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Gibson family, NOW COMPLETE!!!

onewilyfool

By onewilyfool
in Gibson Acoustic

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onewilyfool

onewilyfool

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I would like to introduce you to the two latest (and last) additions to the Gibson family.

 

#1 Gibson AJ Mahogany Short Scale. This guitar is NOW my go-to guitar for cafe Gigs, and just about anything else. I've got Newtone Master Class 13's...and it is really something when right guitar and right strings come together. These are the round core strings, and the more they age, the better they seem to sound....lol. At least to my ear. This one can strum, finger style, percussive, comp, anything really. Holds it's own with some of my buddies Vintage Gibson Jumbos. I guess this is kind of like a TV J-45 without the Hide glue, and with AJ appointments. There is a HONKING huge back brace on this one, has Grover open back tuners, and is relatively light as far as Jumbos go ...(not as light as the new J-35's!!!...) I will now be selling my J-45, not that the J-45 isn't a good guitar, but because this one is just that much better. naturally DRY and woody, with great bass, and wonderful highs, but really Mid-centric, and great for vocals, and hopefully songwriting.

 

#2 is a '76 (circa, very difficult to peg down with serial numbers during this time with Gibson) MK-72, with the prettiest EI Rosewood I've seen. (sorry pic did not do it justice so I didn't post) I know this guitar has a lot of detractors (especially at AGF) but based on this guitar, they don't know what they are complaining about. I've heard that some early production models actually self destroyed, and I've kept a "warning list" from KS daddy about the pitfalls to look for when purchasing, and this has NONE of those problems. When I got it, the jumbo frets were filed almost flat, and was difficult to play, so I had my luthier refret the beast with medium frets and make a bone saddle for the guitar. The stock saddle was made from some kind of plastic, and was not intonated correctly. This Guitar is one of Gibson's unsung great guitars. A full 7 pages are dedicated to it in "Gibson's Fabulous Flat-top Guitars" (24, 137-142), no other guitar got that kind of press in this book. For a reason......Here is my review:

 

The first thing I noticed about this guitar is how HEAVY it was. Built like a Guild, like a tank. Fit and finish, workmanship is flawless. Schaller tuners with "Gibson" label work perfectly after all these years. Visually unique and very non-Gibson like, but the guitar was a great experiment for Gibson, and probably ahead of it's time sound wise and visually (I'll admit the bridge DOES take some getting used to visually, but apparently there is a reason) Again, prettiest rosewood I've ever seen. has a lot of black veins in it, which make a lot of folks think it is Brazilian. (but it is not) Huge curved neck block inside and with a mirror, you can see that this is not your uncle's "X"-braced cousin. Pickguard is removable, and a lot don't like the unique shape, but once you own one, you don't really care. The ebony/rosewood fretboard is beautiful looking in person, but the bridge, pickguard and fretboard, were probably just too much for the traditional Guitar public and Gibson traditionalists of the 70's. BIG MISTAKE. This guitar is NOT your thumpy mid range Gibson Jumbo, but it does have an amazing unique sound of it's own. Lots of volume, BUT the big sound is on the listener side, more so than the player side. Unbelievably EVEN sound across the strings. I mean EVEN. I've read that sound engineers LOVE this guitar because it is so easy to record, no thumpin' bass, no ringing over tones.....BUT this sound takes some getting used to, you don't believe you are playing a Gibson. The sound, as my luthier described it, is a hybrid flat-top/classical guitar tone and sound, if you can imagine. One thing strange I've found playing it, is that on first strike of a string or chord, the guitar just goes on forever sustain wise, and it seems to my ear at least, to get somewhat stronger (louder) a few seconds after plucking the string. As if the sound "grows" somewhat. Strange. I've not played a MK-81, but the guy I bought this one from also had a MK-53, (mahogany) which sounded somewhat "thin" to my ears, and maybe why these guitars generally have a bad rap. One thing that is regrettable, is that Gibson stopped making them after 3 years or so. Imagine what would have happened if they had continued this model, and improved and refined this guitar over the years, OR if Ren got his hands on this design???!!!! If you google search, "kasha guitar design" which describes this type of bracing, you will find many luthiers who use this type of bracing in steel string and nylon string guitars, some costing as much as $20k!!??? Not for the faint of heart. I'm truly glad I got mine, (at a bargain price for Gibson guitars), and the short run, means mine is pretty rare compared to other Gibson production numbers (around1200 MK-72's built)...so in my opinion, these guitars are undervalued, and underrated, mostly because of the mindset inertia of the guitar playing world, lots of hearsay opinions, from folks who say, "Yup, I played a MK-53 once back in '76, wouldn't give you a wooden nickel for it!!" That kind of crap. These are good guitars, different looking, different sounding, but very good guitars. If you can snag one, it will probably need some work (as any 70 guitar probably would) but well worth the effort!!!

DSCN0154_zps31ebb9e6.jpg

 

DSCN0151_zps01d9a57c.jpg

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Yggdrasil

Yggdrasil

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I'm taking bets on how long the "now complete" lasts :-)

 

mahogany ss AJ - interesting - I almost ordered one from Private Reserve pre-takeover when they were independent & had commissioned the short scale AJs.

 

nice guitars - enjoy them in good health!

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jannusguy2

jannusguy2

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Nice guitars there. I considered one of those AJs awhile back but it seemed too close to a J45. Aside from the cosmetic appointments and some different bracing I wasn't sure why I'd need it since I already had a J45. I see where you're selling your J45 so there's no issue of redundancy. Enjoy! Put up a clip if you're so inclined...

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onewilyfool

onewilyfool

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Anyone that buys guitars two at a time is not credible when he says "never again"...

Well.......they were acquired months apart, but the Luthier had the Mark 72 for quite a while, so it only seem like I'm getting them two at a time...lol, and that AJ wasn't bought, it was acquired at a fairly steepc cost, my 1970 D-18....sigh....another good one...

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jannusguy2

jannusguy2

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Well.......they were acquired months apart, but the Luthier had the Mark 72 for quite a while, so it only seem like I'm getting them two at a time...lol, and that AJ wasn't bought, it was acquired at a fairly steepc cost, my 1970 D-18....sigh....another good one...

if you're suggesting that you traded a 1970 D18 for the AJ I think you got a great deal. I just let my 1972 D18 go to fund a 1971 D28. It was the right thing to do.

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jannusguy2

jannusguy2

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I love 'never again' posts.... reminds me of walking away from strange apartments early on a Saturday morning with a carton of Ribena and a 'dirty stop-out' look about me when I was a student. Happy days......

Gonna need an "american" translation on this please and thank you. [blink]

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Riptide

Riptide

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I told my girlfriend there were only about 15 guitars I wanted and only 5 that I was planning on getting in my lifetime for sure. She didn't understand. [unsure] She said "Is't that a little excessive?" I went on to tell her about the Edge. [biggrin]

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Mojorule

Mojorule

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I love 'never again' posts.... reminds me of walking away from strange apartments early on a Saturday morning with a carton of Ribena and a 'dirty stop-out' look about me when I was a student. Happy days......

 

Jannus, what PM is reminiscing about is leaving unknown apartments (that's already American to me - in England we usually talk about flats, but PM grew up in Scotland where apartments may be common currency), presumably unknown due to his arrival there in a state of intoxication. Apparently he left holding a well-known British non-alcoholic beverage made from blackcurrants and sugar (packed with Vitamin C according to advertisements). I believe that this beverage is frequently associated with members of the temperance movement, and especially those Churches which were formed with a temperance agenda, and required a substitute for wine for the purposes of Holy Communion. It may or may not be associated with reforming alcoholics. Be glad he did not make reference to the beverage known as Irn-Bru (slogan: made in Scotland from girders).

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ParlourMan

ParlourMan

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Jannus, what PM is reminiscing about is leaving unknown apartments (that's already American to me - in England we usually talk about flats, but PM grew up in Scotland where apartments may be common currency), presumably unknown due to his arrival there in a state of intoxication. Apparently he left holding a well-known British non-alcoholic beverage made from blackcurrants and sugar (packed with Vitamin C according to advertisements). I believe that this beverage is frequently associated with members of the temperance movement, and especially those Churches which were formed with a temperance agenda, and required a substitute for wine for the purposes of Holy Communion. It may or may not be associated with reforming alcoholics. Be glad he did not make reference to the beverage known as Irn-Bru (slogan: made in Scotland from girders).

 

Ah, Irn-Bru.... Love it, here's a pic I just took 2 mins ago.... Just had a delivery.

 

E6A83E6B-5C2A-4C2C-953E-5EB0C820C558-269-0000000E6B5868BE_zps5f8406e8.jpg

 

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Aster1

Aster1

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Wiley,

 

I really LIKE the way that 70's "Jetson" guitar looks!! I wouldn't want ALL my guitars to look like that style, but then I don't want all my guitars to look alike anyway.

 

HNGD on both of them. What do you like about the AJ vs the J45?

 

Aster

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