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Gibson J45 Legend...s?


BluesKing777

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50 minutes ago, j45nick said:

JT has been spoiled by owning and/or playing the best of the best of banner Gibsons.

He may well say "there is no substitute for 75-year-old wood." I suspect he is right, but the (almost) 70-year-old wood in my "new" 1950 J-45 may be a close second.

 

 

Yes, I shouldn't have asked him a dumb question  he probably would love to answer but can't because of oncoming commitments....Sorry JT!

Moving right along....I dragged out my Martin OM18 Authentic and played it for an hour - it has toasted Adi top over mahogany (plus all the lovely spacious real estate) and it does sound OLD! Cost me a mint online and the case too! It is a beautiful guitar but if any complaints from me, it is still breaking in but getting there, not as 'brittle' as it was but also very 'pretty'. You know, would sound great with  fingerpicked versions of faves at the winery on Sunday afternoons....

Whereas I am thinking the J45 Legend would be a bruiser on a Saturday night bar gig....

And that leads us to the other problem - pickups, well, none. The normal soundhole pickups like Sunrise, Baggs M80 and M1A don't fit in the OM18A soundhole! And I can't bring myself to drill it for a pickup. I would be reluctant to put a pickup in the J45 Legend too....so it could be an expensive case queen.

 

There you go - I have talked myself out of it!

 

BluesKing777.

 

Edited by BluesKing777
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10 hours ago, j45nick said:

JT has been spoiled by owning and/or playing the best of the best of banner Gibsons.

He may well say "there is no substitute for 75-year-old wood." I suspect he is right, but the (almost) 70-year-old wood in my "new" 1950 J-45 may be a close second.

I'm not one to claim that vintage is always better. I do prefer vintage guitars, but that's because I like cool, old stuff.  And, with Banners, having tracked the story and met the Gals, I can't pretend to be objective.

I think that we all, and know that I respond to instruments not objectively, but personally and emotionally. And, well, again, I like cool, old stuff.

As for legends ... I've played several and thought that they were all excellent!

Edited by jt
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39 minutes ago, BluesKing777 said:

I would be reluctant to put a pickup in the J45 Legend too....so it could be an expensive case queen.

There you go - I have talked myself out of it!

If I was going to be playing out and using a pickup I couldn't see myself picking a guitar (no pun intended) like the J-45 Legend for such an application.

But as far as sitting around playing on the couch goes (or on the front porch, or for recording in the fashion that I do for that matter) it would likely be a great choice.

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6 hours ago, Guth said:

If I was going to be playing out and using a pickup I couldn't see myself picking a guitar (no pun intended) like the J-45 Legend for such an application.

But as far as sitting around playing on the couch goes (or on the front porch, or for recording in the fashion that I do for that matter) it would likely be a great choice.

 

Good points....

 

But over the years, I have played in some places I don’t think I should have taken myself let alone the Strat or Tele or Les Paul or metal Dobro.....one horrid gig being a return booking that the bass player and I almost cancelled out while parked out front! But we made it by the skin of our teeth and played our best instruments, hence sounding our best......a point FOR taking the Legend out....... 

And the poor old back hadn’t let me slouch on a couch and play for many a year. Straight back chair!

BluesKing777.

 

 

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To put it a different way, my guess is that most people in attendance in a setting like you are describing would not be able to identify the difference in sound quality between an amplified J-45 Legend and any other J-45 (or any number of other acoustic guitars for that matter). 
 

On the other hand if playing what sounds best to you is the objective then I can better understand your motivation for such use. Which of course is what really matters.

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We were probably just noise to most of the punters, and each guitar I mentioned above had big dents and dings from being knocked to the floor by bandmates! Floor pedals had been drowned beer. It was mainly to sound my best.....I did buy a cheapie after my metal Dobro had a crash, but only used it live once.

Besides, the first gig I ever did when a kid was with my Telecaster, worth more than my life!

Legend is still at the shop...will it make it past the weekend without being bought?

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

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2 minutes ago, BluesKing777 said:

 

 

Legend is still at the shop...will it make it past the weekend without being bought?

BluesKing777.

 

 

I suppose that depends on whether or not you go in and buy it.

It's hard to believe folks are standing in line to buy expensive American guitars in your neck of the woods.

Did you ever measure the pin spacing?

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18 minutes ago, j45nick said:

I suppose that depends on whether or not you go in and buy it.

It's hard to believe folks are standing in line to buy expensive American guitars in your neck of the woods.

Did you ever measure the pin spacing?

 

Wonder if they would take my cabriolet as trade?

I haven’t been in to that shop to measure or try, but I have their listing and a couple of others bookmarked to ‘acoustic guitars for sale’ on the top lines of my iPad! Quick check of the movers and shakers now and again.....  I can tell you that they have sold 2 new birds, one cherry and one tobacco, this week, 1 J45 Standard and a shed load of various Matons! For the price they want for the used Legend, I am fairly sure them Maton fellers would come to my house to measure, something, anything I wanted, then deliver!

What else I can tell you is that 99.99% of guits for sale new or used at the moment are....dreads. Only L-00 sized guits are a new BK, 2 Waterloos and about 50 Maton 808s of various varieties.

 

BluesKing777.

 

Edited by BluesKing777
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