Richard Hawley's 1953 J-185

[Jalex]

Found this short video on YouTube of British singer-songwriter Richard Hawley's 1953 J-185. I love the sound of this guitar.

 

[Jinder]

That is an incredible 185 isn't it? So dry and crisp. I'd love to play it. I've seen Hawley live a couple of times, superb artist and very, very funny too. Lovely guy.

[J-1854Me]

Off a bit on the details, but happy to cut him some slack!  Sounds a bit like my '55.

Fred

[Jalex]

Yes it really is Jinder. I have to admit I hadn't heard of Hawley before stumbling across this video. I'll definitely be checking out more of his stuff though.

[Jalex]

3 minutes ago, J-1854Me said:

Off a bit on the details, but happy to cut him some slack!  Sounds a bit like my '55.

Fred

I'm jealous I'd love to get my hands on one of those 50's 185's.

[Jinder]

8 hours ago, Jalex said:

Yes it really is Jinder. I have to admit I hadn't heard of Hawley before stumbling across this video. I'll definitely be checking out more of his stuff though.

Coles Corner is a stunning record, especially the title track. His whole catalogue is a real adventure to discover, you'll love it!

[Murph]

Yep, she's a sweety.

[JuanCarlosVejar]

I disagree on the fact that the Everly Brothers chose that body size because they were “small” ... Phil was 6 ft. 

They most likely chose that size because they needed notes to fly out of the guitar quickly .

 

Don Every recently said that the Everly Bros guitars were cool looking but not the best sounding. What he meant by that I guess is that they lacked the “rumble” that other Gibsons had. But that’s the way those guitars were designed .

 

Jake Bugg then says he played one of the original Everly models and that to him it was magic.

 

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

 

 

JC

[slimt]

29 minutes ago, JuanCarlosVejar said:

I disagree on the fact that the Everly Brothers chose that body size because they were “small” ... Phil was 6 ft. 

They most likely chose that size because they needed notes to fly out of the guitar quickly .

 

Don Every recently said that the Everly Bros guitars were cool looking but not the best sounding. What he meant by that I guess is that they lacked the “rumble” that other Gibsons had. But that’s the way those guitars were designed .

 

Jake Bugg then says he played one of the original Everly models and that to him it was magic.

 

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

 

 

JC

I think the Everly J180 suited the Everlys voices. It may of not been there choice of guitar. But it worked well for the two of them.

[Jalex]

The Everly brothers  guitar had 2 huge pickguards, a pinless bridge, and a shallower body depth than a  J185. 

[J-1854Me]

4 hours ago, JuanCarlosVejar said:

I disagree on the fact that the Everly Brothers chose that body size because they were “small” ... Phil was 6 ft. 

They most likely chose that size because they needed notes to fly out of the guitar quickly .

JC

JC -- Hawley is probably misquoting something he heard somewhere along the line, when he is referring to "how the J-185 was created".  It was NOT designed by the Everly Bros.  The J-185 was already there, since 1951 (not 1953, as he mistakenly mentions), and it served as the basis for the EB model supposedly because they found the J-200 a bit large for the choppy rhythmic sound they were after.  So the design came from the (by that time, discontinued) J-185 model in terms of body woods and dimensions.

Some of the derivative models that were developed, the EB model among them, the Dwight Y2K being another, in some cases are just excellent guitars.  If you can stomach the 1/4-acre of pickguard on 'em...some folks don't mind that, and others get woozy just looking at that.  Myself, I've played some excellent examples of each.

Fred