingerpicking, the very excellent David Hamburger has a lesson book available download online or book form through the Acoustic Guitar Magazine online :
The Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Method: Complete Edition .
BluesKing777.
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Thanks!
Yeah, more balanced than some, probably what grabbed me. I don’t want a booming bass when fingerpicking... though the guitar has changed sounds since I did the recording above. It is a lot fuller!
Anyway, I have worn the guitar out already and the strings are broken in and my thumb is sore, and.....
BluesKing777.
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Thanks Em7!
I have played the guitar for 3 or 4 half hour to an hour ‘sittings’ since making the recording above.
Somewhere in there, the guitar just kicked in! Glue dried? New strings dulled? Whatever it is, I can now really dig in, for lack of better words.
So now we have a nice setup, nice new bone parts, but on a guitar that is 18 years old and just sings!
(and the Baggs Anthem pickup (not used in the recording, just a mic) sounded terrific when I plugged and played in various devices last night!)
BluesKing777.
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Percussive playing these days generally means in the Candyrat style.....
And "Acoustic Uprising" full length movie:
BluesKing777.
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Thanks MP!
No need to get jealous over my playing - I'm also young, handsome and rich! 😎 Maybe a bit crazy?
BluesKing777.
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9 hours ago, kidblast said:
Good luck with the Anthem BK. I loved the way they sounded but I had issues.
The first J200 I purchased in 2016 had to go back due to serious grounding issues.
The second one, after a few months, developed sympathetic vibrations/rattles in the control module (the dials mostly it seemed) It was VERY audible playing unplugged..
Certain notes would send it off. you could hear this rattly over tone as it was played, not pleasant,
I removed the anthem and put an Infinity in there. Didn't sound quite as good but, does not make sounds it should not make.
From these two fails, I've VERY leery of the Anthem setup.. A shame really b/c it sounded very good.
Yeah, I have read your posts about the Anthem before, thanks KB.
The Anthem that came with my Dove (free!) needs the control unit pushed into the putty holding it to the guitar, or it will buzz against the wood. I lean my fingers in and press, and it is ok for a a few days. It is probably the disadvantage of having a 'removable system' - it wants to remove itself.
I am needing some time working with the new one in my J50, adjust the blend a bit, etc...
The very best pickup system, my opinion, is the one in my Matons - fantastic - pickup + condenser mic and great controls including sweepable mids to help get rid of the oinks. I haven't had any trouble and I have 3 Matons (808 size), but I am sure it can go wrong like anything made of stuff! You would make a large commitment putting a Maton AP5-Pro pickup in any of your best guitars though - it needs the bridge removed, a large slot cut in the top for installation, a hole cut in the guitar bout for the control/preamp and another hole in the lower bout for the guitar jack...... Hmmm, which guitar will I sacrifice? 😁 (it has 6 indiviual piezos!):
https://reverb.com/au/item/2736396-maton-ap5-pro-complete-pickup-system
BluesKing777.
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Heading says it all!
Here is a first recording of my 2002 gibson J50 since getting a repair or two - a short version of "Crazy":
BluesKing777.
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Well, for a moment there it looked like my work software was going to need the techs to work on it for a while (last time was about 5 hours) and I would be a professional guitarist! (playing guitar while waiting for a software fix!!!). But the wind when out of the sails, so to speak, when they fixed it immediately. What is wrong with these people?😠 I suppose I will have to wait for lunchtime to play the J50.....
Here are some old photos of the J50 with my 59 LG3, not very good photos but enough to see the similarities:
BluesKing777.
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The Anthem came with my Dove and it sounds good in my Boss VE8 and mixer. With in ear monitors or headphones, I can have the TruMic on full with no feedback and I found it very playable for my style. So I ordered one for the J50!
BluesKing777.
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The nut and saddle were home made, amateur and had been soaked in tea or coffee to make them look old. But the nut slots were uneven, 3rd string slot way too low and the string touched the 1st fret. The saddle was too thin and leaned in the slot. He could have fixed it but he has ‘high density bone’ he likes to use for undersaddle pickups. I have a few of those saddles now!
BluesKing777.
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I didn’t ask, but there is probably a few spots of glue under the new bone nut... previously, I think that takes quite a few months to ‘kick back in’. It has never had strings, the nut and saddle, and next thing BK is attempting some Lightnin Hopkins in the workshop on brand new strings, and it felt like a strange guitar when you pick it up in a shop. Frets had been worked on, so everything is a bit tight AND has loosened up a bit already...half hour of playing. We will get over it!😃
BluesKing777.
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ZW...
Ha ha, I am almost ashamed to say it has been gone.......2 weeks.
But it is a fabulously old school guy working alone and ‘it is ready when it is done’ and ‘the more you ring me, the longer........’ and in the past the wait has been interminable! Neck set on the 37 L-0 took forever and then I got him to make me a guitar! And then repaint the top 3 years later....Ha ha. Hee. Yi yi. (Play the crazy music).
And Nick, I can’t help with the tuners as I didn’t know they were non standard. I can’t see any evidence of other marks. Will get out the magnifying glass tomorrow.
And yes, this is more like the 56 I wanted than the 56! You know, with the yellowed binding, the darkened nut and saddle that was removed, the general craquelature, dark top and a few other details like being dry as a bone - unless Gibson did this for a reason in 2002, my guess is a Japanese person has given it a once through the Shou sugi ban to age it. It looks like my 59 LG3 detail...I have posted the 2 together before....
BluesKing777.
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I am still working (at home since theYear Dot) and every time I went to have a bite at that guitar, well......and about an hour before I normally finish work, there was a knock on the door and a tradesman we have been waiting for has turned up to measure the hail damage from January 15 on my veranda roof. No, yes, no, yes, not now. 15 minutes, he said. Hour later.....
Walked dog, Boss talking on the phone when I came back- working on laptop and phone on the kitchen table! Nerves are frayed, but at last I got to my music room and got in half an hour on the J50 before having to take her to the shops......acoustically sensational, played all over the neck. Hooray!!! Anthem pickup sounds great but some fine tuning with the undersaddle versus TruMic to come!
(I played it at the luthier’s for 5 seconds to check it, acoustically, plugged in array thing that sounded fabulous and threw the sound up to the roof and all around - I want one! I also showed him the settings I generally plug in with on a Maton 00! That is sensational in this array! Phew....big day, mentally.)
BluesKing777.
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Hot off the luthier's bench!
My 2002 Gibson J50 is back with a haircut, I mean, new bone nut, saddle, setup, frets filed etc and a full Baggs Anthem pickup system.
This guitar now has no relationship with the one I gave him! It will take a bit longer to get used to it....there is a fraction less saddle with the new setup than I hoped but, you know, it works way better already than the 1" action before......
Photos - a little bit bright and sunny and glare there!
BluesKing777.
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RIP Little Richard.
I was fortunate to see him play at a dump in Adelaide in the mid 70s sometime, also Chuck Berry and a few others possibly on the same bill on a "Rock & Roll Tour", not sure as those days are a bit foggy. 😁 He was incredible live and rocked the place and shocked the staid by dancing and singing on top of the piano in a his overalls type outfit.
BluesKing777.
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1 hour ago, kidblast said:
I think just about any guitar will handle DADGAD and other alternate tunigs. (which I do a fair amount of) Tho, droping DADGAD to C,, that may be interesting...
My Lowden O22 has been in CGCFGC since July 2017!
Thunder! Rumble!
DADGAD tuned down 2 frets equivalent would probably make most guitar necks swing down around and back up to hit you in the face. The Lowden O22 has a 5 piece large neck with approx twice the amount of wood as a Gibson standard neck. Maybe why the DADGAD set like them......mine is still close to in tune every time I open the case. Incredible, really, a work of amazing quality and not even that high in the Lowden guitar heirachy. I put it in standard, just to see, and put it back. I put it back to DADGAD and put it back. No, CGCFGC it stays!
I put my Taylor 717e BE GP in DADGADas it seems to me to be very....Lowden. But I put that back in standard.
You can do anything on anything really, but some guitars have a slot.
BluesKing777.
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Can you borrow your American Eagle back and record them next to each other with a similar tune?
(before you sell again?) 😲
BluesKing777.
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You can do anything you like - your guitar, and if you stick to Open G or D tunings with normal strings, I can’t see a problem.
And you buy the Bird if you like.
I will tell you what I do because we are locked in for the Apocalypse.....and some others here may like it long after you bought the Bird anyway!
I have many guitars and a good thing about that is leaving a guitar in the tuning I was using for a while. Changing tunings between standard and Open G or D for slide is easy but stressing them strings more than not. And changing tunings live in front of an audience is an art form all of its own! See Leo K or John H jnr.....and watch them tell the audience a long, ling story while they tune and change broken strings!
So me, currently have a few ‘formats’ within the Open tuning thingo. (All fingerpicking...and committed to the long game
I have Open G but playing just left hand fingering, no slide, normal strings, normal setup. Today, I have my 37 L-0 in that.
I have Open G for slide and like a great big fat string (16) on the 1st string and that will raise the action a bit without asking you! Great for clean slide with no fret rattle. Awful for plain fingering. Today, my Maton SRS808 is set like that.
I have Open D just fingering etc, see above for G. Today I have my Waterloo WL-14 ladder braced model in that.
I have Open D for slide, see above for G slide. Today I have my 1952 LG1 set like that.
I have heavy duty National reso single cone in Open G for slide and whatever. Fat Pearce reso string set comes with 14 on 1st. I tune down for F.
I have heavy, heavy, heavy duty National Tricone in Open D for slide plus. Fat Pearce reso string set comes with 14 on 1st. I actually tune these down further so the bass string is a rumbling low C.
DADGAD tuning, only choice is the famous for that tuning - Lowden O22. I tune it down 2 steps more for the low C on bass. Massive sound.
So.....I doubt a short scale Hummingbird would appreciate tuning like the last 3! Strings could go flappy and loose. A long scale Dove might be ok for normal DADGAD. A maple long scale Dove probably better for your idea, Fester, and will be very different from your J. (my Taylor 717e Builder’s Edition V Class is also pretty fabulous in DADGAD)
How is that?
BluesKing777.
Jinder!!! Come hold my hand!!!
in Gibson Acoustic
Posted · Edited by BluesKing777
Where were you Jinder?
Now he has gone home empty-handed! 😁
Speaking of matters in the 12 strings area - 2 items of interest.........
1. The newer Taylor 12 stringers have only a 6 pin bridge! 2 strings in each pin - the V Class bracing also removes the boing sounds and gets a clean 12.:
2. Here is John Butler playing his old Maton 12 string with top that looks like fossilized driftwood! He takes one of the G strings right off - including removing the tuning machine!:
BluesKing777.