thegreatgumbino

It's a great sounding guitar, but the pick guard is ugly as heck. This is the one at Wildwood.

I love that look! The light neck is a turn off for me.

Congrats on the fine instrument. I lust after one of these regularly. My J45 Vintage is a dream to play. If not seen that they refer to the finish as “Heritage Cherry Sunburst TV”. I wonder why they include the TV? I got excited they did a TV reissue when I saw that.

I love it! It's an amazing guitar, and we bond more and more every day. It's truly a pleasure to own and puts a smile my face every time I pick it up. Everyone of my buddies that has played it is amazed by the tone and has stated it's the best guitar they've ever had the pleasure of playing. I've had it just over a year, and the sound has refined with more play. I really love the Martin Retro Monels on mine. I have no complaints about the thin finish. I actually dig it a lot. I've always been more of a fan of satin finish guitars than gloss, and this one seems to give me a good middle ground between the two. I'm primarily a bedroom player, but occasionally take it to jam with buddies. It's been knocked and bumped, but it is no more worse for the wear. I'm a somewhat heavy handed strummer, and it has a few pick marks, but nothing that has broke through the finish. Here's my NGD post with pics and the interesting backstory. Gibson went above and beyond with my situation and made me a die hard Gibson fan for life.

🤤 I wish this was in the cards right now! Been wanting one of these for years. Thanks for sharing the link, Sal. I rarely make it over to UMGF.

I love the fire stripe pick guard on yours. I wanted one on my J45 Vintage and asked Gibson Montana about removing the stock one. They strongly recommended not trying to remove it due to the thin finish.

I love the fact that your soundboard is your pick holder!

I used keep mine in D standard tuning and used the Laurence Juber Retros for a several years. This year I moved to MM13's and love them. They are the perfect tension for my tuning preference. If you want a little more oomph you guys might try the MLJ13's. They provide a tension of 175.45 versus the MM12's that are 162.91.

I had a similar case and used peel and stick felt from the craft store.

Congratulations. That is a fantastic sounding guitar. I'm sure it will bring you many years of happiness. I wouldn't worry about the scratch at all. Real life mojo. I love the Retros on my J45 Vintage and the other two mahogany Gibson slopes I've owned. In my experience they take some good play-in to break in and sound their best. I have a ToneRite that I use specifically for accelerating the break-in after a string change.

My nickname in HS was Gumby. One of the guys on the baseball team named me that because he said I ran like Gumby. Funny thing was I was still faster than most 😉 When I played my first fantasy league baseball season in 1994, I was a big fan of the movie The Sandlot. The Great Bambino is a central figure of the movie, so I combined the two for my team name = TheGreatGumbinos.

Got to briefly play with the T1 mixer. Setting up the Beta 57a and the e935 with proper gain staging made a world of difference in the volume and sound quality of the setup. Very excited to play with this setup some more.

Is there a poor man's Edwina? Rode NT1/1a?

I'm still on the fence about a pickup vs mic'd. I keep going back and forth. There are benefits and draw backs to both. I ordered a used Bose T1 mixer that will be here tomorrow. Looking forward to trying to plug the Beta SM57a into the T1 to get some additional volume on the mic.

Reverb. Never mind. Thanks for sharing a peak into your setup, Jinder.

Horrible news.

Thanks for the info, Jinder. I actually started out thinking I was going to get a Sunrise, but I read about problems with magnetic pickups with Monel strings (can't find it now). I am stuck on Martin Retros and this persuaded me to look elsewhere. I'm assuming your Sunrise installs are run internally through the endpin and not with the cable run externally? I was drawn to them for the external option initially since I could get away with not drilling the endpin. Seems like it could be problematic if someone stepped on the cable and pulled the guitar over or damaged the wiring. The removability is a plus so I could use it on future guitars and be able to play the J45V acoustically without the added weight. Anyone have first hand experience with using the Sunrise p/u and Monel strings?

1) I originally investigated the Sunrise pickup, but decided against this route. 2) I have ruled out a K&K for a couple reasons. 3) I can foresee myself getting a ToneDexter at some point. Don't think I'll buy an Edwina, even though they look and sound amazing. Just not in the cards for that much cash. Now, if I get the ToneDexter, I'd love to find someone that has one close to me who'd let me use it to create some wave maps. Prior to this guitar, I had a 2015 SCSJ Supreme with the Trance Amulet M-VT, which was one of the reasons I purchased the guitar. I'm probably going this route for the 2018 J45 Vintage. I need to measure the bridge plate in the Vintage to make sure the transducers will fit. On the SCSJ, the bridge plate was too small to fit them properly, which created issues. I borrowed a Martin D Jr. with electronics to try out with the S1. The ease of use is a plus, and the sound is much louder than the SM57a Beta mic'ing the guitar. Granted, I could get a mixer to plug the mic in and increase the gain for more sound. Current thought process is J45V > Trance Amulet M-VT > Bose S1 Pro for easy portable use. Some wishishlist items I'd like to play with include: 1) Mixer (either a used T1 or a battery powered option) to allow for a buddy to plug in guitar & mic as well. Also want the headphone output. 2) ToneDexter 3) Digitech Trio + 4) Ditto X2 Jam Looper 5) TC Helicon Play Acoustic

Neil was my go to guy for several guitars, but the last guitar I took to him I wasn't satisfied with the work he did. I tried out Mike Nedd for a couple guitars after that and was extremely disappointed in the work, price and the turnaround. I can't recommend him at all. Great Southern did some work for me after that and did decent setups, but they did a poor re-install of the Trance sbt pickups on my problematic SCSJ. Maybe I just have too high of expectations. I may try out Dave and have him drill the J45V. The more I play with the mic'd guitar, I can see the value of a pickup or a p/u and mic combo. Just another rabbit hole to venture. Too many decisions...first world problems.

Practicing/playing around he house with the occasional jam with buddies. Maybe the occasional house party. Really, it's an exercise in pushing myself to get used to being amplified so I'm not fearful of it if the opportunity arises where I get to do an open mic or something. This first setup is really about learning. It was time to s**t or get off the pot. I can read about this stuff all day, but until I jump in and experience it, it's just words on a page. I recognize there are feedback issues at play and see the value in a p/u. My limited playing with the setup so far has definitely made this evident. Ultimately, it's about drilling the hole in the guitar. For whatever reason, I keep going back and forth on this. Part of my apprehension with drilling the guitar is not really trusting anyone in Houston to do it, granted I haven't ever used Yano for any work. I've been disappointed in some form or fashion with most of the techs/luthiers I've tried in the area. I am relatively handy, but don't want to do this for the first time on such an expensive guitar. Additionally, by the time I pay for someone to drill the hole and buy a p/u and a preamp, you're looking at a decent chunk of change as well. If you add a Tonedexter to try and refine the sound, then you're really spending some cash. Gas is a fickle beast, and I have history with high end playback gear and live recording gear, which was always a search for the best tone/sound. I can see amplification being the same rabbit hole.

Did you stick with this setup or did you move to something different after experimentation?

I had been leaning heavily towards mic'ing my J45 Vintage (no p/u) instead of drilling it to add a SBT, and BBG's thread about using a p/u and a mic on acoustic for gigging and Murph's insight in said thread pushed me to purchase my first mic amplified setup last night. I went to GC and played the LBM, S1, and L1C. I went in thinking I would want the L1C (and still wonder if I should get it over the S1), but the demo unit in the store was wonky. I think the guitar input jack was bad as the cable worked on multiple amps. Additionally, I have seen a couple used L1C's for the same price as the new S1. The portability of the S1 and the Bluetooth capability is pretty handy for sure. In the end, I brought home a Bose S1 Pro, Shure Beta 57a for the guitar, and a Sennheiser e935 for vocals. First time singing and playing amplified, which was pretty intimidating at first, but fun once I let loose. Amplification is quite the rabbit hole! I want to pickup a Digitech Trio + to play with, but the Ditto x2 looks to be a better looper. I'm still toying with the idea of getting a T1 ToneMatch so 1) my buddies can plug in and 2) I believe I need to convert the mic XLR to a TRS to run to most pedals. Am I thinking correctly that I can run the 57A > T1 > Pedal(s) > S1? It seems like I have to run the volume pretty hot on the S1 to hear the guitar. I realize this is partly a function of how close the mic is, but will adding a preamp (T1) with Gain help this? I realize there are cheaper mixers, but it seem seems the T1 is a perfect match for the S1/L1C. Additionally, I would like to be able to monitor with headphones. I know the Digitech has a headphone jack. Is there another option to gain this functionality?

Hehe. I love it. I think there's a lot of truth to cork sniffers statement. I'm trying to figure out my first amplified rig, and it's easy to run down the rabbit hole and go for the gold. I think buy once, cry once has it's merits, but so does learning from your mistakes. I'm going to go the mic'd route to start. Only playing with buddies and by myself. I need to jump in and figure some of this stuff out instead of only reading about it.

Thanks for your real world feedback, Murph. I appreciate it. I have a J45 Vintage (no p/u) and have been back and forth on going amplified and whether or not to drill the endpin.

Thanks for this info. Most of what I've read has poo-poo'd the idea of solely mic'g for gigs. You have a Bose L1 Compact, right? Have you used it successfully with mic'd acoustics and vocals for gigs? Would a single condenser mic for guitar and vocals work with the L1C or is it a recipe for feedback?