Twang Gang

Welcome Cor. Yes, we would all like to see pictures of that S-1. A unique departure for Gibson, but Carlos Santana sure made one sound good 🙂

Welcome Al, would love to see a pic or two of the J-45 Studio as well. They have walnut bodies don't they ? Was wanting to try one to see how the tone differed from rosewood or mahogany, but no stores near me had one in stock.

I got these - if I recall they were about $100. Work great, easy to recharge in about 15 minutes. Sound quality is good. Picture came out huge and grainy? Anyway works with any guitar (electric/acoustic), no cables or body pack to deal with, just plug transmitter into the guitar jack, and receiver into the amp. Range is longer than any stage I've played on, just a simple inexpensive workable solution to wireless guitar.

I am not an expert on 335s, but there is very little on that guitar that looks right to me. Take a pass, there are many genuine ones out there for sale.

No binding, maybe a Studio Tribute?

What Black Dog said - that stop bar and bridge aren't designed for top wrapping. If you string the guitar with the strings coming from the back of the stop bar it will sit perfectly even.

I stumbled upon the new ones last July (and I think I mentioned them on this forum) when I bought a new LP. I asked for some Schaller strap locks and all they had were the new model. I liked them so well, I got another set so both of my main gigging guitars have them. I didn't realize the S was for "silent" as I had not noticed the older ones rattling a lot, but they do work great. I have some pretty thick leather straps, and the longer threaded part really makes attaching them and holding them solid much easier. 👍

Dem be some Jumbos.

No harm in trying some Virtuoso Cleaner, then polish - it won't damage anything and might get rid of some of the minor scratches. Ebony finishes are tricky because they will show even the slightest imperfection. When buffing out a deeper scratch what really needs to happen is that you move the nitro finish, and past that you move the paint underneath to fill the scratch. That is tricky and as mentioned above I wouldn't attempt it, probably end up worse than what you have now. Enjoy playing it and know that if you bang up against a cymbal or something it won't be the first ding 🙂

I had one for several years (not a Steve Howe, just a standard). I don't think they were ever made in the Custom Shop, unless it was a true custom model with fancy fretboard/headstock markers etc. I believe most ES models were made in Memphis, and since that plant closed Nashville. When I had mine I played in a pretty loud band, and in order to avoid feedback I had to compress the signal so much it lost the flavor of the big hollow body. My bass player could just hit a note, and in no time my guitar would be feeding back 😱. Great jazz tones at lower volumes, and plenty twangy on the bridge pickup with some reverb. Pretty normal Gibson neck, but the wide body is not the most comfortable to play unless you have pretty long arms. I ended up trading it for a CS336 which I found to be way more versatile and practical. I have since acquired an L5 for the true jazz experience - but I play it sitting down.

Very nice, glad you found one that spoke to you. Seems Gibson has gotten back on the right track - everyone seems to love the latest Standard LPs. Surprised at the discounted price, 10% off would seem like a normal street price! Good going.

Never been a hug fan of effects pedals. In about 1968 or so I bought one - a Fender "Fuzz-Wah". That was about the only pedal available at the time. From 1972 into the early 90s I just played a LP through a Twin Reverb and no pedals. The Twin was from about 1972 or 73, a blue tinted grill cloth (post CBS). It had a master volume at the far right that was a push pull. Pull it up for a little dirt. Then I thought I needed pedals so went and priced them. I wanted a distortion, digital delay, chorus, noise suppression and a compressor. They were each $100 to $300 so total I was looking at over $700 for all. Not in the budget. Bought a Yamaha GW10 (about $300) multi effects pedal that still works fine. Huge pain to program it, but once you got the tones you wanted it worked great. A couple years ago did away with the amplifier and pedals altogether and just use an Eleven Rack processor straight into the PA. Again complicated to program, but just about any tone you want is in there. Of course it is a digital sampled signal which I am not that big a fan of, but if you have a good sound man you can get it to sit in the mix perfectly and you don't have to carry an amplifier to the gig 🙂

A lot of SGs from around that time had P-90s. As to humbuckers there are a lot of them out there. I would start by looking at Stewart-MacDonald as well as this Gibson site.

Cool find. Wonder if Hondo ever got into lawsuit issues with Gibson? I mean that really does look like a LP Jr, down the stop tail and bridge. Nice finish and a great find for $115. I am no electronics wiz, but since it only has one pickup I would guess it's just switching the coils between being in series or parallel. As long as it provides some tonal difference that's all that matters. Quite a few pawn shops in my area, and I've never gone into one, with these repeated finds you've gotten, I may have to start browsing just for fun.

I don't think there are that many out there. The original Johnny A had a two piece maple top, Bigsby, and the modified f-holes. The spruce top had a stop bar, no f-holes, and the spruce top. I would think that the spruce top without the f-holes would be a little less bright sounding, but that is just a guess on my part due to the lack of f-holes and the spruce as opposed to maple top. Never heard two of them played side by side.

Not all that uncommon. Believe that is a LP Custom (don't think there was ever a "Studio Custom") with a Floyd Rose trem bridge. Nice looking guitar!

I don't know anything about Explorers so have no idea what the difference between a "B-2" and a "TRB Gig" might be. But the Gibson website lists the price for a brand new Explorer at $1699 US. Down here we can usually buy them for a little less than the MSRP. I am not sure of the exchange rate either, but it seems like you could get a new one for at most $100 more than these mystery models. Just sayin'

I think you are on the right track - a tweak of the truss rod and a little flattening of the board may result in your raising the bridge on that side. I have two LPs with very low action and neither has the bridge all the way down on the treble side, there is still a little room for a turn or two of the wheel. Your guess about the GC set up is probably correct as well, they are not known for their 100% attention to detail.

They claim to be 36% louder than other strings with 48% more sustain. Properties one may or may not want depending on the guitar. Also they say that on the EQ strings each of the four wound strings are made with a different alloy. Let us know if they settle down.

Really nice job, sounds great. It says in the credits that Alexey Batychenko is on trumpet, but I thinks it's really Leonard from "Big Bang Theory".

I am NO expert on vintage Gibson acoustics, but that looks like a J-45 to me. I would have no idea what year it might be.

A twisted neck would certainly explain why it couldn't be set up properly, intonated etc. Since it is a set neck I would guess that they will replace the entire guitar, but maybe they will put a new neck on it? If they just replace the guitar that can happen quickly. If they decide to replace the neck then it will have to be returned to the factory in USA, repaired, and shipped back so that will take a lot longer. Either way I'm pretty sure patience will result in a satisfactory conclusion to the problem.

I always likened it to General Motors owning Cadillac, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, and GMC trucks. All different brands, with different styling cues and features, built in different factories, but based on the same body/frame platforms. The higher quality ones were more expensive, and the more basic ones less so. Very similar to the Gibson/Epiphone brands relationship. Very similar body styles and shapes with similar construction, but made in different factories with more or less expensive components/materials and offered at different price points. The Gibsons are the Cadillacs, the Epiphones are the Chevrolets.

I agree that returning it was the right thing to do. I own 4 Gibson electrics and none of them have strings aligned anything like that.

Thanks for the second video BK which was very appropriate since the fellow was using an SJ-200 which is what I am working with. I have adjusted the "Tru-Mic" level control and the tone of the guitar improved dramatically to a much more natural sound like the guitar has when not being amplified. First I turned the Tru-Mic level up, and the sound was worse. It was so bad that the guitar sounded best when only using the under saddle pickup. So then I turned it down to a level that was lower than it was from the retailer, and reached a point where I get a nice natural sounding tone with the balance just slightly biased toward the "Tru-Mic". I made the adjustments a couple days ago and fooled with it until I felt I was getting ear fatigue and wasn't quite sure what I was hearing. But I went back today and plugged it in and it sounds good. Thanks again as this thread and the accompanying videos have helped me to get a much more workable tone for stage use with my guitar.👍👍