BoSoxBiker

You forgot gaudy.

Congrats - It's a beauty! I came within a very thin curly hair from pulling the SC trigger myself today. Long story. I'm with you on that one.

I went on a Youtube journey yesterday, sampling a bunch of SJ Demos. There was a lot of variation from demo to demo, as would be expected. I then circled back to the OP's posted video with the RW. It gave me a lot more appreciation for Rosewood and Maple, yes, but the real winner was the SJ-200 itself. I know it's not loud in the neo-traditional sense of bright, loud projection of tone, but it is still a powerful monster sitting in one's lap. Thinking about it a bit, it takes a ton of power to push out low end warmth compared to brighter tones. Think of the old tweeter and sub-woofer purposes and how much more a subwoofer needs to do it's job. This guitar is pushing out a balanced, well managed low-mid warmth in a similar fashion to how some guitar push out bright. That's power you feel as much as you feel the power of a booming and bright D-41(or D-28 and D-35) and the brilliance that is the great HB. What a great guitar! I have an appreciation for the use of "lush" to describe the SJ Maple that I didn't have until this week and the work I put into mine. Nothing really changed in my description before this week, but now it's more evident. Eliminating some raised fret overtones and improving my nut slots this past week has learning a whole new layer of appreciation for the SJ. It is truly "Lush", as you say.

I've never not had Tinnitus except when a shift happens in there. It sounds like an explosion, like in the movie with John Travolta's movie "Phenomenon", except not anywhere near as dramatic. It kills the Tinnitus for a few seconds, which is panic attack city when all you know is Tinnitus. I was born with malformed ears. The left one is Hypoplastic. The surgeon that did my Mastoidectomies (second one was called a "revision") told me that it was as if it had stopped developing at sometime like before I turned 4 years old. But on to Jinder's commentary of mid-range fatigue and subsequent pain, it is some real nasty crap. There is something about cheap speakers that gets me the worst, though. TV speakers, cell phones, lap top speakers unless super good, etc, etc. In between Mastoidectomies, I had a few years where just a few seconds of a TV speaker could get me unless is was barely audible. My ear would vibrate and a Migraine would hit instantly, like a hammer. My Son's whistling, too. Not my own or anyone else's. One of my friends that I used to ride motorcycles with has a voice that I could not be around within 5-10 feet if he was on that side of me. All that eased up not long after my Eustachian tube opened back up for good. (knock on wood) It's also a big part of the reason I killed my studio space. I can listen to music in that room much louder than anywhere else. It had some wicked bad comb filtering. I still get fatigue, of course, but it's much more comfortable for a longer amount of time. It's also the reason I stayed with guitar through all of this. Especially nice sounding acoustics or clean Fender amps. It's soothing on the ears, first off. Secondly, it beats the crap out of Tinnitus. Jinder also had a post a year or two ago about not being with it while playing guitar one day. A sort of disconnect. mine is daily, about 60-90 minutes prior to sunset, lasting for about 90 minutes. Sometimes I don't get it back until the next day, if it's a really bad one. It's always a big relief when i reach over for it right after the first sip of coffee after those nights. Sometimes I even sneak in here on the way up to bed after a movie or whatever, just to see if it's back. I feel better already, Next!

That sounded great. I know EM7 was speaking of a different guitar, but this one left me thinking the same word. "Smooth" It's quite something after only hearing only my Maple SJ-200.

Updates on both guitars. HB - The tweak adjustment I made about 2-days after the fret leveling was all it needed. It's played and sounded great. The stupid grin never left. The strings are starting to wear a bit, but that's OK for as much as i played it over 2-plus weeks. I'm calling it done. It's in the case now so that the SJ can can run through it's paces. SJ - OK, so the next day's worth of settling has happened. After playing some more this morning, I decided to file down 5/6 nut slots a 1-3 thousandth each. I'm now between .013 and .017. I did bring the relief back up to .005, almost .006", which I hope gives me room for most weather and humidity changes. In the end, I did not sand the saddle down. I'll call that an extra layer of safety or room to grow if needed. I'm still at 4.5/64 and 3.25/64 after filing the grooves and bringing the neck up. It feels fantastic, and I am much happier with it than I was yesterday. One issue on the SJ that I thought was odd was how the B-E strings used to feel flimsy and unsubstantial. It stretched out my fingers like a long-scale does, but was easier to play than my short-scale Bird. It's been like that since the beginning, too. The SJ now feels like it has the tension of a long scale. Getting the extra tension and definition was something I did not expect. I actually thought it was a Martin trait until today. Has to be either the nut slots allowing the strings to slide better, or the clearance due to the fret leveling? Not sure what else it could be. A couple weeks on the stand to make sure, but so far, so good. Much happier about it today. It might join the HB and D-41 as being difficult to put down. A little personality shift that's hard to explain.

A kinky thought while perusing a national store's offerings. Perhaps others will chime in on the differences. The Cheryl Crow sig model is baked-top and advanced bracing. It should be a boisterous at a minimum. If not getting a bird due to standard top, Hyde glue, too, for whatever that's worth in real life. I could not find a good source for differences between the bird and the SC Country Western model. Most specifically, size differences. Well, enjoy your guitar decision thought free day. 😁

I dug the Ambertone on a couple of 41s (and up) that I saw online, but none were for sale. The deals we got made buying brand new an obvious thing to do, so no sense in pushing and waiting. That combo of Ambertone and the 4x series, though - dang fine. Lars68 has an 'addy topped with the Ambertone 28 (forget which exact model) that looks nice in pics he's posted. Congrats. A Hummingbird will haunt you, though. Especially if you found a player. (heehee)

Fellow Gibson Enthusiasts/Enablers, is there a picture that he could request from the seller with the TV to help reassure that the potential for permanent humidity damage is not an issue? I often point to the Taylor site's dry/wet guitar pages, but am hesitant to on this because I don't want to assume one company's standard angles are good for the others and visa versa That aside, I really do like the torefied tops. I only have it one one guitar, though, and never played one of the prior years' models that did not have the baked top. In other words, I am basing this on nothing at all close to legitimate A/B testing. There's good reason for that. I played a few of the 28, HD28, and one 35 that I can't remember if it was and HD or not. They were all different. Mine turned out to sound as nice as it looks. I can't even begin to describe the guitar nirvana that is having both of them out at the same time, with perfectly broken in strings, playing and alternating every few songs. Mine is the same as yours, I think - the Re-imagine series. I lucked out.

One week and two nuts later. Good thing I ordered one extra <ahem> pair of nuts, My first installation was going on well and then I must have caught something with my file as the G-string slot was down to .012. I was tempted to live with it, but it started getting more noisy. I re-checked my slots and that one had dropped to below .010". Radius was toasted, too, obviously. Time for nut #3. This took a while longer, and that's before taking it wicked extra slow on slot filing. I got to the higher end of the slot range and played it some before letting it set overnight in case a repeat drop happened. It didn't, and it was fine. I took the slot filing triple extra slow before knocking the top down to stop pinching strings and such. It came out fantastically this time. I'm between .014" and .019" and has a good radius. No pinching (so far) on the G and B strings. I finished it off with some additional saddle sanding. I aimed a bit higher just as I did with the Hummingbird. Overnight, though, the string height was about 1/128 higher than I was aiming for. It was playing OK, but could have been better. I decided to twist the truss rod down from my middle-ground of .006" to .004". That improved playability a ton. The string height did drop slightly, of course, which is now down to 4.5/64 and 3.25/64. I did have the truss rod down there before the fret leveling. It really purrs down there. Not sure why and not sure I care, I think. If this ends up being too close to the edge of specs with eather changes and Summer humidity, I'll try moving it back up and sanding that last bit of saddle down. If not, I'll call it good and leave it alone. In the end, I was very nervous and am really sick of working on guitars ATM, but I am very close to being as pleased with the SJ surgery as am/was with the Hummingbird results. Woo Hoo!!! (and phew!!!) 🙂 (I did take some pics of the makeshift guitar repair zone with the SJ taped up and mid-procedure. I'll crop and post later.)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought there were some extra chords in "A Day In the Life". I was about to grab my reading glasses, magnifying glass and the Beatles complete songbook and figure out what I've been missing. He's stated he was a Martin guy before, if I'm not mistaken. Might have been one of those blind-fold videos. Anyhow, on the guitar, I thought it was familiar sounding overall, I guess due to having an SJ-200 and a Taylor Maple(to a smaller extent). It seemed to me like the 185's sustained sound got out of the way quicker than my 200's does.

I used a mechanic's mirror and spotted a great place to "clamp" it back to the wiring. I think I used 1/3 of a longer and thicker twist-tie, but made sure not to go nuts with the twisting. Not loose, but not twisted so tight as to potential damage anything. fwiw, to you original line of questioning, I felt it had a little but of a note definition improvement when I did mine. I ended up putting it back in place last Autumn, but that's because I plan to us it.

Nice, KB - I can't wait to hear your impressions of it and hopefully some audio. I didn't know about the house fire portion of your year. So sorry to hear that.

There are a lot of great elements going on, Lars. Bravo! The whole thing really blends well and sounds nice. The only thing that was noticeable to me was the first time the BGVs hit that I was a little bit abrupt. The guitar tones have got to be amongst the best I've heard from your recordings. It's a sweet listen.

I know it's not going to be popular with the purists, but I found the newer version(s) of No Expectations version to be a real sonic treat. I actually ordered an updated version of the CD because I discovered mine to be lost, and it was an old master for sure. If you have Tidal, find the version in the old box set. The one in the London Years Singles Collection and then listen to the latest album edition they have posted for it. It's a massive difference, piano included. I'd been lost in la-la land by the time the piano came on. I'd already been taken by both the HB and the slide guitar. It was the entry of the bass, though, that I admired the most. Just brilliant. A fan all over again. 🙂

I don't learn anything by not fessing up, right? Well, technically, the buzzing guitar, that's on the luthier, not you, yeah? 🙂 (I know - certain things you just leave alone - like balancing tires when the car doesn't shake.) I contemplate doing the super-glue and bone dust thing, but decided against it for similar reasons. I'm sure to do something off with that stuff. I still can't decide if I would have left the slots alone if guitar had been noise free after leveling the frets. I was very surprised at how much improved the low-e was after the back-filing. The A-D strings didn't make a difference that I easily noticed, but I could have very well knocked them down a bit, too, just not as bad as the G-B-E strings. Yes, those videos do make the task look so much easier with the tools. After screwing this nut up, I started doing the math again on that silly file stopper for something like $115. That's a lot of nuts even if I'm ruining Tusq or Micarta. For this, though. I've got 4 bone nuts coming in for under $20. pre-shaped, pre-slotted, and matching the specs of the ones Graph Tech Tusq XL 6400-00 that I saw as being claimed to being the ones they supplied to Gibson. I really do not feel like shaping one. It'd look like a Picaso. TBD

Alrighty, then. Just so nobody thinks all I do is sit back and show off the occasional positive project...... Yesterday, June 9th, was SJ-200 day. It will be again in about 5-6 days. I ruined a nut. I had it on the bench, so to speak, did all my measuring and inspection and had four main items. #1: Very minor spot fret leveling except two frets as high as any I've had. #2: Lower the saddle and #3 truss rod adjustment to go from .003" (?) to .006". (measuring the relief on the bench was .005" - I think I may have adjusted this on the bench the previous time and not allowed for the decrease when in playing position.) #4: The last item was to back-file the nut slots and sand/polish the top of my nut down so that it wasn't pinching the strings. The nut slots on this guitar have always seemed off to me. A cross between being too tight, too sticky and somewhat high on the backside. I think in this instance I'll wave some time and let the Stewmac video w/Dan Erlewine to his show and tell bit below. I did get the Hummingbird and my cheapos to land in good spots, but not this one. I made my marks as shown in the video and went to it. Turns out the highest spot on the G-B-E strings was back towards the head-stock. When I back-filed, I took off the height. Nut ruined. New one(s) should be here on the 15th. DOH!!!

Congrats! Looks like you scored a beauty. Selling gear outright can be time consuming task, with a "you snooze - you lose" situation lurking overhead the whole time. I do not blame you one bit for taking the path you took.

I was just poking around the other day, looking for new Dove vids. Thanks for posting!

The only thing I remember about my college station (SUNY Cobleskill) was some programming I couldn't get into. Might have been hard-core metal of the day.

I've never finished watching that documentary. I remember some from the SFTD portion with Keef on bass and Bill and someone else with some hand percussion.I think I saw Mick with an SJ as well, but I don't think it was part of anything that ended up getting recorded. I could be wayyyyy off track with that memory. I had many versions of metal pieced together just so I could pick up a op-rock station out of Springfield Mass. I'm still digging how fortunate we are these days on that front.

Jones on slide, supposedly. Don't know which acoustic he used for it, though. I was mistaken earlier. I don't know why I always think 1967 when I think of this album. One thing has always puzzled me about this and some of the other great tracks that are not thought of as part of their biggest hits list. Did songs like this ever get any air time, or did you miss out entirely unless you had the album. (We didn't even get a good Rock FM station where I was raised until maybe 1980. We did have cable the prior year, though, which back then, allowed me to pickup stations in Boston and NY.)

Hard to imagine hearing this and not picking up my bird. I just played this a few days ago. Just doesn't get old for me. heh! I was 2.

Am I the only one who cringed very time that headstock came within 2 inches of the shelf? Yikes! Pretty cool to see and hear.

I imagine the book reviews would be all over the place. The book is not perfect. I had to augment it with a lot of information online. It was more overview than it was detailed at times. It did seem to serve well as a central starting point on many topics. That string height gauge looks nifty at half the price. Not a great thing about having to add a few thousandth. I imagine that could vary by string and position? I don't know how much the scale would affect the specs. An interesting thought, though. Erlewine took some time to write about it, and that he was thinking more along the lines of the Gibson short scales when talking Gibson and then Martin long scale when talking Martin. His Martin specs were generally higher, but his discussion on why people claim the Martin can handle a heavier hand without buzzing is due to radius more than other factors. (16" verses 12") Generally speaking, my SJ-200 has been living in the same basic setup specs as the Hummingbird has the past couple years. It's been consistently easier for me to play, too, despite the scale length and the size. (fwiw - My Martin still has 13s on it, the relief is .005", and the string height is between 5.5/64th and 6/64ths at the 12th fret. All of that is stock except 1/8th of a turn on the truss rod, and minor nut slot filing to and take the strings down to .016" through .021" (High-E to Low-E). I've done nothing with the frets nor the saddle. The frets had minimal issues when I went over it with the fret rocker, but I've misplaced my notes from that. Maybe 1 higher fret and 2 other small high spots. I'll probably take a whopping 1/128 off the saddle when the time comes.)