cunningham26

innnteresting. While i'd love to see them put this on an archtop, i imagine them doing a coronet RI or maybe a '59 sheraton RI

even in the changeover '69s they didnt have that bridge type- def 70s, def norlin. replaced pickguard. prob dont have to but you could get a mirror in there and see if it's double braced. elvis had one but i dont think yours is much of a collectible in its state. fix that crack and you might have a player.

i've swapped between the two without noticing too much difference, maybe it's just my obliviousness- IME you've got the bright new sound when you first get them on, then what i call the sweet spot for however long that lasts, then they start to sound dead without you noticing, then you start to notice how dead they sound and the cycle repeats! I wouldn't overthink it especially on the IBG Hummingbird with good midrange i dont know that most would hear a discernable difference.

my #1 is a '68 J45 in darkers sunburst with the "sonic boom" logo on the pickguard. only done in '68. it's not like after the clock struck midnight norlin had their way with double bracing, mine is single braced and sounds wonderful. it does have a rather large 3-ply bridgeplate and so it could lighten up with a bridge swap, but i like the sound and dont want to do non-reversable mods. in that same vein i swapped the rw for the drop-in PLS bridge linked above and it made a huge difference in the mids and highs. HIGHLY recommend it especially since you can swap back if you dont jive with it

Probably if you're bought into the idea that the folks at gibson/martin are thoughtful craftspeople, you're bought in that their material selection would be within that scope. conversely if you're bought into the idea that overseas factories are just pumping out a product, you might not defect simply because one is claiming to use a familiar material. IMO if china could grow something in a lab in a week that they could slap a spruce label onto, however dubious the claim, they wouldn't think twice about it. If martin made the claim that an alternate tonewood was up the their standard, i'd hope for the best and play it in person.

it looks pretty beat up- definitely was dropped at some point to make that crack on the back at the bottom bout. maybe that's what you want but i would spend a little more money and get a nice one- either new or used.

Ok the OP is a 2005 Samick made SG g-400 similar to this one @jorge82 yours looks like a 90s Joe Pass, maybe pre-joe pass emperor. new bridge, oddball TRC, but definitely not what people think of when they hear 80s emperor. the matsumoku ones are pretty amazing and go for good money- this one looks pretty rough and MIK joe passes are a dime a dozen, so i wouldnt say this is anything all that special and looking at the reverb, if anything it's overpriced

It wasn't bigger, you were just younger!

I don't think they're selling that well, so if you got one it will prob become something collectible down the line, if that's of importance to you. I believe someone here got one when first released and had good things to say on it.

i thought the same- if it started as a gibson it's not quite one anymore with the mods done

the JDM epiphones have a regular looking gibson style headstock. the elitist/elite/IBG still have a hybrid epi/gibson headstock shape. i would say this is more than likely a fake

i would take any guitar straight out of the box for a setup, but that's not going to resolve all of the issues you describe. i'd send it back, shouldnt have passed QC and was probably just rushed out the door while someone was at lunch

im not hugely familiar with the lineage but if it's 62 or 64 my guess would be it'd be rare to be an lg3 (which are rare across the board) and likely a B25. best way to check would probably be to investigate the bridge plate thickness, but then it looks like the bridge may have been swapped, so could be forever unknown!

that era of epi archtops has a bit of a following in those circles after Dave Rawling's preferred a '35 Olympic

In my years of hunting i've found guitar messies to be more about volume than quality. even if you'd paid $800 it's not that bad, swap out pickups and maybe you'll have a decent plaer. echoing the post above i hope your buddy didn't get tricked too badly.

that's a thing of beauty! it's odd they dont have VSB with chrome pickup covers a la the fabs casinos. it's black unless you go royal tan.

probably need move photos to confirm

all these people commenting as if you can't get an R9 for like $5k on a good day. oh you're a blue collar working musician? one of the best les pauls out there for a tenth of the cost. Why do you feel like the greenie is the only guitar you can have? even if it was a third of the price, are you going to take it out to all those bar gigs on monday night?

for you bridgeplate dorks. i've thought about doing something about mine on my '68 but will probably leave it alone.

never much higher than noon on the volume knob, if i need louder i flip up to 1 or 4 w on the attenuator knob. keep it '60s clean even with humbucker guitars and let the pedals throw their weight around. i should just switch to a fender or heck a roland 120, but the beatles vibe is too strong with vox.

Standard white, not the little lunchbox handled ones. totally on the same page- swapped out the tube for something with headroom and basically don't think about it, it just does the job tirelessly. and yes, it does get absolutely loud enough for any little stage ill be doing.

ive got an ac4tv that i keep really clean and use pedals for drives. nice and quiet!

DAAANNNGGGG congrats that's quite the quiver you've got now! also if you havent got the amp rig already, i recently got the 1991 pedal from funny little boxes- it's meant to do the Pearl Jam tone but is a 2 gain drive tubescreamer into a marshall, so does an amazing job at the Definitely Maybe tone as well.

Hype have you got the full noel collection at this point?

at least they're giving us commoners a taste with the riviera lol