BluesKing777 Posted April 7, 2019 Share Posted April 7, 2019 Haha. Sometimes you (I mean my) hands just settle in like a glove on any given day and play OK. Your playing is in that upper echelon so your hands know where to go, and I trust your ear and any analysis of gear. I wish I was born earlier so my birth year J50 would have a rectangular bridge, but I ain't complaining. Mine is actually 2 years before my birth year. Keep up the good work on the attempt at making us vintage nerds feel special. Ha, wildly all over the place really....but thanks. I have been playing the old 0-17 for an hour or so and I mean to be able to jump from my 4 month old Maton Messiah, quite a heavy rosewood deep body 00 that is gently opening up a bit day by day, then on to my 44 0-17 which has more splits than Swan Lake and had everything horrible done to it over the years but sounds great, great, great even if the 15th fret will never work again....and it is the epitome of the word ‘loose guitar”.....well, I have just been totally spoiled. By myself. It does confirm that without getting to play a guitar, you know zip! And I don’t really care about birth year guitars, send me the 50. BluesKing777. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted April 7, 2019 Share Posted April 7, 2019 Maybe like a mandolin in that regard. (Not serious about that.) It may be the way the guitar is set up, or something else. My old J-45 just plays really, really easily, despite the narrow nut and its accompanying frustrations and demands on the left hand. The thing is, where you pick, there is virtually no difference in string spacing based on the nut width. It's all about the string spacing at the bridge for the picking hand itself. But if you only have a couple of fretting fingers on the strings at one time when flat-picking, like in single-note runs, it's not about squeezing a lot of fingers on your fretting hand into tight places to make chords, either. The old ones like the L-OO, with 2 3/8" pin spacing and 1 3/4" nut width, really are a lot easier to finger-pick, and more forgiving of a clumsy left hand like mine. And Kudos to Bill Collings and coming up with the Waterloo necks! Rare, rare, rare on a new guitar. Some kind of freedom for fingerpicking blues people - a new guitar that sounds and plays really old....ladder and X braced versions...but new neck and frets, and no CITES overseas import problems. Unbelievable really. I should admit defeat on the vintage and be happy with what I have and buy a Waterloo Stella copy! But that 57 J45 at True Vintage is still there...must be something wrong with it, and then there is my old L-00 in black.....a mission that will be now with CITES. BluesKing777. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted April 8, 2019 Author Share Posted April 8, 2019 It was a long day of driving--seven plus hour round-trip--but "Youngstown", 1950 J-45 FON 3358 , is safely back in her new home, and is re-united with her 'hog slope-J siblings: "Jackson", J-45 FON 3644 (owned since 1966), and "Houston", Fuller's Vintage 1943 SJ re-issue. I'm only her second owner in 69 years, and I don't think I will part with her anytime soon. Ross Teigen did a superb job: neck reset and fret dress, new saddle, re-glue four back braces, fill and re-drill bridgeplate to fit new pins, slot bridge and bridgeplate to use un-slotted pins, set up. All gluing done with hot hide glue. Now we have to get to know each other again. She's a different guitar compared to the one that arrived here a couple of months ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedzep Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 Take your wife out to a nice dinner. If you're lucky she won't notice you'll be hard to reach for a few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 Good news and all good then, Nick! When my L-00 had a neck reset etc, it took quite a while for the guitar to sort of 'break in' again. Makes sense with new glues here and there, but I would say a year to get back to normal and 3 years to be fabulous (now!). And it is nearly time to do it all again....L-00 does needs a tweak but I don't want to let go of it. (Did you get to play one of Ross's customs?) BluesKing777. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedzep Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 I know what you mean, BK. Wait until the L00 goes out of rotation and sneak it in for a tuneup. You have a solid array of players to jump to. Nick, you don't strike me as a GAS driven shopper, so I imagine this special 'get' satisfies whatever desire you may have to round out a grouping. Do you have any guitar that would theoretically be an addition to the guitars you own, w/o including the out of reach high end bucket-listers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted April 9, 2019 Author Share Posted April 9, 2019 I know what you mean, BK. Wait until the L00 goes out of rotation and sneak it in for a tuneup. You have a solid array of players to jump to. Nick, you don't strike me as a GAS driven shopper, so I imagine this special 'get' satisfies whatever desire you may have to round out a grouping. Do you have any guitar that would theoretically be an addition to the guitars you own, w/o including the out of reach high end bucket-listers? This would be on the edge of that "bucket list" criteria--that is, more money than I would like to spend: a late 1940's to mid-1950's D-28 would be a bucket list guitar just within financial reach, especially if I sell a couple of guitars I have but rarely if ever play. I've never owned a Martin Dread, or a rosewood dread of any type. Maybe if I found a really good vintage L-00, I might sell my L-00 Legend. Other than that, I'm happy right now. I don't have time to play all the guitars I already own. Having them and not playing them doesn't mean that much to me at my age. Life is short. This "new" J-45 ticks a lot of boxes that have been un-ticked for a long time. Playing it this evening seriously for the first time. It is a totally different animal than it was a few weeks ago. It's a wonderful beast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 I know what you mean, BK. Wait until the L00 goes out of rotation and sneak it in for a tuneup. You have a solid array of players to jump to. But, but, but...I need that L-0 (not L-00, sorry). Perhaps if I bought another L-00? Oh no, no good - CITES. It has to be for sale here - of course all the 1 11/16" vintage D18s and D28s and a 1 5/8" Hummingbird are on sale at one of the shops I go to! Closest thing they have to my preferred neck specs is a used Waterloo 12 fretter, (copy of Zomb's L1 shape) and a $10K used Lowden.... Where's all the L-00s here? (my place! ) I mention this because if Nick wants an L-00, all he has to do is drive there to wherever and buy it! I can't even get one sent.... BluesKing777. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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