Hogeye Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 Your reply again is passive aggressive in that you believe I deserve a lesser quality guitar than what I paid for. What an assh@le you are! Looks like I'll be reaching back out to Don to see what he thinks of all this......is there a Gibson Rep on this board who would like to chime in? I guess there is no pleasing you. I'm sorry you have the need to call me hurtful names. You are reading way too much into what I have posted.I just wanted to wish you well. I enjoyed the sound clips you posted and thought you were a good player and a great addition to the forum. You keep telling everyone you have a great guitar and when I agree with you I'm called names. Hmmmm??? Don is a very honest man and he is going to tell you the truth. Trust him. I have no more to add to the conversation so this ***@ole will go quietly into the night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldCowboy Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 Hey, Birdman, it's all good - you have a really nice guitar, one that I suspect many people will lust after their entire lives and not even come close to owning. Certainly not an instrument that requires any apology; I've played lots of Hummingbirds throughout my life/owned a few, too. BOND with that critter - you won't regret it! By the way, my earlier query about floorboard tops is still viable in case anyone wants to react.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldCowboy Posted April 19, 2016 Share Posted April 19, 2016 Well, if, and that is a big IF, that happens hopefully you have played the guitar hard and long, leaving scratches, dings, finish checks and pickmarks. A good finish is thin and 12s,will show the texture of the wood as it ages. It is also bound to show signs of use. It is a natural part of the ageing process of a frequently played guitar. The more you use it, the more you will love the character marks. They make the guitar yours. Just imagine if you send this one back and after a week with a new guitar you put big ding on the top. These things are bound to happen if you play the guitar... This is my 74 year old J-45. It is full of "scars" and I would't want it any other way. Lars I'm not that old (yet) and it's sure a whole lot less scarred up than I am. Lovely guitar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BirdMan81 Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 Been researching tone woods and grading processes for hours....I'm down the rabbit hole now: http://youtu.be/dEbhvHCZyfM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BirdMan81 Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 I guess there is no pleasing you. I'm sorry you have the need to call me hurtful names. You are reading way too much into what I have posted.I just wanted to wish you well. I enjoyed the sound clips you posted and thought you were a good player and a great addition to the forum. You keep telling everyone you have a great guitar and when I agree with you I'm called names. Hmmmm??? Im not sure how to respond to this. I'm not "reading into" what you posted. I'm just reading what you posted. And for you to try and come off now like you've been supportive this whole time just validates your sarcasm... Don is a very honest man and he is going to tell you the truth. Trust him. How do you know? Do you know him? Have you met him? I have no more to add to the conversation so this ***@ole will go quietly into the night. Don't worry I have no intention on emailing the webmaster. I just want closure to this friggin thread. I'm sure j45Nick's Blood Pressure is through the roof right now! Anyone out there have a Sitka Spruce top with Similar pitch lines ....??? Care to share pictures? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the other side Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Don't. Just play! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-minor7 Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Like Lars68 said, you should be honeymooning on a nectar-dripping cloud in this phase. As it is you seem to be trapped in the opposite room - a traumatic position it might take years to get over. Believe me, not trying to be rude, but best advise : Get over this now, good BirdMan. It's not worth it. Enjoy and play that marvellous guitar. Accept it like the ONE fate brought to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave F Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 It's easier to go to > Your control panel<li> > Profile<li> > Manage Ignored Users And block the ones that make comments that bug you. Life's too short to get into a battle of words over nothing and some members love the controversy and others just think they know all the answers. I have a few blocked on my list. I may be on a few list, but I enjoy all the others. That way you'll enjoy more. Congratulations on the great looking new guitar! Enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissouriPicker Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Birdman, play your guitar. It's gorgeous. And stop reading articles on Sitka. And if you become convinced the guitar is a loser, I'll give you $1000 for it and I'll pay the shipping. Let me know....lol.....Enjoy your guitar, man and don't waste another second on this. I have no idea if the top on my J100 is quarter-sawn, three-quarters-sawn, half-sawn, or half-***. All I know is that it's a killer and a keeper---just like your Hummingbird. Play your guitar and leave this bullshit behind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
58 Relic Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 I've got to be honest on this one ,. The new Gibson Hummingbird Vintage is one of the nicest sounding , looking and more importantly sounding guitars I've have the pleasure to come across . Me personally I'd sit back and play , knowing that I own one of the best guitars on the current market and let the guitar enhance my playing .Good luck and enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 I have a great guitar tech/luthier just down the road that I have been going to for many years and if I owned the guitar, I would be down there probably giving him and his apprentice another laugh about the d@#@head with all the geetar problems he read about on the internet....but I would have a definite answer to the quality of the top from him. AA, A or B? You paid for AA. I assume you don't know anyone near you or you would have done that same visit by now, so maybe to ease your mind, get a few recommendations for a top person near you and have them take a look. No good showing self interested parties. It would be real handy to cultivate a good guitar tech relationship for the future. BluesKing777. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mafy31 Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Been researching tone woods and grading processes for hours....I'm down the rabbit hole now: http://youtu.be/dEbhvHCZyfM The 3rd link was very interesting. By the way can't agree more with all of the above, your bird is beautiful, wood looks awesome, it is tight and the top looks perfectly quater sawn. My previous post was ironic, i just cannot think a second that Gibson would use lower grade woods. They have standards, and i'm confident that wood selection is done perfectly. I am not very knowledgeable, but i would think they even need to select the woods more carefully for their thermal curing process. Almost everyone agrees here that you have one of the (if not THE one) most beautiful birds we have seen ever. Play it, and hear in the next weeks/months how it ages as nitro checks, you will be more and more amazed as time passes, how it sounds deep and full. Play the hell out of it, strum it strong for hours! By the way have you tried to change strings to 80/20 yet? On my bird it improved dramatically the way it sounds (matter of taste, though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 I thought it must be my turn to give MY opinion, since so much has already been contributed. It's only fair...I'm a forumite too. 1) What exactly IS the proper way to judge a guitar? Me, I judge it on how it sounds, how it plays, what it DOES in the context of using it the way it was meant to be used. As for that, I have read so often about Gibson QC, folks complaining about such things as blemishes, finish quirks, and never a word about the above. Mostly in the electric side of life. "For the money they charge, it should be perfect". What's prefect? Did you pay for a piece of wood to be looked at in a glass case or did you pay a premium to be used as an instrument of making music? So, how does the guitar actually rate? Personally, I have NEVER judged an acoustic based on the grade of the top. I have taken interest on Sitka vs Engleman or Adirondack, but always based on SOUND. Never graded a spruce top, or even thought to. It is interesting, but doesn't change a guitar after it's built any more than I can take back a performance once it's been played. Finish? Well, sinking into the pitch lines? Suppose it does, do you care? SHOULD you care? If I understand reality correctly here, that's the worst possible thing here? If I ponder this, I come to the conclusion that the best wisdom to be gained is to evaluate what to care about, what not to care about. I learn here, that if one is going to judge a guitar, a forum member, a player, a song, one must first take the log of spruce out of his eye to see clearly the splinter in another's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
62burst Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 One thing to keep in mind is how the appearance of a guitar built with a torrified top tends to amplify irregularities in the grain, and for this reason, making a good assessment of its quality would be a tricky thing to do from a photo. Also- hoping to see a detail image of how the fret ends were finished either into, or over the fretboard binding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissouriPicker Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Birdman, don't forget! My offer still stands! $1000 for that lousy Hummingbird (keep in mind that as a bonus I'm also taking away that pick guard problem)...and I'll pay the shipping. [thumbup] [thumbup] PLAY THE DAMN THING! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroAussie Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Gotta love it when a mod has a sense of humour and actually enjoys the banter ..... unlike on some other forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneS Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Favorite post of the week... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BirdMan81 Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 Guys ...just to be clear...Gibson and Don have been nothing but AMAZING to work with since Day One! I would encourage anyone who was on the fense about buying one of Gibsons Vintage Cooked Top Guitars (Blues King 77) to not let this influence your decision. At no point have I been unhappy with the tone and playability (which are the most important parts of what a guitar does). This guitar is amazing and beautiful...and sounds and plays even better then it looks. As you all know I can get a little OCD and I'm sorry I let the uniformed OPINION of a forum member with no credentials influence how I felt. I was just worried about a potential future issue. It should be noted that someone at Gibson does read this board often because I got the following email from Don without me even contacting him: Good afternoon Mike. We at Gibson hope that you are continuing to enjoy your Hummingbird Vintage, and realize that there have been some questions posted on the Gibson forums. I would like to clarify a few of these points. New to our 2016 Hummingbird Vintage is the use of a Thermally Aged top. This is similar to a process used by other manufacturers call "torrification". If you are not familiar with what this process, here is a broad overview: Thermally modified wood * Wood that has been modified by a controlled process of wood being heated in absence of oxygen. * Creates chemical changes to the chemical structures of cell wall components o (lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose) * Low oxygen content prevents the wood from burning at these high temperatures When wood is thermally modified many things happen, one being a uniform change in color; typically ranging from a light caramel to a rich walnut brown depending on species, temperature and process time. Of the many favorable features that thermal modification imparts is that of increased dimensional stability; the nature of the wood being changed so that moisture no longer moves in and out of the wood as before, making it much less susceptible to dimensional changes - a feature that is of great interest to many wood product designers. There is some evidence that tonal quality improves with the reduction of mass during the processes. The top on your guitar has been through this process, and thus has a different appearance from our modern standard instruments. Not only is there a color change, but the grain lines can be more pronounced. This is NOT an indication of sap. Or what are known as sap lines. Just a result of the process. Your Hummingbird does indeed have a AA top. Myself and several of our experienced builders checked out your guitar before shipping, and we were all extremely satisfied with the tone, playability, and appearance of this instrument. I hope this answers your questions and concerns. If you do indeed want more technical data on this process we would gladly supply. Thanks again for being a fan of Gibson Guitars. Don Ruffatto Product Specialist Gibson Montana I plan on playing the hell out of this thing and reporting back with more info in a few months! Thanks to everyone who supported me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mafy31 Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 That's nice and definitely calls it an end, thanks for sharing Birdman. Imho that's nice to see how guys at Gibson care about customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BirdMan81 Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 That's nice and definitely calls it an end, thanks for sharing Birdman. Imho that's nice to see how guys at Gibson care about customers. It's sure does MayFly. Don is fantastic and he has made me a Gibson customer and ambassador for life! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the other side Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Birdman, I hereby will begin the standing ovation you well deserve for hanging in there and slamming it out of the park clearing the bases and bringing everyone home! Play that baby !!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-minor7 Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Good afternoon Mike. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I plan on playing the hell out of this thing and reporting back with more info in a few months! Thanks to everyone who supported me. A huge cadeau to mister Don Ruffatto. That whole post #295 is uplifting ^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BirdMan81 Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 I should have never doubted Myself, Gibson, or Don. Lesson learned! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars68 Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Congratulations are in order! Lars By the way, I thought I saw a hairline crack in the lower bout on one of your close-up photos. Just kidding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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