QuestionMark

No it doesn't. Paragraphs 4 and 5 in the Gibson article supports the same concept as I stated and that is in the two other articles. But, read it as you so choose if you feel it supports your theory. Setting one's string height is a personal thing anyway... Bernie-I hope what has been shared with you is helpful. Enjoy your new guitar! QM aka Jazzman Jeff

That is just not true. Raising the string height enables the strings' vibrations to be picked up more by the guitar and thus the ear. Here's three supporting articles quickly found on the internet. http://www.sweetwater.com/insync/does-string-height-affect-guitar-tone/ http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/string-height-tip-0204-2012.aspx https://mmguitarbar.com/2012/09/28/raise-your-action-a-plea/ QM aka Jazzman Jeff

Leonard, I think you missed the point of the point I included in my post by your making your statement. Raising the height of the saddle will certainly increase the guitar''/ volume which will increase the volume of the tone of the guitar. For you to tell the original poster otherwise is not true. However, as you and I both mentioned, it will also effect the playability...as I mentioned that affect will need to determined if acceptable by the player. Just thought I better clarify so correct info is out there. (FYI...disclaimer. My personal preference is to have the strings a bit higher off the sound hole for its increased volume...plus, it works well with my fingerpicking. But, everyone has and should have individual perferences on their guitar(s)' setup(s).) QM aka Jazzman Jeff

Just playing it a lot will loosen the top and cause its sound to break in over time. Plus, as its a solid top guitar, as it ages it will keep improving. One thing you can try if you want to try it is raising the saddle so the strings are a bit higher which will increase the volume, so the tone will resonate more/louder from the soundhole. Rather than purchase and carve a new saddle, just try cutting a small strip the size of the saddle from an expired credit card or hotel hard plastic or synthetic hard cardboard (or whatever those things are made of) door key card...and, put it under the saddle as a shim. This will raise the action a bit to give you a chance to see if you like the higher volume from a higher saddle. If not, or if it raises the action too high for your liking you can just remove it. If you like it, no harm in keeping it under the saddle indefinitely rather than carving or purchasing a higher saddle. 12s should work fine on it. Hope this helps. QM aka Jazzman Jeff

When they are aged and opened up (I assume from the top being loosened up from age/play) and the wood itself being aged...they can be quite feisty little old guitars. Better, then they were when new for sure. I have learned to really love mine in its (and my) older age. Costwise, though, I paid only $240 for mine in 1990. QM aka Jazzman Jeff

They are solid spruce tops and solid mahogany sides. However, they are ladder (parallel) braced not X braced like the LG2 and most popular guitars. As a result they are a bit less expensive than the X braced LG2 and LG3. But, they definitely sound different than the 2 and 3 or the larger J-45. One of the guitars in my collection is a 1965 LG-1. I obtained it circa 1990 and it was in excellent shape (meaning it was barely played until that point. Realistically, it too about 20 years of me playing it until it finally got broken in and the sound of it suddenly took a giant leap forward with the top fully at last seriously resonating (because of its ladder bracing). It now is quite loud and full sounding and loose as a goose to play, but man it took really long to break in. It's now one of my three favorite guitars in my collection of 39 instruments. (I should add that with a removable Fishman Hum-bucker sound hole pick up it mic's really well now, too). And,I now usually bring it along as my backup guitar to my J-45 during all my gigs in case a string breaks or my battery wears down during a gig. Sometimes making my J-45 be my backup to my LG1 if that one gets into an ornery playing mood. Hope this helps. You might want to consider paying a little more for an X braced, but exactly the same looking LG2...if you don't want to go through what I went through getting mine to, at last, open up and turn into a great guitar. A LG2 will be good to go without any of this because of its X bracing, QM aka Jazzman Jeff

Hope you will listen to a new Classical Jazz-Rock piece of music of mine, played on my 2006 Gibson J-45 1964 Custom Shop Reissue. The music is called "Cellos on the Beach". Photos of the guitar are in the video. An explanation of the why's of the music is in the narrative section under the title on YouTube. Perhaps this will be a new trend...Classical music on a J-45. Any and all comments and feedback are welcome. Click here: QM aka "Jazzman" Jeff

Duluthdan-In all sincerity with gratitude, this past October 2015 I actually had that joy of the experience you mention of sitting right at the same spot as on the video (from a hotel room deck overlooking the Pacific) and plucking away playing this same song (although I did it on a ukulele as my guitar was too big to fly with my wife and I out to SoCal from Chicagoland)..and marveling at it all. It was wonderful... QM aka "Jazzman" Jeff

New year's day 2016...seemed like a good time to reflect, think about how my kids are grown, and record my guitar solo instrumental arrangement of "What a Wonderful World/(Somewhere) Over the Rainbow". Hope you enjoy. (The guitar I am playing is an Angelica classical guitar. Seemed to fit the song.)-QM aka "Jazzman" Jeff Click here:

I stand corrected...just looked it up on Epi-Wikipedia., and you are correct that the FT45 Cortez is a short scale 24.75"" also. Not sure why I thought it was a long scale. Thanks for catching the correction. You may not have to move those cases now...but you still may want to, to play the thing again. It's a really nice guitar. Jazzman Jeff aka QM

I was at a vintage guitar show this morning and played a 1966 FT Cortez. It was selling for $1450 although the seller said he'd be willing to negotiate. The guitar' played really nice and had a good vibe to it. (Wasn't looking to buy anything at the show, just to try different guitars.). The FT Cortez was the same as the Gibson B25 (which is the same as the Gibson LG2)...a small concert size guitar. The only difference I could tell between the Gibson B25/LG2 and the Epiphone Cortez is the Gibson B25/LG2 and the Epiphone Cortez is the Gibson version is a short scale neck and the Epiphone version is a long scale neck. The neck shapes are the same (typical Gibson/Epiphone D (or is it C) shape from the mid-60's. Nice sunburst on the guitar and nice sounding instrument. Jazzman Jeff aka QM

Somewhere on the Gibson website is a list of authorized Gibson/Epiphone repair persons. Hopefully there is one by you and you can contact the repairperson directly. Your guitar was made in Kalamazoo, Michigan side by side Ion the GibsonEpiphone factory in the 60's. USA made Epihones from that era have comparable vintage guitar pricing and collectability to.Gobsons from that era. Post 70's Epiphones were no longer made side by side with Gibsons in the U.S. except for rare special occasions. Regarding, heat pressing a neck, an authorized Gibson repair person who had a heat press machine had to heat press the neck of one of my vintage Gibsons about 20 years ago. He described that the wood on the neck had twisted which can be a natural occurrence of wood. He said he laid the guitar down in the machine with the neck in the heat section that was shaped in the shape of the neck that it should be and once was. He said doing so re shaped the neck back to its original shape without the twist in it. He advised that in a year, either the neck would remember the twist it had and revert back to it or remain I the shape it was re shaped to from then on. It's been 20 years and it's remained in the heat pressed corrected shape. He did not remove the neck during the process. The guitar's action improved when it was heat pressed back to its shape. One drawback was a bit of the neck's finish and shine on the vackside of the neck got a bit worn off during the process. Still had its stain on the spot, but that spot is non- gloss. As it was an old guitar, no big deal as many older guitars loss a bit of gloss over the years on the neck from that period. I have clue if what he told me is what actually occurred or if that is what the repair person you spoke with meant. 😄 But he fixed it fine. I recommend you try and have an authorized Gibson/Epiphone repair person fix your vintage guitar. It help its value by being able to describe and have receipts showing an authorized Gibson/Epiphone repair person repaired your guitar if it needs repair. Kind of equivalent to sending it back to the factory for a factory repair...which is how Gibson/Epiphone uses its repair people rather having owners return the guitar to the actual factory. Don't get me wrong. A non-authorized Givson/Epiphone repair person who does a great repair also preserves the guitar's value. A guitar that is properly repaired...whatever that may be, is always worth more than an unrepaired guitar that needs repair or one that was not properly repaired. Going to an authorized G/E repair person will help to assure it was decently assessed and repaired as Gibson sets repairperson criteria and reviews them for approval to be authorized. Your guitar is considered hand made. Modern day Epiphones are machine made usually overseas. Gibsons remain what is considered handmade now in their factory on Montana. The Kalamazoo plant is long gone as being a Gibson/Epiphone facility. People can argue ad-fin whether a machine made guitar is the same as a hand made one...but the fact is the collectable market place considers handmade (even with its loose definition) of greater value to a guitar in the collector marketplace. Is what it is . I recommend you also call Gruhn Guitars in Nashville,TN. George Gruhn and his store are considered the experts in vintage guitars. If you call there they will give you the lowdown and price range as well as collectability of your fine guitar. Just thought I would share my experience and knowledge. What I don't know is if Gibson/Epihone considers your guitar still under lifetime warrantee to its owner as you inherited the guitar from your father. An authorized Gibson/Epuphone repair person should be able to advise you on that. Keep all paperwork you have Lon the guitar handy when you enquire. Jazzman Jeff aka QM

Fellow guitarists- Here's a fun acoustic guitar solo instrumental and arrangement of mine of Ray Lynch's "Celestial Soda Pop" that I just posted on YouTube. The guitar I am playing in the audio of the video is my 1965 Gibson LG-1. In the photo animated enhanced photos throughout the video you'll see me playing various animated versions of instruments from my collection including my Gibson 1964 Custom Shop J45, Gibson 1972 SJ Deluxe, 1956 NY Epiphone FT79, 1994 Gibson Gospel Reissue, a metal Regal Dobro, aa lap Regal Dobro, a 50s Silvertone, and a 1965 Gibson ES125TC. (Note: I didn't have any readily available photos of the LG-1 to work with in the video, but the audio sound is all the LG-1 with no effects or sound editing.) Hope you enjoy! Any feedback of any kind, as always, is appreciated! QM aka "Jazzman" Jeff

Here's a guitar solo instrumental of me playing Girl From Ipanema. Hope you enjoy! QM aka "Jazzman" Jeff

Is there any difference between the tusq saddle material Gibson uses and the Tusq Brand tusq saddles? Is it the same material? Why do Tusq Brand saddles seem greyer? Just curious... QM aka "Jazzman" Jeff

Do new Gibsons use Tusq or Corian unless they specify bone? What exactly is Corian BTW. Any insights? I'm curious. QM aka "Jazzman" Jeff

I have found that each individual guitar responds differently to different things, materials, saddles, bridge pins, etc. While generally I prefer bone saddles...I have one guitar in my collection that just sounds a whole lot better with a tusq saddle than a bone one. Same thing has occurred with bridge pins. Generally, I use wooden bridge pins which to me seem to add a little mellow wood-like sustain which I like...except one guitar, it doesn't do a darn thing for, but bone bridge pins produce a more favorable (and opposite) brighter sustain sound. So, every instrument may respond differently. QM aka "Jazzman" Jeff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJFsjm2CW2g Here's an acoustic guitar solo instrumental of the Beatles' "Got To Get You Into My Life" that I just recorded and posted to YouTube. Hope y'all enjoy it! Question Mark aka Jazzman Jeff

Grover chrome ovals. Individual ones not three on a bar.

I have a '72 SJ Deluxe in my collection that I bought new. It came with chrome tuners. My SJD has a great sound to it and for years was my main guitar. QM aka Jazzman Jeff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8X7TFZ4K2Y I have a 1994 Gibson Gospel Reissue in my collection. Great solid wood top, the back is laminated like an archtop guitar. Looks like a standard blonde dreadnaught for all practical purposes. The guitar is a full size square shouldered guitar. The sides are slightly narrower though than a dreadnaught or a J guitar...making the guitar very comfortable to play. Soundwise, its a very bright sounding instrument...its feel and sound have a lot in common with the new J-35, except for the arched back. The purpose of the arched back was apparently to create a sound chamber of sorts and create a model at the time, like the J35 that could be a bit less expensive to buy. The 90s Gospel Reissues do not really resemble the 70s Gospels much...except the name. Taylor at the time was ravagedly going after the church market of guitarists and the name Gospel was Gibsons attempt to penetrate the market Taylor was taking over. The Gospel Reissue's pickguard resembles the AJs and J35s in size although I can't say whether it is exactly that shape...but similar. The neck has a great feel to it, although it is a bit wider than on most Gibsons. Again, Gibson trying to compete a bit with Taylor. Its a Gibson neck though but with a bit of Taylor influence to it. Great for fingerpicking as the fretboard is a bit wider than the norm. Some have dark wood backs some have light wood backs. The light wood backs highly resemble the color of the lightwood J50s or J45 naturals. Mine has a great natural grain on the top. I compared the top on mine to a top on a recent Dove and its nearly identical. Some Gospel Reissues have a dove on the headstock, some have a different symbol. Dots are on the fretboard. When I got my Gospel Reissue (traded Sam Ash for it with non-sunken in 1965 B45 12 string I never played...as an even trade), I thought well at least I have a six string in my collection I'll play once in awhile. Was surprised how over time the Gospel Reissue has become my favorite guitar to play at music jams due to its volume and EQ. It holds its own against any Martin or Gibson...plus, it can cut through them all for a lead. Its also became my main backup guitar during my on-going gigging (usually to my J-45). Sometimes, if my J-45 is in a bit of a funk mood, I switch to the Gospel Reissue and it serves as my main guitar for awhile and does just fine (until I go back to the J-45.) A lot of people always ask me what model it is when they see it as its not one of Gibsons mainstream models. Its far superior to the Epiphone 500 models. Way lighter weight and, though the Epi 500s have very good reputations, the Gospel Reissue is still a Montana made Gibson where the Epi 500s are not. When I've played the great new J35, I've automatically thought way too similar in sound/feel/vibe to my Gibson Gospel Reissue to spend the bucks to buy the J-35 (which I like a lot.) BTW. The Gibson Gospel Reissue is a long scale. I've include in this post a link to a YouTube video of mine of Classical Gas where you can see the Gospel Reissue in its photos. One of the guitars in it is a 1956 New York Epiphone FT79 (the round shouldered guitar) which was used for the sound recording of the video). The other newer looking guitar in the photos in teh video is my 1994 Gibson Gospel (the square shouldered guitar.) Interestingly, the 1956 New York Epiphone FT79 also has a laminated archtop back on it (only its maple. The Gospel Reissue's is mahogany.) Both have solid wood tops. If you recall, Guild (which derived from NY Epiphone)also had a guitar with an arched laminated back. The Gospel Reissue;s arched laminated back might also be a derivative paying homage to it or revisiting the concept. Hope this helps. QM aka Jazzman Jeff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOKb-ZSyVNo ps. Here's a photo of mine...as well as my SJ Deluxe through a chorus pedal. QM aka Jazzman Jeff

Looks just like the one I own...except over time (bought mine in 1974, mine is a '72) typical of many older Gibsons, the blonde natural top has significantly darkened and has a typically cool Gibson orange cast to it and its tone is wonderfully mellow, but loud at the same time. Great guitar in my book. Thanks for resurrecting this thread. QM aka Jazzman Jeff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l05edPirnSE Here's a video of me playing my 1964 Custom Shop J-45 Reissue performing Like a Rolling Stone at a local festival. The guitar is plugged into a chorus effect and then into the stage's PA. Hope you enjoy! Jazzman Jeff aka Question Mark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chYdrkV_fXo Here's a fun piece of music that I recently recorded with my 2006 Gibson Custom Shop 1964 J-45 and my Dean Markley Ultrasound Acoustic Amp (50W)and just put on YouTube. Hope you enjoy its guitar-pickin' ride... QM aka Jazzman Jeff