1965 Gibson Country Western

[j45nick]

Those were on top of my list, until I've tried Santa Cruz parabolic strings medium tension. Which supposed to be very similar to DR Sunbeam, and I did not like them at all on my Gibson. Besides the endless sustain and sounding super modern, they have sort of church echo-chamber reverb to them. It feels like you are playing in much larger room. There are some overtones to them as well, where notes just ring into one another. Now, some might love that, but I like my Gibson to be dry, woody with strong and clear fundamentals. They're way too bright and resonant. These strings would yield probably much better results on a smaller finger style 00 or even OM size. Too busy, and too much of that metallic echo.

Having said that, I will def try DR Sunbeams. Who know, they might surprise me :)

 

I haven't tried the Santa Cruz strings, but the Sunbeams definitely have a lot of sustain, while still maintaining good note separation. That may not be what you're after, however.

 

An interesting option would be to try "well-aged" Sunbeams. I have a set that have been on my 1948 J-45 for about three years, but actually haven't been played that much, so they are still fairly clean. The choral sustain is gone, but they retain a certain warmth and a dry "thump" across the spectrum. Radically different from new Sunbeams on my slope-shoulder SJ (nominally the same "box", but with much different top bracing). The aged strings do not have the metallic crispness of nickel strings in any way, so they are very, very different from the monels you are using in the video clip.

[220volt]

I haven't tried the Santa Cruz strings, but the Sunbeams definitely have a lot of sustain, while still maintaining good note separation. That may not be what you're after, however.

 

An interesting option would be to try "well-aged" Sunbeams. I have a set that have been on my 1948 J-45 for about three years, but actually haven't been played that much, so they are still fairly clean. The choral sustain is gone, but they retain a certain warmth and a dry "thump" across the spectrum. Radically different from new Sunbeams on my slope-shoulder SJ (nominally the same "box", but with much different top bracing). The aged strings do not have the metallic crispness of nickel strings in any way, so they are very, very different from the monels you are using in the video clip.

 

Very interesting. I'm a string and pick hound. I even have an excel spread sheet where I keep detailed notes on different strings I've tried with my own rating system :)

I'm definitely putting DR well-aged and standard sunbeams as well on my to list. You never know. Thanks for the tip.

I'll tell you one brand that really brought the CW to her optimal tone I thought, are the Elixir Polyweb's lights. Everyone is talking and buying Elixir nano, but poly's are way underrated in my opinion.

[EuroAussie]

Definitely a vote for the Sunbeams, my Hummingbird and most mahogany guitars absolutely love those strings. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

Very interesting. I'm a string and pick hound. I even have an excel spread sheet where I keep detailed notes on different strings I've tried with my own rating system :)

I'm definitely putting DR well-aged and standard sunbeams as well on my to list. You never know. Thanks for the tip.

I'll tell you one brand that really brought the CW to her optimal tone I thought, are the Elixir Polyweb's lights. Everyone is talking and buying Elixir nano, but poly's are way underrated in my opinion.

[220volt]

Definitely a vote for the Sunbeams, my Hummingbird and most mahogany guitars absolutely love those strings. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

I just ordered a pack of Sunbeams and also Dragon Skin, just to test it out.

[62burst]

Beautiful guitar and skilled demo- a lot of time-in showing, there. Sounds great. In the video, the gloss on the top looks to be in really nice condition. Also very encouraging to hear once again how the squares made during the ADJ era can be given more versatility with the saddle conversion.

 

Thanks to J45Nick for drawing attention to the Monels. ‘Will keep those and Sal’s recent interest in the D’Addario Nickel Bronzes in mind for seeing what guitar around here they would combine well with.

 

A retraction of opinion on the short-lived nature of the DR strings; after taking out a guitar that had the DR Sunbeams put on, barely played, and put away for 6 months, the nature of the sound totally changed, maybe more scooped mids, allowing the (somewhat thick) bass to be more audible, with the upper end still clean.

 

220V- Keep in mind the DR’s are round core, so on the install, don’t clip the excess before they’re up to some kind of tension.

[220volt]

Beautiful guitar and skilled demo- a lot of time-in showing, there. Sounds great. In the video, the gloss on the top looks to be in really nice condition. Also very encouraging to hear once again how the squares made during the ADJ era can be given more versatility with the saddle conversion.

 

Thanks to J45Nick for drawing attention to the Monels. ‘Will keep those and Sal’s recent interest in the D’Addario Nickel Bronzes in mind for seeing what guitar around here they would combine well with.

 

A retraction of opinion on the short-lived nature of the DR strings; after taking out a guitar that had the DR Sunbeams put on, barely played, and put away for 6 months, the nature of the sound totally changed, maybe more scooped mids, allowing the bass to be more audible, with the upper end still clean.

 

220V- Keep in mind the DR’s are round core, so on the install, don’t clip the excess before they’re up to some kind of tension.

 

Thanks for the comments. Guitar is in amazing condition. No cracks or anything. Some scratches, but as you noticed the gloss is still there :)

 

Yep, I'm familiar with round cores. I just never tried them on this guitar. Will def be interesting.

[OldCowboy]

Nice. There are lot of debates if the adjustable saddle is detrimental or beneficial to the sound, so I went back and forth few times, and in my mind, there is no question that my guitar sounds at least three levels better with the standard saddle. But I've also heard people like adjustable more.

I tend to fall into the latter camp - in most instances. Thing is, you never know until you try the conversion, and it's an OK idea to keep the possibility of changing back open until you know for certain. When it makes a difference, it's magic.

[220volt]

I tend to fall into the latter camp - in most instances. Thing is, you never know until you try the conversion, and it's an OK idea to keep the possibility of changing back open until you know for certain. When it makes a difference, it's magic.

 

Yep, less than 5 minutes to revert the changes. I'm a total empiricist instead of rationalist when it comes to this. I need to see that it works instead of just talking about it regardless how much sense it makes.

[kelly campbell]

Great sounding guitar,Nice playing.

[220volt]

Great sounding guitar,Nice playing.

 

Thanks!

[E-minor7]

 

It's a short scale guitar. Love the playability.

Absolutely short scale, though the squares grew longer necks in 68/69.

 

Regarding sound nuances, I believe the p-guard theory holds water.

Just removed the flora/fauna from one of my contemporary Birds last fall and the difference is huge. A much more direct, almost liberated voice.

Not saying saying better - but definitely freer.

Take this is a fact beyond doubt as I spent around 10 days goin' back'n'forth while the glue was still sticky.

So checked in all moods, with all kind of ears, in all kinds of weather day and night.

The guard and thickness of guard is a key-factor to the H-bird sound, , , and of course generally.

 

A wise or intriguing move from Kalamazoo to vary the thicknesses in the first place - though it probably was done for financial reasons back then.

[Br1ck]

That is one great sounding guitar. I'm very hesitant to touch the adj bridge on my 65 Epi Texan, but you have me thinking. What difference do you hear?

[220volt]

That is one great sounding guitar. I'm very hesitant to touch the adj bridge on my 65 Epi Texan, but you have me thinking. What difference do you hear?

 

It still has the same tone character, but it has gotten deeper, a lot more resonant, dryer and even more Gibson-ish. You will see in the video that I am barely touching the strings and notes just fly out the sound hole. It wasn't like that with adjustable. The best part is, this is easily reversible, so you don't need to cut or modify anything.

[220volt]

Absolutely short scale, though the squares grew longer necks in 68/69.

 

Regarding sound nuances, I believe the p-guard theory holds water.

Just removed the flora/fauna from one of my contemporary Birds last fall and the difference is huge. A much more direct, almost liberated voice.

Not saying saying better - but definitely freer.

Take this is a fact beyond doubt as I spent around 10 days goin' back'n'forth while the glue was still sticky.

So checked in all moods, with all kind of ears, in all kinds of weather day and night.

The guard and thickness of guard is a key-factor to the H-bird sound, , , and of course generally.

 

A wise or intriguing move from Kalamazoo to vary the thicknesses in the first place - though it probably was done for financial reasons back then.

 

Question. I would like to try to experiment with double pickguard (glue new one on top of my original one). Because that is what the person who experimented with it did and said he turned his CW into a hummingbird tonewise. So I ordered one of these (hummingbird adhesive pickguard). My question is if I glue this thing on top of my original pick guard, will it come off easy? And will it leave any residue? Because I don't want to do it permanently, just to experiment.

Thanks!

[MorrisrownSal]

62Burst.. I love the daddario nickel bronze light mediums on both. My J50 and my Hummingbird.... great strings. They last long too. But I know how I get... I'll switch back to PBs next to shake it up... then back to NB or Monels.

[E-minor7]

Question. I would like to try to experiment with double pickguard (glue new one on top of my original one). Because that is what the person who experimented with it did and said he turned his CW into a hummingbird tonewise. So I ordered one of these (hummingbird adhesive pickguard). My question is if I glue this thing on top of my original pick guard, will it come off easy? And will it leave any residue? Because I don't want to do it permanently, just to experiment.

Thanks!

 

Oh no, please - this is not right. The shown guard is a cheap replica and will drag the whole guitar down.

Did you receive yet - are you sure it fits.

I bought a clean one in the fall and got conned.

But again - No !

If you WANT to make the experiment, buy a few cheap clean gúards from China and stick them to the window (or something else) first.

It'll make the glue calm down for step 1 - which is about sound and sound only. If you like what you hear with double, get a thicker guard that looks right.

 

But frankly, 220volt - think twice

[220volt]

Oh no, please - this is not right. The shown guard is a cheap replica and will drag the whole guitar down.

Did you receive yet - are you sure it fits.

I bought a clean one in the fall and got conned.

But again - No !

If you WANT to make the experiment, buy a few cheap clean gúards from China and stick them to the window (or something else) first.

It'll make the glue calm down for step 1 - which is about sound and sound only. If you like what you hear with double, get a thicker guard that looks right.

 

But frankly, 220volt - think twice

 

Thanks for the reply. Like I said I want to keep the original pickguard intact, and I do like the sound as it is. I just want to experiment and will only do it if there will be no damage to the original one. I might tape it with some less aggressive double tape or something just to hear what it sounds like. Even if I like the sound I will probably leave it off.

[OldCowboy]

Things come full circle if you live long enough to see it happen. We used to remove 'bird guards to make the guitar sound more like SJ's or CW's. Usually, it worked pretty well.

[220volt]

Things come full circle if you live long enough to see it happen. We used to remove 'bird guards to make the guitar sound more like SJ's or CW's. Usually, it worked pretty well.

 

Well, you know old saying that "we all long for that which we don't have" :)

[E-minor7]

Thanks for the reply. Like I said I want to keep the original pickguard intact, and I do like the sound as it is. I just want to experiment and will only do it if there will be no damage to the original one. I might tape it with some less aggressive double tape or something just to hear what it sounds like. Even if I like the sound I will probably leave it off.

 

Reassuring - I actually made the experiment a couple of days ago with the fake-one I got (after reading about it here).

 

The glue was still barely alive so the contact wasn't 100 %. Didn't hear much difference.

 

But removing the thick flora-fauna from my loudest least Bird-sounding Bird, as stated earlier, definitely made the guitar freer.

 

Look forward to find out what you hear. Guess : Not much, , , we'll see.

[E-minor7]

And let's re-cycle these 2.

 

As I recall it most people favored the CW when I sat them up a year ago or something. Tempted to listen again.

 

 

1965 ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnF790xtF38

 

 

1965 ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE30P_UyZj8

[220volt]

And let's re-cycle these 2.

 

As I recall it most people favored the CW when I sat them up a year ago or something. Tempted to listen again.

 

 

1965 ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnF790xtF38

 

 

1965 ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE30P_UyZj8

 

I went back and forth, and no question, I prefer CW from those videos. I prefer that dry, clear vintage sound to bird's mellow, restricted voice, even though there are days where I would pick the bird, for that exact reason :)

I'm also thinking that double pick guard won't make a difference becasue it's just adding tiny bit of weight, but a thicker pick guard factory glued to the top, restricts the top a whole lot more I would think. I would still like to know top thickness of one vs the other (providing bracing is exactly the same). It is baffling to me how those two almost same guitars can sound so different, across the models, consistently.

[E-minor7]

It is baffling to me how those two almost same guitars can sound so different, across the models, consistently.

 

Most of them sound similar as coming from the same room, but then absolutely individual like born various places in the room. It counts for all three.

.

. . . . . . . The Bird - The Country Western - The Southern Jumbo

 

, , , and sticks deeper than just the guards and saddles. And of course is one of the highly charismatic things about that trio of modern-Kalamazoo-sound.

[220volt]

Most of them sound similar as coming from the same room, but then absolutely individual like born various places in the room. It counts for all three.

.

. . . . . . . The Bird - The Country Western - The Southern Jumbo

 

I like that analogy

[OldCowboy]

Well, you know old saying that "we all long for that which we don't have" :)

I expect so. At the time, there were a fair number of Hummingbirds searching for a place to nest, so to speak, as opposed to the number of available SJ's and CW's.