J45fan
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Posts posted by J45fan
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Hi Tom,
Congrats on your "new" Gibson. I love the looks of these J-55's. Roy Book Binder had one many many years ago. I like that bridge much better than the Moustache brigde on the earlier ones.
Stay healthy,
George
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I don't think it's one of these new Historic CS J-35. It also has a different saddle, not the through saddle. I don't think they can be so wrong. I am pretty sure it is a different model.
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I own the ltd. edition 2013 OJ and AJ. Haven't played the new ones yet.
The difference between these two made me purchase both. The OJ has the warmth of a big body Mahogany guitar, but very balanced tone. The neck is massive, but very comfortable for me. I have big hands and I love the V shape of these OJ's. It is great for Fingerpicking, Slide playing and strumming.
The AJ has a deeper (more) bass and it responds quicker than the OJ. Due to the long scale and RW B&S it has more clarity. I play a lot with bare fingers and love both of them for fingerpicking. Strumming is equal, but the AJ is for sure much better for flat picking. The AJ is louder than the OJ and projects better. The neck on my AJ is my absolute favorite neck shape, it is deep, wide enough but slimmer than the OJ.
I don't know the SJ with RW. But I had a J45 Legend and I like the OJ much more than I even liked my Legend J45. I sold the J45 shortly after I purchased the OJ. The OJ had more of everything the J45 had.
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9 hours ago, slimt said:
Nice guitar.
Thanks, lots of people told me elevated fingerboard flattops don't sound good. I can't agree with that, it's a great sounding instrument.
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3 hours ago, 62burst said:
Such a beauty- a demure sunburst, wearing a unique and authentic example of a firestripe guard, the likes of which can't be found today. You torture those of us who love the little old Gibson blues boxes. Can't you favor us with a short video clip? Even 25 seconds? I dare you!
I would love to do a short clip, but it's in look down. I brought it to my luthier for a fret leveling and due to corona lockdown I can't get to it and one of my Tele's as well. Looks like another month wait till I get both back to me. This is one of the reason's, one can never have enough guitars 😉
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7 hours ago, slimt said:
if Im not mistakin. Gibson made those in the early 90s I remember walking through the plant seeing those ready for putting in cases.
Wow never heard or seen a Reissue one. But in the 90's they overbuilt them anyway, these L-2s are really light weight.
8 hours ago, BluesKing777 said:We truly are in Dreamland now!
How will you get them to make that when they can't seem to do the famous 30s plain black with firestripe L-00?
https://reverb.com/item/29636815-gibson-l-00-1938-black
Or the famous 30s Tux L-00s? 14 and 12 fret!
https://reverb.com/item/29115575-1933-gibson-l-00-tuxedo
Instead they come up with a modern spec Blues King in black with a brown guard, modern neck and nut size....when did Gibson ever make a 30s L-00 like that? They really should be running these designs past Mark Agnesi, instead of the marketing department.
BluesKing777.
It's always good to have a dream, I played one of these L-2s and I fell in love with it. The owner, a smart guy, didn't sell.
This is what I got a 1933 L-1 with elevated fingerboard. A great sounding fingerpicking guitar and great for slide as well
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15 hours ago, BluesKing777 said:
The small body lovers are feeling a bit short changed - so far a LG2 Banner RI but with a skinny nut and a L-00 Deluxe in Rosewood...
What about a reissue of the reissue L-00 Legend, Gibson?😒
Or an (exact) reissue of a 32 in Tux!
Or an (exact) reissue of a black Nick Lucas?
And a banner LG2 with a baseball neck!
Or just a plain old 37 L-00 in black with a firestripe guard?
Or the 12 fret L-00?
etc, etc.
BluesKing777.
I would love a L2 in Argentine Grey, 12 fret , Gold sparkle binding and Rosette as Legend/ Historic CS reissue.
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28 minutes ago, j45nick said:
The AJ you bought in 2013 was a direct copy of one of Gary Burnette's guitars. There is an archived thread here about that model, or you can search for it online. I don't know if yours is a two-tonebar guitar or a three-tonebar guitar. Tom Barnwell said back then that Gary's guitar was probably a prototype AJ, since it had two tonebars, while the production run of AJs in 1936 had three tonebars. Tom owns at least one of those original three-tonebar AJs from the 1936 production run.
Your 2013 AJ was basically the equivalent of Legend-series Gibsons, including the J-45 and L-OO Legend models. Several of us here have those.
Those were built before top torrefaction, which is a great addition on the Historic Series models, even if they punt on some historical details. All the AJs have theoretically been copies of Gary's AJ, but construction details have not all been period-correct.
All in all, those new ones look like nice models with decent specs and OK prices.
I have to search for that thread.
Interesting about the tone bars 2 vs. 3. Mine has 2 tone bars. When I bought mine I had contact with Don from Gibson, he told me he was there when they checked Gary's guitar. They really copied exact, even the misplaced bridge plate on this prototype. Looking at the sunburst pattern to me this prototype AJ is more a'34 than a '35. Don sent me a picture of the actual AJ owned by Gary.
Would be interesting if this new AJ, since it has the 1936 appointment, has 3 tonebars. The sunburst pattern is for sure '36.
Nothing like a good AJ, made me selling my Martin D-28. A few month ago I got interested in one of these D-28 1937 aged Authentic. I played one at a dealer close to me, took my AJ with me. A great sounding and feeling guitar. But I preferred my AJ over it. Saved me quite some money.
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I am ok with the list prices of these new Historic Series, they are below $5k. In 2013 I bought one each from the limited edition 1935 AJ and the 1934 OJ. The list price on these were around $9k, which was a joke I ma sure nobody paid anywhere close. However these are exact copies of a specific guitar which are owned by a vintage dealer/collector. I love 'em both, they are outstanding instruments. They are all hide glue construction vs this new series only the bracing and neck joint is done in hide glue. Other than that they seem to be very close to the '13 Ltd Edition guitars, Waverley tuners, red line cases etc. I hear only good things about them. Not sure how much discount you can get nowadays with Gibson, back in 2013 I got a pretty good discount on both.
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7 hours ago, jw3571 said:
How much overlap is there between the Southern Jumbo and AJ? Stupid to own both?
No, not stupid if you like RW guitars. The AJ has a different body shape, bracing, neck shape and long scale. I own a AJ and for sure will check out that Historic SJ as soon as they let us out again and the guitar hits a store in my area.
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Hi Tom,
What a strange world, we will be locked up for quite some time. I already miss playing with my band, but I take to time to really work my acoustics.
I had a listen and my favorite is number 3, B.
Stay safe and Healthy,
George
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I really like that new SJ, I got to check one out. BTW, my 2013 limited edition 1935 AJ is still my favorite RW D size guitar.
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I use Venta since more than 15 years in the winter period.
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I also had the chance to play two original AJ's. I think both were from 1936, both not for sale. Because of that experience I ordered my first AJ Reissue from Wildwood. Add top/ EIR back and sides. It was a great guitar, till I played that 2013 1935 AJ ltd. edition of 35. It compares favorably to the vintage ones, it is one of my all time favorite acoustic.
Another “Historic” gone wrong
in Gibson Acoustic
Posted · Edited by J45fan
I am not familiar with vintage SJ's, but I had a 1944 J-45 on loan from a friend who stopped playing. I am really into AJ's and played a few old ones and own one of the 2013 limited edition 1935 AJ's. The 1.72" is common on these old Gibson's, maybe they shaved too much back then, but the '44 J-45 had that nut width and so did the old AJ's. Gibson copied Burnette's AJ for my 1935 reissue and it also has the 1.72" width. So it's not a modern size.
Here is a post from John Arnold from the UMGF, a well known luthier and vintage Martin and Gibson expert: These two AJ examples show that 1.72" is vintage correct.
Nut width = 1.715"
Width @ 14th fret = 2.075"
Width @ end of fingerboard = 2.165"
Bridge spacing = 2 3/32"
Thickness of neck:
1st fret = 0.880"
10th fret = 1.000"
The AJ's I have seen are very consistent in the neck dimensions. They all 'push the edge' of the fingerboard with the string spacing, which may not be desirable with all players. This is made worse by the Gibson fretting method, where the frets stop at the binding joint (neck binding is done after the frets are installed). Refretting an AJ "Martin style" (over the binding) can gain a little fret width, but not much. The binding is usually rounded over, which negates widening the frets very much.
EDIT:
I do have another AJ in the shop, which I can measure later tonight. I don't suspect it will be much different, but we'll see.
John
And here is the data from the other AJ he talked about,
Here are measuements of the second AJ, a 1937:
Width:
@ nut = 1.720
@ 12th = 2.098
@14th = 2.138
@ fingerboard end = 2.185
Width measurements are compromised by the fact that the fingerboard binding is shrunken or scraped, creating a step at the junction of the fingerboard and neck. The fingerboard itself is approximately 0.015 narrower at the nut, and 0.050 narrower at the 14th fret than the above measurements.
Thickness:
@ 1st fret = 0.810
@ 10th fret = 1.045
This guitar has had replacement bridges and bridgeplates, making it impossible to measure the original bridge pin spacing.John