BluesKing777
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Posts posted by BluesKing777
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Well, I have driven the miles and miles to the music shops and I am back with just strings (12 strings Elixirs for the Gibson B25-12N).
I went to a pawn shop where they have a Dobro a friend is interested in - he tried it the other day and wasn't sure, but I thought it was pretty good. That broke the ice in the shop for me, then I asked for my real target: 1954 Gibson ES125 like this one from eBay: Not this one though..
Well - perfect! The neck was like playing my er, well, Gibsons! Sound was that lovely old smoky blues singer thing. I want it! That's what I am looking for and my car whisperer that I mentioned in another thread had better get back to me real soon or guess what? He will be unemployed and I will be the owner of a 125!
I then tried a mid 60s Gibson ES125 and it was ok and $500 cheaper, but with the skinny neck.
I went to another shop to try the Godin Somethin'orotherwhat'sitcalled that is sort of like the 125. 5th Avenue, that's it. They wish! Cheap and cheerful but not what I wanted.
Quickly played a J45 Legend they just got in. Perfect! Neck -WOW! Had it all, but not what I'm looking for today.
BluesKing777.
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I also like to fingerpick electric, and Chet Atkins was doing it rather nicely before Fogerty got off the Bayou, so it definitely can be done. My Howard Roberts Fusion probably has a 59 Les Paul neck profile. It is very close to the profile on my Woody Guthrie. Probably a bit slim compared to your LG3, but perhaps the year is actually telling here, and maybe the electrics weren't that far from the acoustics by then in terms of neck profile. Worth trying a 59 LP profile in any case. Lots of current Lesters with it, though the advantage of something like a Howard is that it has a bit more body on which to rest your picking arm. Smaller than a Jumbo, obviously, and across the bout also smaller than a 335, but with more depth than the latter - enough body in all dimensions to feel like a real guitar. Maybe close in width to your LG too (14.75 inches or so). Also, I like to have a bit of air in the guitar to make dynamics more noticeable, especially for fingerpicking. Also worth trying a 335 with a 1950s neck profile (not sure if this is the same as the 59 LP, or closer to the fatter 58 LP). So a Historic 1959 reissue from Nashville (ask J45 Nick for advice) or a 1950s Fat Neck from Memphis for starters. Howards are now out of production, but cheaper if you can get one, so worth hunting down to try. Nice guitars. The Norlin-era and early Henry J ones also have a nice unbound fingerboard, which given the fretwear on mine would be an advantage at present. Also Maple centreblock instead of the chromyte that mine has. Probably one of the few Norlin-era designs which really was good. Of course all Gibson electrics will have a narrower nut than 1.75, but I find 1 11/16 quite manageable.
Thanks Mojo
The HR is a good idea size wise - the trouble with the Chet is the size.
They are a bit scarce down this way.
A local pawn shop has a 1954 Gibson ES125 (ad says the top is slightly sunken????) that I may go have a try. Wow - they LOOK cool!!!!! Expensive experiment probably.
Another local shop is flogging the Godin 5th Avenue cheap copies - may give them a test run:
http://www.acousticc...com.au/archtops
Hard to ignore that damn 125 now, oh, oh, oh - a bug has bit me! It would be a 120 mile round trip to try it......
BluesKing777.
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Here's another chart that should help. It mixes Gibson, Martin and Fender terminology. You can see that the "U" shape had deep sides that fall away straight from the fretboard edge for long distance. The "D" shape has sides that also fall away straight from the fretboard edge but not as far as the "U" making it more rounded. The "C" shape quickly curves away from the fretboard edge. The 60s slim taper is a thin (reduced thickness or slim) "C" with the sides tapered so they curve away from the fretboard edge toward the center line quickly (and so the term "slim taper"). Once these shapes first appeared, they sometimes went in and out of favor, or reappeared at a later date somewhat modified.
So, probably a dumb question, but I like the neck on my 1959 Gibson LG3 the best of all my guitars, which we are assuming is a version of the above '50s Rounded D Shape'. Is there a decent Gibson electric with the same neck for fingerpicking blues on electric guitar instead of acoustics? I know zip about the Gibson electrics but 20 odd years ago I had a Les Paul Custom, which was obviously from a Gibson bad spot......apart from weighing in at about what seemed like a hundred pounds, the neck was ok (ish), the pickups ok (ish) for rock blues, but fingerpicking was never going to happen! I have a Strat and a Tele (with spiders living on them in their cases 'cos I haven't played them), but those 2 guitars are pretty useless for fingerpicking, especially the skinny neck Tele.....
I'm guessing some of the earlier jazzer models would do the trick, but I don't want a collector's item - I want something newish to play at a bar straight in to a tube amp etc....not worry too much about, but with a nice sound.
BluesKing777.
OH, I saw John Fogerty doing ok fingerpicking a custom made Dolphin electric guitar, so it can be done!
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Thanks for that chart, BigKahune - nicely done.
At the present time, I like the neck on my 1959 Gibson LG3 the best - it is the best I have played in the limited number of older Gibsons that I have tried. It reminds me a bit of a Les Paul Standard that a friend had years ago that I coveted! I guess it is the late 50's D shape from your chart.
BluesKing777.
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OMG....That IS the SNIT!. He has definitely got some mitts on him and plays it so precise and effortlessly...He got DA BLUES...
![[thumbup]](//content.invisioncic.com/p286412/emoticons/default_msp_thumbup.gif)
What's a SNIT, Retro?
From you birdhide?
BluesKing777.
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If it sounds like this J50, leave the placky, otherwise get the rosewood...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlC89NJg94w
BluesKing777.
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That's where I'm at. A situation like this isn't out of the realm of possibilities, but I have a question. In post #7 I asked "What's the date encoded in the guitar's serial number?" - I'm wondering how long it was sitting between serialization and sale. If it was in a shop or a system like Guitar Center, the longer it's on the shelf, the higher the probability of after factory monkeying around - like an improperly done string change, or an ill advised saddle change etc. I've seen Gibson guitars in shops that were more than one or two years old and still new stock. While a bad saddle installation can certainly occur, I find it very odd that the wrong sized saddle was installed at the Gibson Montana facility (although, that could have happened too). I'd like to see adamjs69 post back, but I understand if he doesn't.
Yes - in a perfect world we would all go to meet Ren or Mr Gibson to pick up our perfect prize,with love, but it's not how it happens! Things get shipped, get played, set up by experts and pretenders, lie around in hot and cold and humid and dry shops and warehouses, get shifted through docks, shops and warehouses by ship, airplane, dinghy, truck, towtruck, forklift, trolley, guitar lovers and guitar haters, large beefy men that carry 4 guitars in each hand, scrawny little person who has to drag the guitar along the floor, then it is sold through shop, trader, ebay, garage sale to the drooling fool who just wants to play blues, sorry getting steamed but you get the picture. One new guitar I bought (name withheld) and played happily for a number of weeks before taking to a guitar tech to setup properly to find that a1/8 inch shim was under the saddle, unlikely to come from the factory like that, but most probably by a guitar salesperson that thought he was a guitar tech who unfortunately had shaved a bit too much off the saddle and instead of getting a new one, decided to save a dollar and run with the dodgy one....
It is all a bit 'luck of the draw'.
BluesKing777
![[thumbup]](http://content.invisioncic.com/p286412/emoticons/default_msp_thumbup.gif)
What's the best neck profile?
in Gibson Acoustic
Posted
Well, a bit of an update - NGD!!!!!
Woke up really, really early this morning. Coffee, practice the Blues King for a bit, open a Stefan Grossman book and there in the photo opposite the music I was playing was a guy playing what appears to be Gibson ES125! Kind of set me thinking......
Had cereal, shower, drove the zillion miles to the shop - possible second person to arrive at the shop - bought the 1954 Gibson ES125!
So I know that technically the new guitar announcement belongs in a different forum (Archtop Forum?), but I was talking about it here first.
So I played it for while acoustically, and one of the main attractions of the guitar initially was that the neck is pretty well identical to my other 50's Gibson acoustics. Then plugged it into my Mesa Boogie .22 calibre (22 watt tube amp) that I have hardly touched in years. Spiders and bugs had to move out! There may be a dog hair stuck in the amp's master volume, but there is dog hair everywhere at my house, even in my car's fuel system....I am not interested in the jazz clean sound - I am trying more for the John Lee Hooker/Lightnin' Hopkins/ bluesy sound. The setting I had when I gave up for a while before was more like the guitar sound in Tom Waits' "Heart Attack and Vine".
BluesKing777.