lifeson355 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 I'm just joining the Gibson forums, but I've been a happy owner of a fine Les Paul Standard since '89. I recently purchased a new J-45 Custom I'm in love with. The neck is awesome, the guitar is a joy to play, and most important to me, it sounds fantastic. Looking forward to some acoustic guitar discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanvillRob Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 335... welcome...where in California are you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKahune Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 . Welcome. Congrats on your new J-45 Custom. How about pic/s of your two Gibby's? . B) Pic posting help - http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/11005-sticky-how-to-post-photos/ . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeson355 Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 335... welcome...where in California are you? Thanks for the welcome DanvillRob. I'm in San Jose. I picked up my J-45 from Guitar Showcase, just down the road a few miles from me. Where are you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeson355 Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 . Welcome. Congrats on your new J-45 Custom. How about pic/s of your two Gibby's? . B) Pic posting help - http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/11005-sticky-how-to-post-photos/ . Thanks for the welcome, BigKahune, as well as the posting tips. I'll post some pictures when I get home later. My Les Paul is beat up, but I'll show some pics. The J-45 is much nicer to look at, but I guess we'll see how it fares after about 25 years. My LP has been my primary guitar since I got it, and it has taken a ton of abuse. Sadly, I was young and didn't care how it looked when I bought it, and I didn't really take care of the finish. Amazingly, it hasn't checked except around the back of the neck near the nut. I did however kill the finish on the headstock overlay back in the early 90's when I replaced the tuners with Schaller's and cranked the nuts down too tight (nice lesson…). a year or so later some moisture must have made it into some fine cracks as the lacquer started cracking in streaks and flaking off. It's still doing it, and I'll see if I can dig up some pictures that show it when it was really almost cool looking. Stay tuned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanvillRob Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Thanks for the welcome DanvillRob. I'm in San Jose. I picked up my J-45 from Guitar Showcase, just down the road a few miles from me. Where are you? As you might imagine, I live in Danville. I work in Hayward. I bought my 'Bird at the GC in San Jose, (Steven's Creek Blvd.?), in 2011. I'd love to see your J-45 sometime...that is simply one of the finest guitars made! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeson355 Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 As you might imagine, I live in Danville. I work in Hayward. I bought my 'Bird at the GC in San Jose, (Steven's Creek Blvd.?), in 2011. I'd love to see your J-45 sometime...that is simply one of the finest guitars made! I had assumed you were in Danville by your user name. It's funny because I have been lightly looking to buy a house in Danville for over a year. I think I'd be pretty happy up there. Mt. Diablo is awesome, one of the few classic Bay Area climbs I've yet to do on my bicycle. Maybe we'll bump into each other one of these days. I've been to that GC a few times. I tried a few ES-335's there a couple years ago, but I haven't been there since. I'd love to show off my J-45 for you sometime. It really is an amazing instrument. I tried a lot of guitars leading up to this purchase. In fact, I was sure I was going to buy a Martin HD-28 for months and then I decided to try a J-45. The shop has almost any Gibson acoustic model and color I could have wanted to try, and they have a ton of Taylor and decent selection of Martin guitars, so it turned out to be a great place for me to make a final decision, and it happened that they had a J-45 Custom in Vintage Burst that not only looked great but played great and sounded terrific. I started with the J-45 standard and liked it a lot. In fact, I might look for one down the road. I tried the Custom second and the rosewood was nicer to my ear right away. I tried the J-45 TV which was super nice too, but when I did an A/B with the Custom, the Custom spoke to me more. I decided to try a custom shop J-45 with the Red Spruce top that had very cool tuners (I don't know the name of the style, but they look kind of like three progressively larger rectangles stacked on top of each other). I did like it a lot, but again the Custom came out on top for me. I A/B'd the Custom against a Martin D-28 and then an HD-28. Sonically, this was really close for me. I loved the HD-28 too and had a hard time picking a clear winner tone-wise. So it was down to the HD-28 and the J-45 Custom for me and a few things pushed me toward the Gibson. First the shorter scale was more playable to me and the neck just felt right in my hand. The Martin felt pretty good too, but the J-45 neck just had me right away. I also thought the Gibson sounded better as a strummer and I felt the tone was more even string to string when finger picking on the J-45 where the Martin seemed a bit more boomy on the E and A. That could be the size difference or any number of things of course. All of the guitars I tried were fine instruments, but the Custom I went home with was the one for me and well worth the effort to find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeson355 Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Thanks for the welcome, BigKahune, as well as the posting tips. I'll post some pictures when I get home later. My Les Paul is beat up, but I'll show some pics. The J-45 is much nicer to look at, but I guess we'll see how it fares after about 25 years. My LP has been my primary guitar since I got it, and it has taken a ton of abuse. Sadly, I was young and didn't care how it looked when I bought it, and I didn't really take care of the finish. Amazingly, it hasn't checked except around the back of the neck near the nut. I did however kill the finish on the headstock overlay back in the early 90's when I replaced the tuners with Schaller's and cranked the nuts down too tight (nice lesson…). a year or so later some moisture must have made it into some fine cracks as the lacquer started cracking in streaks and flaking off. It's still doing it, and I'll see if I can dig up some pictures that show it when it was really almost cool looking. Stay tuned. OK, here goes, 10 pics of my J-45: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Absolutely gorgeous guitar! I wonder why they don't put Waverlys on those to go with the bling? I also note they do know how to place the pickguard on the guitar..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeson355 Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Absolutely gorgeous guitar! I wonder why they don't put Waverlys on those to go with the bling? I also note they do know how to place the pickguard on the guitar..... Thank you, j45nick. I already love it, I'm sure it will just get better with some playing and age. Good question about the Waverlys. The Custom already has about as much show as I'd want, but some Waverlys could be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanvillRob Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Okay....I'm officially envious! What a stunner! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepperland Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Congrats. on your new custom J45, never been able to play one myself. I own a standard J45.......funny you mentioned the HD-28. I just picked one up last week. Enjoy your new Gibby in good health. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeson355 Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Congrats. on your new custom J45, never been able to play one myself. I own a standard J45.......funny you mentioned the HD-28. I just picked one up last week. Enjoy your new Gibby in good health. Thank you Pepperland, and that is funny. I really did enjoy several HD-28's I tried out. The neck on the J45 I picked up is just so perfect for me and so comfortable I was blown away. When I play barre chords anywhere on the neck it I don't feel like I'm having to spend extra effort keeping strings down. I'm sure your Standard is very similar and you know what I mean. It's got to be nice having both the J45 and the HD-28. You've got both mahogany and rosewood covered with those two. How are you enjoying that HD-28 so far? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKahune Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 . Great pics. And a great looking guitar. Quite the looker. The Custom seems to hit a nice balance between a bit of bling and the plain Jane 45. Enjoy. . B) . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry K Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 So I guess the J-45 Rosewood model is now called J-45 Custom and has some additional bling like bound fretboard and inlays. Didn't there use to be a J-45 Custom which was really a Songwriter body in rosewood? Did that go away or change name? Or was that one of these 'Pro' thingies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortyearspickn Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 So I guess the J-45 Rosewood model is now called J-45 Custom and has some additional bling like bound fretboard and inlays. Didn't there use to be a J-45 Custom which was really a Songwriter body in rosewood? Did that go away or change name? Or was that one of these 'Pro' thingies? The last iteration of this model, changed in mid 2012, went from ebony to rosewood on the fretboard and bridge. Otherwise, it was the same. J45 with bling and rosewood b/s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeson355 Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 The last iteration of this model, changed in mid 2012, went from ebony to rosewood on the fretboard and bridge. Otherwise, it was the same. J45 with bling and rosewood b/s. That's interesting to know. I didn't even start looking at J45's until a few months ago. I loved the specs on the Custom and sought it out. I wonder why Gibson doesn't make a J45 TV in rosewood, maybe a J45 TV Custom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry K Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 That's interesting to know. I didn't even start looking at J45's until a few months ago. I loved the specs on the Custom and sought it out. I wonder why Gibson doesn't make a J45 TV in rosewood, maybe a J45 TV Custom? Well, although the 'true vintage' moniker is somewhat fraudulent, I guess they felt that calling a rosewood J-45 true vintage might strain credulity a bit... Traditionalists say that a rosewood J-45 is like a rosewood Martin D-18. What? If you look at the model structure/hierarchy, Gibson originally used a remarkably organic method of distinguishing models, whereby you have dual or triple marking of a distinction. For example you have a long scale, rosewood dread (AJ) versus a short scale, mahogany dread (J-45). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ol fred Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 J-45 whatever Henry wants to call it for marketing purposes It's a gorgeous hunk of wood Welcome aboard ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeson355 Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 J-45 whatever Henry wants to call it for marketing purposes It's a gorgeous hunk of wood Welcome aboard ! Thank you. I whole heartedly agree with that sentiment. I feel the J45 I got sounds great, even if it is only a few months old, and it is absolutely a gorgeous hunk of wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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