docr
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Posts posted by docr
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There is one aspect missing in this discussion - the mechanical attrition and fatigue of the string material. Long used stings show notches caused by the frets, typically the D- and G-string and in the worst case the bronze wire winding gets loose. Anyhow, notches will influence the vibration behaviour of the strings and the strings are more difficult to tune. And this effect can not be prevented by any coating - polymers are galvanic processes.
But of course there are a lot of stories about old strings, more from Bass players.
Changing strings is work, but the fretboard can be cleaned if necessary and the sound of fresh strings makes fun. And string industry needs to sell new strings 🙂
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11 minutes ago, kidblast said:
My J200 guard keeps pooping up in one spot. I keep pushing it down. Wish the company would "fix" this. it's annoying.
kidblast,
Very good descrition! We all are pushing parts of our pickguards back - after opening the case, during playing - whenever it pops up again. I am trying to hide this defect as other guitar pickers playing with me have (often much cheaper) guitars without this problems and I do not want discussions about prices, Gibson quality etc. - you know what I mean - I love my Gibson guitars, but a sustainable solution of this problem would be helpful.
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18 minutes ago, RBSinTo said:
Docr,
Never owned a guitar with a flubber pickguard.
However, three years ago the pickguard on my then 43 year old D-28 curled, and was replaced by excellent Luthiers here in Toronto. I never, even for a moment considered trying to make the repair or replacement myself.
No problems with its guard before or since.
My j45 is 19 years old and its guard shows no signs of lifting.
Just lucky I guess.
RBSinTo
Ok, if a pickguard decides to curl after 43 years its another thing. I would be very carful with an old guitar, too. The "flubber" things can be removed quite easily with the help of naphta and some patience. Your J45 surely has a better quality pickguard, I have followed a lot of discussions about the "flubber" problem in forums (or fora - what is the correct plural in English?) and it seems to be a problem of younger guitars.
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4 hours ago, ALD323 said:
I fixed my lifting 2013 Hummingbird guard in the following manner...and it worked. Like you I could not stand the peeling corners, so I removed it, cleaned it and the guitar top with naptha to remove all the old glue. Then I followed this procedure...
#1 lay the pickguard flat on a clean dry counter top.....
#2 use a hair dryer and blow it directly onto the hummingbird guard till it "softens just enough to relax. "
#3 Flip the pickguard over from time to time as you heat it with the hair dryer. It wil need to get just hot enough to cause the curl to drop and begin to lay flat.
#4 Do not heat it to melting...It may need to be heated a few times and a little patience. Move the hair dryer evenly all around the entire pick guard heating it evenly, particularly on the curled up areas, the whole pick guard needs to relax and delflex from the even moving swirling heat of the dryer. .....and after the curl is FLAT, you apply the 3M sticker, it will say on and never peel off. Take special not you do not melt it in any area. It will get very warm, if you need to stop to let it cool down do so...then reheat it again. I held the top of the hair dryer about and inch to two inches away, ...use plenty of light as you do this so you can monitor that it does not melt. As I said, when it begins to get hot enough to deflex....it will actually flatten before your eyes. Keep the hair dryer moving and not focused in a beam of heat, this will avoid all melting and make it just hot enough to flatten.
#5 Immediately after heating it flat, (you will actually be able to see it deflex under the heat, and before it cools, place a heavy book on top of it. It will cool slowly and remain permanently flat. It will then be ready to re-install on your guitar.
...it will then STAY on the guitar permanently without curling or pulling off.
****Please note that If you decide to re-apply the pickguard without DEFLEXING it with the hair dryer first, it will pull up again from the guitar. The hair dryer WILL cause it to deflex flat the instant it reaches the temperature to do so. Immediately after heating it flat, and before it cools entirely, and do let it cool a bit, then place a heavy book on top of it for a while till it completely cools. It will cool slowly and remain permanently flat. It will then be ready to re-install on your guitar. Done correctly it will never curl again or pull up. Good luck..if u wish to reinstall your hummingbird pick guard..this is a guarenteed way to do so. I ordered a new one and it came with the same curls so....I returned that one as it was a curled as the old one I took off and yet it was beand new. and then reinstalled the old one after de-flexing it...very easy to do...and it lasted for years and never pulled up again. Good luck. Let us know how it went!
Looks like a lot of work but if ALD323´s methode cures all tensions out of the material it will help. Will try this method - but this is a job for the winter.
The big question for me still is why Gibson has used this type of pickguards for years knowing about the problems. The price? Would it be really significantly lower for a flubber pickguard? Maybe for the Humminbird type.
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12 hours ago, RBSinTo said:
Hall,
By way of full disclosure I had no idea what you were talking about until I did some research, and found out what a "flubber" is.
I think you should speak directly with Gibson, to find out what material a flubber is made from, and what adhesive they recommend for re-gluing it . Failing that, try a reputable Luthier, rather than looking for what may not be good solutions here.
RBSinTo
RBSinTo - be glad if you never had problems with "flubber" pickguards. My J45 (2017) and Hummingbird (2017) drive me crazy, edges are lifting whch look even worse on the Hummingbird due to the more complicated shape. Both have been removed and fixed again by an authorized Gibson service workshop - lifting again after some months, I have removed, cleaned and mounted the J45 pickguard by myself with the help of 3M tape (3M double sided sheets are not available here). And - it lifts again. This is really sad as both guitars are fine with the exception of the pickguards, beautiful to play and sound good, My other Gibsons have "flubber"pickguards which are not lifting or only some millimeters (SJ200) or have thin pickguards making no problems.
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Relatively loose sitting saddles seem to happen quite often. I have replace the saddles of my J35, Southern Jumbo and J185 after discovering, that the edge of the saddle "leans" towards the neck - of course as the strings are pulling in this direction. I have never considered a risk for breaking the bridge, but thought this could have a negative impact on sound and intonation. All three guitars have undersaddle pickups.
I have replaced the original saddles by Graph Tech Acoustic Bridge Saddles - the version for Gibson acoustics - as they are available in Germany, ordered them from thomann. I had to grind the new saddles fit them in the slots, they are little too long and too high as the piezo ist under the saddle. The thickness mostly fits without or with grinding them a little. I am using sandpaper and for the last round Polishing Rubber. The sound with the Graph Tech saddles is good for me, maybe there are better or more sophistacted replacement saddles but they seem to by equivalent to the original saddles.
I have no idea if the "loose" saddles just happen by summation of the tolerances or if there is a technical reason why Gibson makes them this way.
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37 minutes ago, Dave F said:
I recently traded off my Fender Deluxe Reverb in a guitar deal and bought a Twin Reverb Tone Master. Has a variable wattage switch which is nice for home use. You can turn it down and turn up the volume and get whatever sound you want.
First to the start topic: I came from acoustic guitars (Ibanez Hummingbird Clone) to electric guitars - mostly Squiers and later Fenders which I still have and love - including some Precision Basses. Then I came back to acoustic guitars - Martins and Gibsons (more Gibsons than Martins) and the Gibson acoustics brought me to Gibson electric guitars which I did not like so much before (short scale length, price). At the end I have a Les Paul Junior in TV Yellow which is a great guitar with an unexpected "fresh" sound for me with the wrap around bridge and the P90s and since Corona times a Les Paul Standard in HCS - a classical thing, price ok, quality very good. But of course I still love my Telecasters - more than Strats as they are too complex 🙂
DaveF - I still have some Deluxe Reverbs and Princeton Reverbs with Tubes and I will keep them, but I have a Deluxe Reverb Tonemaster since some weeks and it is the main amp in my rehearsal room at the moment. Sounds good for me, the "volume reduction" works and it still sounds ok and the weight is unbelievable low - ideal for older musicians who have to carry PA equipment, monitors and the own guitar equipment from the car to the stage - and back.
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Bill Moore,
adjustable pots sound good! Thank you for the hint!
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This questions has been discussed many times in this forum as I assume, but the search function did not bring too much.
I have a Epi DOT, built in 2004 or 2005. I have changed the pickups to a nice set from a pickup builder in Austria. They have nickel covers and the original bridge/tailpiece are chrome. To harmonize the optical impression, I want to replace those two parts. There is a huge market for bridges/tailpieces and I found some nice things in the ABM webstore.
Now the question - does anybody know, if bridges / stop tailpieces for a Gibson ES335 would fit on my Epiphone DOT? I am afraid that there will be differences.
The DOT needed new tuning machines - the Kluson replacment parts work good and have a very reasonable price, the guitar itself is in good conditions which was the basement for an invesment in better hardware anyhow.
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14 hours ago, slimt said:
The J60 was also advanced braced like the AJ . I had a couple of those early ones over the years. They were suppose to be comparable to the HD28. They are a nice guitar. Back in the 90s they also made a maple version. Part of the Montana specials line up.
Thank you for the information. There are so many different versions of bracings in the acoustic guitar wordl As far as I remember, the AJ braching has another angel in the "X" compared to J45s? Martin always shifts the X, pointing to different sounds and historical backgrounds. I do not know where the X of my HD28 is, but it sounds good.
Have there been more rosewood or maple J60s?
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15 hours ago, Larry Mal said:
So, they made them in two waves, an earlier 90s run and a later reissue. The most common is with rosewood back and sides, but I've heard of walnut and other woods. Those are rare.
I have one of the 90's versions with the rosewood back and sides.
Now, it's clearly designed to be a Gibson version of the HD28, and that's why I bought mine- because I love Gibson guitars and because the J60 is less known than a lot of their others and you can find them pretty reasonably priced sometimes. I got mine for a little more than $1k, if I really correctly.
I don't know if it sounds exactly like an HD-28, but what I can tell you is that it sounds incredible. I mean, just amazing. It's loud and booming, unlike your typical Gibson and more on the Martin side of things, but it still has Gibson sweetness to it, it's powerful, clear, and has an incredible dynamic range.
I suppose that I would still like to own a Martin HD-28, if I had the money, but I can tell you that I don't feel any kind of urgency about it and while it might sound a little different, I can't imagine how it- or really, any acoustic guitar- could sound much "better".
Larry Mal,
Thank you for your information about J60 and the photos. The guitar look very good! The headstock looks similar to the headstock of my Maple AJ. I have the impression that a J60 would fit in my collection - maybe a good one crosses my way someday. I have no rosewood Gibson up to now as I have rosewood Martings, but the J60 seems to be special.
The prices are rising, a first quick look in the internet shows around 1.500€. So your guitar has been a good investment.
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I have found many contributions about J60s in this forum, they end around 2013. Just for my understanding - is a rosewood J60 sounding like a D28/HD28? From the first look the two guitars are very similar. J60s are still on the used-guitar-market - and could be a nice present for someone going to be 60 ...
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5 minutes ago, Larry Mal said:
Well, you have an HD 28, so you have the long scale/rosewood/dread trifecta there. We'll leave aside the Martin vs. Gibson inherent sound for now, which is not inconsiderable.
A Hummingbird is short scale/mahogany/dread. So, out of the three factors, two are different.
A J-45 is short scale/mahogany/jumbo, so a difference of 2.5 factors, maybe.
An SJ200 is long scale/maple/super jumbo, so a difference of two factors.
An L-00 is short scale/mahogany/L-00 shaped, so a difference of all three factors.
And so on. Maybe you can look at it like that.
Of course, a Martin D28 is designed to be a loud instrument that can dominate other instruments in particular settings, of course it can do a lot more than that.
A Gibson J45 is not designed to do that, so it will be quieter, less resonant (still pretty resonant) and have a sweeter sound. Be aware it might take you a little while to acclimate to the strengths of the Gibson vs. the Martin- the Martin is designed to overwhelm and blow things away. It took me a while to listen to the sound of a Gibson as opposed to the volume of Martin guitars- nothing wrong with Martins, of course. But the ear tends to immediately associate louder things with sounding "better", and it took me a while to unlearn that.
My own advice is that Gibson has a few absolutely legendary guitars- the L-00, the J-45 (which is a J-50), the Hummingbird and the SJ-200. They also have a great amount of other very wonderful guitars, but if you don't know what you want, don't overthink it- just get one of the legends because they are legends for a reason.
Good luck! Hope this helps.
Same observation - starting with the D28 and playing the J45 1 week later I was a little "disappointed" by the J45 - which has changed after some days. As LarryMal writes - the mighty sound and volume give the first impression "louder ist better" - as for guitar pickers playing electric guitars, too 🙂
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9 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:
George played a J-200. John also had that J-160E.
J-160E is clear - J200 - My Sweet Lord? Or more songs with George playing acoustic guitar?
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9 minutes ago, 6shooter said:
I am focusing this reply based on your statement that you want a Gibson with a very different tone/sound than that of the Martin. All of the Gibsons suggested are great guitars, but some are more comparable to the Martin you already have. The J15 will be the Gibson model most different in sound quality from your Martin, in my experience. It has a real "punchy" mid range and excellent volume. It is very reasonably priced too, so there is very little to regret. Try one out. I bought it to have a completely different sound from my Taylor, and it sure does. The Taylor is now mostly reserved for fingerpicking and the J15 for flatpicking. Now I just need your Martin HD 28 to have 3 completely different sounds! Have fun with this.
6shooter - interesting alternative. For me the classic D28 / J45 - pair covered the two standards I always wanted to have, especially as J45s look cool and they appear in many videos of musicians I like. Even the J45 sounds totally different to a HD28/D28. Had never tried a J15, but they seem to be quite popular.
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Rocky-Raccoon,
I was in a similar situation 3 years ago. Saving some money I wanted to have a really good, classic acoustic guitar after 40 years with quiteplayable, but cheaper acoustics. The first "good" one was a Martin D28 as I always wanted to have the sound I have heard on so many records. As there was some money left, the second one was a Gibson J45. I thought this would be enough to have two of the most iconic instruments.
However - a Hummingbird followed - and many more ... inlcuding a HD28 (built in 2016). Meanwhile I have much more Gibsons than Martins, but this is due to my preference of dreadnoughts and D41, 42, 45 is out of my financial range, I am not so in OO or OOO models.
I am following E-minor7 - a perfect partner to the HD28 would be a J45 / J50 or a Hummingbird. Then you can play Beatles AND Rolling Stones.
My HD28 is a fine guitar. As all of my Martins it is flawless. Everything was perfect just out of the case, but I have to say that I like the relatively high string adjustment as Martins sets up guitars. I play it with Martin Monel strings (medium) at the moment, but I have used 80/20 bronze Martin strings too, both works. The Monel strings cut a little of the high end. My HD28 has the typical "bathtub equalizer" sound which a Martin should have - and as expected even more pronounced than my D28.
I wish you luck to find the Gibson you will like. But be careful, if you start with Gibsin acoustics it can get an unexpected momentum 🙂
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How about open G with a A string tuned down to G (and E string to D) - then the lower string tension could cause the buzz?
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I bought a "new old stock" SJ100 1941 reissue guitar which was just hanging around in a music store in Berlin - it was the favourite lunch-break guitar of the salesman working there and he was sad that the SJ100 was gone. Originally I wanted to try the maple J45 which was in the same store but the SJ100 was better for me. It is a mahogany back and sides model with the simple bridge (not as the big one on a SJ200). The whole instrument looks unspectacular - but it sounds great and plays very comfortably. I love it. Musicians who do not know the background and compare them to the much better known SJ200s sometimes blame the look which is no problem for me.
It sound of course different to maple SJ200s. I have used the SJ100 in the last weeks for outdoor unplugged sessions / rehearsals because of the Covid-19 situation and it is loud enough with a full sound but not as loud and sparkling as for example a HD28.
As there was some talking about J185s - I could buy a J185 with an Adirondack top in vintage sunburst in the same store in December 2018 - again a little older. Seems as if someone working in this store buyes some not so well known models, too and they are waiting longer for a customer - which was good for me 🙂
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The ‚dead end‘ of the piezo ribbon was a part of the problem of my Dove, too. I cut off about 4 Millimeters without damaging the thing - maybe I was just lucky. This brought some improvement, as I did not check the bridge saddle at this time.
Another argument for not using Pietros and sit in front of a good microphone without moving - better for older guitar pickers who need no stage show anymore 😀.
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It is - and no one knows it as most of the "normal" guitar pickers over in Europe who had ever a Gibson acoustic in their hands know J45s - which can be seen a lot in TV music shows, Hummingbirds - at least the older guys and Rolling Stones fans and SJ-200s - because they can´t be missed optically.
I am glad to find it in an music store. It Looks a little like the "big brother" of my J35
![[rolleyes]](//content.invisioncic.com/p286412/emoticons/default_msp_rolleyes.gif "[rolleyes]")
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Larsongs, do you really use Fender tube amps for acoustic guitars? That is an interesting approach! I never tried it although I am a huge Fender tube amp fan and have some of them in my stable. Do they provide enough high frequencies for an acoustic guitar?
The Fender 100 Acoustic motixlost mentioned above is totally different. I have an ACUS one 8 after testing the small loudbox in a store. The small Fishmann loudbox "mini" is unbeatable in size and weight but it had not enough "boom" for me. I use the acoustic amp is just for situations without PA or for sessions where you do not now which PA you will find there.
Coming to motixlost´s question - size and weight are a problem (the ACUS one 8 is quite heavy and not so small for example) but I have started testing smaller amps and ended with a little bigger one. Of course the good stuff starts > 1.000$ but depending on the purpose of application there should be something working under 1.000$. By the way - there is an interesting thread started by Jinder discussing acoustic amps at the high end of the price.
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dhanners623 - how do you like the bone saddle? Is it compensated for the B-string? I am just curious, maybe I get some ideas for experiments ...
I have some Gibson acoustics now and as I am removing all strings at once to come to the fretboard for cleaning reasons I have found that the saddles of at least 50% of my Gibsons are a little to thin with the effect you describe in your reply. In the worst case this could influence the intonation of the guitar, but maybe the 1 or two Millimeters are not enough - but not nice, as you say, the contact to the bridge and to the Piezo is not optimal, but Dave F writes above, this could even be helpful for the contact to the piezo as the contact area of the saddle is a kind of an edge.
I the case of my Dove the saddle was simply grinded in the wrong way by anyone making the setup. Tusq saddles are relatively easy to treat but I would go to a luthier for a bone saddle, too - no experience with this material.
Your last sentence is interesting for me because I have the same ideas to build at least some of my Gibsons back to "acoustic". Maybe the removal of the piezo element brings some Millimeters of depth in the slot which avoids tilting of the saddle.
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Interesting observation. I am glad that I could fix the problem in my case by a simple replacemement of the saddle. Piezo ribbon and per-amp work.
Nevertheless I do not really like the sound of acoustics with piezo pickups but to use the guitar even in a not too loud rock band it is a good compromise.
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Thank you for the information! Will try Mediums for the next string change.
Maybe I am too carefull to use 13s on Gibson acoustics, as my Martin dreadnoughts seem to be more ‚robust‘ but I have much more Gibsons 😉 as I am fascinated by them.
![[rolleyes]](http://content.invisioncic.com/p286412/emoticons/default_msp_rolleyes.gif "[rolleyes]")
Dead Strings
in Gibson Acoustic
Posted
There are more stories about bass players who never change strings or are using only old strings. The most famous must be James Jamerson - if you search for Bass players with old strings. Notches are no or a smaller problem for bass stings. The wildest story I have read some weeks ago (but do not remember where exactly) was that a bass player has sent a broken old string back to the manufacturer and asked them if it couls be welded.
I am using only flatwound bass strings, D´Addatio Chromes are my favorite. And they last very long ....
Doc