Guth

Great minds and all that, I'm very familiar with Mr. Barenberg's tone, lol. Man I love the way that maple J45 sounds in his hands.

The Goya matches up nicely with these tunes. I can't explain why but the little looping bit of video footage reminds me of the 70's, something from my childhood memory bank perhaps. My wife has asked me many times to learn some holiday music on the guitar. I've yet to do so — maybe this year. Thanks for sharing!

Perhaps it is because I only play solo or that I still have a good sense of hearing given my age but I do tend to notice the impact body wood can make . Cutting through the mix is not a concern but string to string clarity/note separation while fingerpicking is. My playing would seem to be the one variable that I am stuck with leading most any guitar that I might get my hands on to sound more similar than different to the others.

In the Acoustic Custom Shop thread you had mentioned that your J-180 records superbly well. That combined with the fact that you fingerpick had me interested in hearing your guitar. Not that much of a mystery, but hey no worries.

Oh man, that would be frustrating. It seems that you have somehow managed to make the best of a rather unfortunate situation. Here's hoping that your luck balances out moving forward.

The bridge design, shape, pin placement has long seemed to vary between the various models and even between the various iterations of the same model.

Awesome, thanks duluthdan! There is a really nice sense of immediacy to that J-200 that belies it's size. Do you happen to recall what strings you were using in this recording?

Hi Leonard, You had made mention of making recordings of your Custom Shop J-180 over in the Acoustic Custom Shop thread a while back. I had posted up with an interest in hearing one or more of those recordings if possible but I'm guessing that you haven't been back to that thread since. In a nutshell, my request still stands. If you could share links to some of your recordings of that particular guitar, or post them up here, I truly would like to hear them. One of the things that I've always enjoyed about this forum in particular is just how active everyone has been with sharing their playing performances. Is there anyone else out there with recordings (or videos) of their maple acoustic Gibsons that would be game to share? Rather than looking through the same videos time after time out on YouTube I'm curious to hear more of Gibson's maple sound with different body shapes/sizes. Much Appreciated, Guth

In my case that growth occurs in a time warp. It takes me all of an hour (who am I kidding, it's more like five minutes) before I am capable of making a lifelong commitment to a dog. Tman, I am very sorry for the extent of the loss that you and your wife encountered on that fateful November day. However, I am also incredibly relieved to know that this loss did not include your father-in-law nor your dog Brynn. Given the rarity of the J-200 model that you lost, it is really great that you were able to find a most fitting replacement. The new guitar looks fantastic by the way, although I will say that it does pale a bit by comparison to Brynn.

Well done — very creative all around! My compliments to all involved.

In this photo of my J-45 TV (taken before I moved the pickguard so that it did not cover up the rosette) you can see that the pin placement is very close to the edge of the bridge. I actually did notice this when I first got the guitar. But it sounded so good to me that I haven’t given this much thought at all until now. I realize that some might wish for a different configuration and can appreciate that. Fortunately I have had zero issues with the pin placement thus far. What was more important to me is that this guitar had the tone that I craved. At just under 4 lbs. there is not much to it but what is there is just right as far as my preferences are concerned. I love the sound of a good J-45. A while back Murph observed that a good guitar doesn’t know what year it is. This pretty much extends to any number of other factors besides the age. You could also say that a good guitar as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts or in this case the placement of its bridge pins

I hope that you enjoy the new to you guitar. As in the past, if I were only able to keep a single guitar of mine it would be my J-45 TV. I suppose this is fairly predictable on my part as I’ve felt this way since 2008.

+1 for the pickguard adhesive sheets from stewmac. That is what I used back in 2012 when I repositioned the pickguard on my J-45. Still looks great/works great.. The one difference I see is that the thickness of the more recent pickguards appears to be significantly greater and perhaps is constructed of a different material than the pickguard on my J-45 (it was built in 2008).

Those might possibly be amongst the wisest words ever offered up on a guitar forum. Back when I lived in Austin I was on the hunt for a 1930's L-00. I can't recall the exact number but I managed to get my hands on at least a half dozen of them. It was a real eye opener as those guitars ran the gamut from wonderfully alive and amazingly resonant to completely lifeless and utterly disappointing. Generally speaking I've found this to be true of a lot of vintage guitars that we tend to romanticize so much. Conversely I've played plenty of wonderful new guitars along with plenty that just did not do anything for me. In the end, i don't put as much stock in break-in as many do. I am not saying that there isn't some change. But my belief is that a great guitar sounds great from the beginning and only gets better. A disappointing guitar might improve some, but it will never be great. Lastly, we all have our own definition of what a great guitar is so your mileage might vary as the saying goes.

Ha, no worries. You of course pointed out one of the realities of guitars in that we don't really get a chance to feast our eyes on them while in the act of playing them. Reminds me of a lyric from the Steve Forbert song "It Is What It Is (And That's All)" ... Driving a Jaguar's impressive But you can't watch it go by

Whoa! Those are indeed some pricey strings. Are you using those strings in any of your recent videos that you've shared? How does their longevity compare with other strings that you've used?

Thanks. I see that you were a member back when I posted up about the guitar for the first time here on the forum. I have no idea what "Custom Shop" means as it pertains to this guitar but I figure they likely set aside some select sets of maple back & sides for the run it was a part of. The fit and finish is comparable with the Collings guitar that I traded for it.

Mine is a 2007.

Ah, got it (and thanks for the info). Those are some nice touches. That sounds more in line with the smaller shop/boutique builders. The only shops that I've ever been in were a couple of the older facilities where Collings Guitars was previously located. I stopped by quite a bit, spending a fair amount of time (and money) there. Touring the Bozeman facility to see how Gibson goes about things these days would be interesting. I would love to see some close-up photos of the detailed construction work from the old custom shop days such as the inlay work and the bracing if you or anyone else here has them to share. I would also still really like to hear a recording(s) of Leonard McCoy's J-180 .

I would note that the fit and finish on my birdseye maple AJ (custom shop decal on the headstock) is flawless but can't say the same for my rosewood AJ. So what exactly is the difference that you refer to? I'm assuming by true custom shop you mean a one off custom order guitar. Do they not come with the Custom Shop decal on the back of the headstock — if not, how are they designated as a custom shop guitar? Obviously I'm not up on these things. Here's a shot of my maple AJ in the case it came with...

So early on it sounds like the Custom Shop used the standard cases of the day that Gibson supplied with the rest of their acoustic guitars. (I owned a J-30 from this era and that was the case it came with.)

While on the topic of Custom Shop guitars... For those of you who own (or owned) a Custom Shop guitar from Bozeman, what type of case came with the guitar?. Mine came with a black double arched hardshell case with plush maroon padded lining. The case has six clasps, one of which features a combination lock. It also has a leather handle.

I have a Custom Shop Advanced Jumbo featuring birdseye maple with the iced tea burst on the top, back and sides. However. he neck on this AJ is mahogany. This guitar was not a one-off special order but rather from from a small run (I think they made 50 of them) back in 2007.

Please be so kind as to share one, or more, recordings of your actual guitar. I’m sure that I am not the only one that would love to hear it. Thanks in advance!

I like guitars. Back when I was still buying/selling/trading guitars I tried to remain open-minded when it came to the name on the headstock. That's probably why I ended up owning such a wide variety of guitars over time. I even managed to find particular examples that I was really happy with from makes whose guitars didn't generally appeal that much to me. Sometimes you just never know. It all comes down to the individual guitar as far as I'm concerned.