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jchabalk

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Everything posted by jchabalk

  1. Great guitar! I've got one of the 2008 TV early / prototype ones and i love it. How would you characterize any changes brought by the slotted bridge w/ non-slotted pegs? I intended to get this done with mine and the luthier kind of talked me out of it at the time.
  2. agreed, i don't see anything out of line at all.
  3. He's using a Walker guitar strap too, cool!
  4. If you're able to post pictures of it here some of us might be able to help. With regard to the head stock sometimes the serial number is on there but it's very lightly embossed in the wood and difficult to see. However i have an early J-45 TV and it doesn't have the serial number on the head stock rather it's printed on the neck block and visible through the sound hole so that would be something to check with this J-185. I have an SJ-200 custom that was signed by Ren, also on the orange label
  5. Same for me, i used .012's initially but i find the .013's (also EJ17) really make it sound great. I use them on other guitars too and am used to them. For the OP moving from .011s to .013s (if you haven't played mediums before) could be a pretty big jump that might take some getting used to. I think it'd be worth it though.
  6. That's my understanding, at some point (possibly right out of the gate) they also had a model called the J-45 Legend which was a variant of the TV
  7. I've got one of these too - mine's about 2.5 months younger than yours, I can concur with all the rest. What i heard is that these guitars were True Vintage models made before they figured out that they were going to call them "True Vintage." Mine has a red spruce top and is my favorite acoustic.
  8. From the pictures you all have posted (beautiful guitars!) it looks like Gibson is shipping with much taller saddles than they were when i bought my couple around 2008. I wonder if they changed their neck angle or just started tightening up the QC process.
  9. The ones i've had are silk screened on, the only reasonable way to get that off is going to be to paint over it with something that doesn't stand out too much. Post some pictures though, maybe yours is different.
  10. I have a J-45 TV - it might be a 2008, i can't remember - and i love it. I'd gone through a phase of not really loving it several years ago and a good setup got it dialed in for me so i'm certainly supportive of that suggestion above. The 2 primary thing that i found made a big difference with my guitar were / are: break angle over the saddle (mine was a bit shallow when i got it, raising the action a bit made it easier for me to play as well as sounded better). string gauge (i used to use .012s, switched to .013s) My guitar seems to need the added tension of the .013s to drive the top - or maybe it just opened up as it aged and i'm conflating things. I've tried a few different string sets but i like it more the older the strings get so i tend not to change strings too frequently. I've kind of settled on EJ17 (D'Addario PB .013s) and before using them i used John Pearse PB .013s for several years.
  11. The really confusing thing about locktite too is that the bottles all tend to be red so you've really got ot pay attention when you're at the hardware store. Locktite 242 (Blue) is what you want, and as mentioned above the red is "permanent" and requires significant heat to remove. This is one of the most confusing packaging decisions...
  12. i listened to it the other day too, i went and checked out his page, i hadn't been tracking how his business has progressed. just think, they're all just hiding out there ready to be found 😉
  13. It's weird, most of what i see looks pretty good, but the label is sketchy and a few other details don't make sense. The bridge looks pretty good though, and that seems like one thing they wouldn't get right (the pictures aren't the best though so maybe i'm off on it).
  14. you should look out for the nut width around that time-period. the internet tells me that from mid-1965 -> 1970 is what you need to be aware of. I've played a few guitars with that 1-9/16" nut and it's way too crammed for me to enjoy
  15. If you want to change the look of it you can upgrade (buy) their other visualization options. After using it for several years i got them and they're kind of cool. Doesn't change the functionality in any notable way though.
  16. I've been using this one for years. I've tried a bunch of others but keep coming back to this one. I wish it would let you save your own "sweetened" tunings - they try to upsell you on canned ones as add-ons if you want. I just like to tinker from time to time and being able to make tuning profiles would be cool. I talked to them and they said that feature is going to be coming in a future release (that was 2 years ago).
  17. I like it - i was thinking of having this done to mine a couple of years ago but the luthier talked me out of it - to be honest my break angle is pretty good. Did you notice a change in the sound of the guitar? I raised the action on mine after having it pretty low for a number of years and with the increased saddle height i found a rather immediate change in sound and responsiveness, especially when strumming with a heavy hand like i do 😉
  18. Check closely on the neck block for a serial number or FON - i don't know much about these but from following a number of threads about them sometimes the numbers are pretty difficult to see.
  19. The Gibson logo on the headstock looks super clean, and the dot over the i is trying to hide
  20. I think that was put on after the holes were drilled. That stuff is like a heavy aluminum foil (but made of copper most likely). you can stick it on and then effectively poke holes in it with the bridge pins even. you could certainly remove it, just be careful because it's easy to get it jammed under your finger nail and that'll wreck your afternoon 😉
  21. Agreed, did you get it from an authorized dealer?
  22. looks great! one other detail that i didn't see mentioned (i skimmed though!) is that the serial number should also be stamped on the neck block (visible by looking inside of the sound hole).
  23. I have a '53 ES-175d. It's in great shape and is all original save the tail piece that was replaced at some point. I've got a problem with the electronics and i'm wondering if there's a good way for me to troubleshoot it - although i'm thinking i might be better off taking it to a pro. What's happening is that for the most part the controls have little to no effect on the sound. The switch does switch between the neck and bridge pickup and the volume pots do work a bit but you're better off leaving them alone as the sound cuts in and out and they don't seem to work over the full range all the time. Same thing with the tone controls although there's basically no effect with either of the tone controls. The guitar sounds great if you can dial in the sound a bit with the amp EQ. So I'd love to fix so it's more enjoyable to play, seems like it could be any of a number of problems and the controls would all need to be pulled to figure it out (i'm guessing). I think my main question is - is this something that I should troubleshoot and try to address piecemeal, or should I just replace the pots and caps and call it a day?
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