RockinB23

I've tried nearly every model of Capo in the last 25 years and I have found the Shubb Fine-tune to be my favorite. I have 5 of them and use them all!

I'm not sure if its still like this or not but in the 90s there was a huge difference in tone between the SJ-100, SJ-150, and SJ-200 even though each were sitka spruce and maple. Looking you could say it was cosmetics only but I'm fairly certain that Gibson spent more time on the bracing of the more expensive models to make them sound quite a bit better. The SJ-200s were far more responsive and lively sounding than all of the other more affordable models. Later on the custom shop variants really meant that someone with a bit more seasoned skilled hands spent more time and selected better materials to build the CS instruments than the standard. I've been fortunate to own and play a lot of the different CS varian models over the years both SJ-200 Elites, Customs, True Vintage and even the latest Historic models. All that being said the best one I've played is my clean all original 1949 Gibson SJ-200. Good luck in the hunt. For a killer looking rhythm instrument that does everything well a good SJ-200 is tough to beat!

If you set up a feed on reverb and watch for a good buy to come up. From time to time I've seen them for less than $4k on there in the last few months.

Post by mistake

I took some interior shots with my iPhone to the best of my ability today during a string change. Sorry my photos are better. This one is a 1949 SJ-200. I put a video capturing the sound. This one is in the top 4 or 5 guitars that I've ever owned or played!

Great post Tom!! Thanks so much for sharing!!!

I actually did bump that up the other day hoping to help revive it. I have a 49 SJ-200 that I'll try and post some photos of soon here when I have time.

I posted this in the vintage part of the forum too. I was looking at some of the bracing photo’s on the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum and found the differences and how they impact tone to be quite interesting. I’ve been very impressed with some of the vintage Gibson’s I’ve been able to played including a couple different 30s Roy Smeck converted guitars, a 1949 Gibson J-50, a 1949 Gibson SJ-200 and a 1957 J-200. I thought if people have some photos of internals on their old Gibson’s I’d love to see some and have people share the year, model and what they can comment on the tone.

Interesting Juan, thanks for sharing!

Meant to say a 49 J-50 and 49 SJ-200 I have had.

On the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum there’s a photo thread for vintage Gibson bracing patterns. I’m always fascinated by all the various bracing modifications that were done on 30s 40s 50s and 60s Gibsons through out the years. I thought if people have knowledge and photographs of bracing patterns and history of changes through out the years I thought this could be a great thread to get that started. I’d love to get my hands on and hear the differences more too. I’ve been very impressed with some of the Roy Smeck 12 Frets I’ve played and the 49 J-200 and SJ-200 I’ve played and the 57 J-200.

I too wondered about this. The prewar SJ-200s mostly had the odd double X bracing and I was curious if they copied that factor. I guess by 52 that feature came back on SJ-200s. I have a 1949 SJ-200 that I really love! According to the Gibson web site it seems they likely didn’t copy the bracing patterns much from the old days.