BoSoxBiker

'oy!!! I hear ya!

Congratulations seems like a shallow thing to offer for your gift and the treasure that gave you the gift. Enjoy both!

I have a 2020 pre-war rosewood SJ-200 and the 2021 42 banner J-45. Some common attributes. Both guitars' tone opened up a little bit after 4-5 months. Both have always had plenty of volume. Some folks don't like that the hide glue looks a bit sloppy on the inside of some of these models. It doesn't bother me a bit. I never see it and don't even remember how bad it is. I only bring that up just in case that sort of thing bothers you. be sure to take a look inside to make sure nothing offends. Most folks like the cases. I do not. Just a preference. The SJ-200 has is my #1. I don't think I could be any happier with it than I am. Anyone who's played it has that "wow" moment just a strum or two in. I landed on using John Pearse 80/20 New Mediums as my favorite strings for it. The Bluegrass Hybrid sets do well, too. None of that was needed. The stock Light gauges were just fine in it. I simply like the low-mid warmth increases and helps with that rumble feeling. My J-45 is different. It's the loudest of my 6 acoustics. The tone is too bright for me, but some might love that aspect. I've read folks' accounts of their J-45's over the years. They write of deep, warm tone with room for vocals to pop through. The quintessential strummer type of commentary. Mine is the opposite. I've actually switch to DR Sunbeam Mediums and gone to 80/20's on it. Each note's got just a bit more thickness to it. I did do a sanity check with it last month and tried a set of John Pearse PB New Mediums. I'm switching back soon. In the end, I've thought of selling the J-45 and using the money to get a baked top Hummingbird, a Banner SJ RW or an Advanced Jumbo. Maybe even get the '57 Maple SJ-200. I've not done it yet because there have still been plenty of those guitar player's moments of zen with it. Sometimes that brightness fits the mood and the song I'm playing perfectly. Playing it outside seems to be the perfect place to play it, too. So I guess it's a love/hate thing.

QRST4 - If your neck relief is still around .014", you might consider what ksdaddy suggested before getting any fret work done. It sounds just as counter-intuitive as the 14th & higher frets making a difference, but it does have an effect on the strings' elliptical patterns as they are vibrate. In the very least, it might be better to have your neck relief set to a moderate amount (say .007" - .009") when you bring it in to the shop or ship it out. You're probably better off if the shop diagnose and make repairs with the neck relief in your favored position instead of running the chance of setting it after the fact and having something be off.

Very sharp looking guitar. Congratulations and enjoy!

That's much in line with why I asked QRST4 (the OP) about the fret rocker part of the investigation. That area very much matters. Especially with some Gibson necks being on the over-set side of things. I had a somewhat similar issue on my 2018 Hummingbird Standard. Much less buzz than I think we're talking about in this thread. Anyhow, My Luthier suggested the less aggressive approach to start with, which was to just knock down the frets a little starting with that dreaded 14th fret hump. Only possible because I never play anything down there on acoustic and that it was not an extreme amount. Still works like a charm 2 years later.

Can you expand on this?

My somewhat rhetorical question on this automatic system is this. A humidipak/Boveda pack indicates that it is out of moisture by feeling dry, crinkly or even downright hard. What is the indication when the packs have reached their moisture capacity? There is none. While these packs are indeed two way, the only safety feature in place is for the absence of moisture condition within the pack - the dried out pack. These packs do not completely eliminate the guesswork and anxiety(their words) of too much humidity. Along that line, I was within a month or so of having to replace at least 1/2 dozen of the 18 packs in use this past Spring. I'm not even close to needing even one replacement now. All packs are full and squishy. So far, I've had no signs of too much humidity in my guitars, but I do know that I have to at least be cognisant of this possibility.

Sounds like you keep your guitars in kind of a normal manner to me. I would think standard maintenance 2-way humidipacks/Boveda packs would be an easy and valid way to go. I wonder if your Luthier was talking about reviving Boveda packs by using an oven in an effort to remove moisture as one might do to remove moisture from silica gel packs? That would seem like the opposite thing one would want to do in Winter, but I'm just guessing what he meant by all of that.

Can you describe to us how your guitars are stored in the Winter time, including the temperature of your room(s) and location in terms of near external walls, windows, etc. ? I don't use Boveda, but I do use the D'Addario humidpacks. I've read they are the same maker. The Winters where I am are not severe, thought we do get below freezing most nights for a few months. I had one disintegrate inside a guitar maybe 7-8 years ago. It was a beater, so I lucked out. I read a couple years ago that the disintegration problem had been solved, so I'm back using them with no issues to date.

It means he was not assuming responsibility.

I've got two of these VOS finishes. HC PW J-200 and HC Banner J-45. I kind of smirked at the clever marketing making a win out of a production savings. Kudos for Marketing and Production working together? (chuckle) Anyhow, I dug the first one more than the second one, but I do like them both these days. The off-putting bits certainly are as described above. The cool bit, for me, is the seemingly extra bit of that Orange Peel color in the burst. I like that better than the bursts with more yellow in it.

I've got two guitars that leave plenty of room for my vocals lousy singing voice. A Maple (Dove) and a Rosewood (SJ-200 Pre-War). I had a Standard SJ-200 (Maple) that also left room for my lousy singing voice. I had a Taylor 614(Maple) that did not leave room for vocals. I still have a Martin D-41(Rosewood) that does to some extent. My 3 Hogs are a mixed bag. My 2018 Hummingbird Standard is improving it's lower end tones with each passing year. The other two Hogs are sloped shouldered with mixed results. My 2021 HC "1942 Banner"J-45 is a cannon with a monstrous mid-range, which was opposite of what I expected. My 2021 Bourgeois Slope D HS is nearly as boisterous as the J-45, but the tone is more balanced and does leave a little bit of room if not for how loud it is. So which wood is my favorite? I haven't a clue. If I rank my guitars in order of favorites, they end up being RW-Maple-RW-Hog-Hog-Hog. I think, for the sake of science, that I should get a RW Slope next. 🙂

That very well may be the case. It was with the guitar I wrote, my Dove, had quite the distinct saddle wobble. It ended up that the saddle slot was too wide for the saddle they used. I filled the side of the saddle in the slot with feeler gauge until it was tight. I then measured the total thickness with micrometer/caliper of saddle WITH the shim, and then used that to order a custom saddle from Bob Colosi at Guitarsaddles.com. He made it with just enough extra thickness, height and length for me to be able to sand perfectly to fit. Extra work, but easy to do. Perhaps a less daunting, less scary solution below can work for both of you and is non-invasive as repair gets. The linked-to veneer sheets can be used to provide a temporary fix and a proof of concept for both saddle height, saddle bottom sanding to match an uneven saddle bottom and thickness. On a slide through saddle, if the bottom of the saddle-slot in the bridge is actually uneven, a saddle of proper thickness will show you(visually) just how far off the slot bottom is. A saddle that is not thick enough will give the appearance of an uneven saddle slot bottom because it leaning due to the string tension pulling it forward. I was just thinking that a possible non-invasive repair would be to get wood strip material and lightly(one little drop for now) glue it to the bottom of the saddle and sand at an angle just a little bit at a time. These kits from Guitar Saddles dot com is the kit I'm referring to. It's cheap enough. The cut yourself, veneer sheets further down that page could be used for both tasks. Try it on your new saddle that you mentioned as appearing to have the same condition you started out with. Just remember to to the thickness part first. (If current intonation is perfect, use the shim on the side facing the bottom as that's where the string tensions is currently pulling the saddle to. )

Very nice looking addition to your stable. I wish for many nice sessions together. The big fretboard inlays really pop out of that Ebony. 🙂

@BoneCrusher13 @gibsonchiq How are you both doing with this issue? I've read through both threads and have the same broad stroke question others have had. If you've not done so already, why not replace the saddle? It's not even expensive to have professionally done. Some luthiers use stock and shape the whole thing themselves while others will be pre-made and sand the ends and sides to fit. A well fit saddle is a wonderful thing. I replaced The loosest saddle I've ever seen with a new saddle that I sanded down to perfection. That guitar went from a nice/cool/nifty guitar to an astonishingly great sounding guitar. You can easily feel the rumble when playing it. This was not the case before the saddle change. On a final note, it is a fairly cheap and easy DIY project. Videos galore. There are only a few gotchyas to worry about. Best part is, if you mess it up, put the old saddle back in and order another saddle to try.

Haven't we seen/heard some of the 12-fret Custom Slopes from 8-10 years ago come in with some very deep sounding bass to them? Why am I thinking something like the Jackson Browne model? The long scale rosewood implementation of my HC SJ-200 Pre War 1939 has a very nice low-mid rumble to it. It's loud and boisterous and you can feel the rumble, but not sure it's as deep as a bass sound that I've heard in the Custom Slope samples heard 'round the forum. Most of the guitar shop demos online use rooms and mics that add to the brightness, which makes it kind of tough to judge.

Thomastik-Infield's Spectrums are the cat's arse on my Dove. $32 a pack now. sheeesh! Just the one time was all I could do. Well, till I sell my old house. I was using D'Add Nickel Wounds for a while on my HB and SJ-200 Standards. They helped to ease some of that new guitar chirpiness. Those Nickel Cobalts do the same sort of thing? The SJ-200 Standard is gone, but the HB does well now with about anything. even with some cheapo Rotosounds, though I'd rather not. Latest set is some Cleartones I think you once enjoyed and tipped me onto. $18 a pack now. Like the Spectrums, I'm discovering a fondness for some 'spensive strings. Otherwise sticking with uncoated JP and DR mostly. Only other coated strings I've liked so far, fwiw, is a set of 80/20 Elixers. I've got a set about 3-4 years old waiting to be strung up,

I do a similar thing. 6 guitars, two out for a week then rotate. It was 1 out per week, which meant every 5th week. The current rotation is much better. @PrairieDog I get the same thing to varying degrees as you describe, both day to day and after a couple weeks in the case. Day to day tuning stability was easy. Every morning I tune one guitar then the other. I then return to the first one and start playing. It almost always is set in and ready by the time I start playing. Sometimes I might tune them and go make another cup of coffee before playing. If my strings are newish (1-4 weeks), they require minimal tuning and provide no fuss. Start counting the string-age in months and the tuning becomes less stable. Get close to the end and my little system doesn't work so well. Weather changes are as others describe. They all need it, but not too much. When I break them out of case-jail every third week is when some of them get grumpy sounding. My 2018 Hummingbird Standard takes a whole day to sound like it is not stiff sounding if the strings are anywhere close to being worn out. If they are fresh, it's good 15-30 minutes later as long as some of that time is to rest. Otherwise, on the 3rd Monday, I tune up my Martin D-41, then my Hummingbird and then play my Martin for most of the rest of the day. The other 4 guitars are normally much better just a small time after tuning and some playing. The fresher the strings, the better unless they are brand new. Predictably enough, when I'm sick of fighting the warbled, muffled sounds or the uninspiring lack of energy, I change strings and life with that guitar is all shiny and better. Birthday cake and honeydew melons for everyone. As some would say, the ear plays tricks on oneself. Certainly does with me. There's also the subconscious element that guitar plays enjoy, which is to do an absent minded adjustment with our fingers as needed to sound the best. Maybe the sound was garbled because a particular string was pressed too hard or a barre chord as not crisp. (mini topic rambling follows) That's why I can't put a whole lot of merit into string gauge comparisons. The player is playing a song and will almost(?) always make adjustments when they think they are too thin or too fat, for example. Same for plectrum thicknesses. Go from a 1MM to a 1.14MM and it sounds thicker right away. Maybe for the whole song or even the entire session. Once that's out of my mind, though, I'm trying to make the song sound how I want it to sound regardless of which pick I have in my hand. That's a whole other topic, though. Point is, I think our tolerances for less than ideal string & guitar conditions grow as our adjustment skills grow.

I'm not sure what got me going on the Dove to begin with. Probably a demo posted here. The demo videos for the Love Dove finished me off. There was a large Dove thread a while back where Jinder wrote of it's studio worthiness complete with room for vocals. I think he released a CD with most or all of the songs on it used the Dove to some extent. Sure enough, it's right as rain in the studio. I got to thinking about the strings after what I wrote earlier in the thread. I think I will splurge and keep a set of the Thomastick-Infield Spectrums on my Dove. I know it's $30 twice a year, but it spent 7 months in a sweet spot that is almost indescribable. I'm afraid to try them on others for fear of the same. Too expensive.

Congrats on your new addition. It's a beauty. Gotta love a Dove. My 2020 Love Dove quickly became one of my top 2 favorites. It's a joy to play. I've been using 80/20's on it mostly. John Pearce, DR Sunbeams and one set of Thomastick-Infield Spectrums that were gifted to me. Laptop speakers did not cut it on your videos, so I used my headphones. I don't have an experienced ear for D-tuning to draw from, but each of those guitars has some fantastic depth of sound that came through very nicely. Kudos!!!

There's one located in Texas on the AGF classifieds I saw last night. The seller links to a 7 year old Reverb ad for additional pictures. My guess is that he bought it from that ad back then? Here's the AGF link. Good luck. https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=431485

I heard that stringy bit, too. My Love Dove came in with one of the strings below .010" nut slot and several others were too low as well. Got it back a few weeks later with new nut and all was better. It's on the rack right now with Bee the Bourgy.

I saw this come through in an email and figured the resident Cat Stevens / Yusef expert would be all over it. Leanard McCoy, are you getting one? 🙂 I know lots of folks were leery of baked tops on Maple B&S. I can say that the thermally aged Sitka does very well with the Maple B&S on my Artist Series Frank Hannon Love Dove. Hopefully it works out well for folks with this rather pricey J-180.

Nice Job, DanvillRob. Hard to get the vibe going with a single acoustic guitar on this one. That atmospheric sort of sound, I mean. Well done. Man, I remember that video. Quite steamy. 🙂