J-45 2016-stamped Truss Rod Plate

[rontarrant]

I got my J-45 back in August, an ex-rental from Long & McQuade here in Ottawa, and the truss rod plate is stamped with (what I believe is) its year of manufacture. While watching various comparison/review videos, I've noticed that it's rare to see the truss rod plate stamped with anything, let alone a year.

So, now I'm wondering: Why are some stamped with a year and some not?

[kidblast]

I have an SJ200 with the same.  I don't believe they continued doing that following 2016, nor do I recall it ever being done before. 

 

[rontarrant]

Thanks, kidblast. I did read somewhere that for the 2016 J-45, they changed the pick-up, dressed the fretboard and frets differently, and used finer sandpaper for the finish. On the Long & McQuade web page, they say the same things were done for the SJ200, which makes me think the year stamp was a sort-of milestone thing, a way of marking these changes in production.

[kidblast]

yep, that may have been the first year Gibson started putting LR Baggs Anthem pickups.  Which I had nothing but trouble with, and eventually removed the one in my SJ200 and replaced with the a Fishman Infinity Matrix.  Didn't sound quite as good but, have had ZERO problems with it.  Besides, I use a tonedexter which pretty much corrects any quack the USTs spews out.

[rontarrant]

And here I was thinking the L.R. Baggs was a good thing. What kind of trouble did you have with it?

[kidblast]

On 12/11/2019 at 10:19 AM, rontarrant said:

And here I was thinking the L.R. Baggs was a good thing. What kind of trouble did you have with it?

hey I guess not everyone has good luck right..  I didn't...

When my (first) J200 arrived, I noticed pretty quickly (like that day/day after) that the Anthem was not properly grounded.  I would get static "pops" as the guitar moved against my body.  If I took a polish cloth and rubbed along the side of the guitar, it would sound like some one put a string of firecrackers in the guitar and lit the fuse.  Not kidding, it was crazy.  Luckily the place I bought from had very good customer support.  So they exchanged it right away for another one.  The replacement didn't behave like the first one did.   

I did the swap and I was on my way. 

However, as time went on, I started to hear rattles and sounds that I should not be hearing.  these rattles/unwanted noises got worse, louder, more frequent.  Certain notes would bring these rattles out, since the anthem has a mic,  they were going right to the sound source as well. 

 At first I was thinking, crap is there a loose brace in this guitar?  I found a warranty service center about 45 minutes away.  He  found it in about 10 minutes.  It was the Anthem sound module. after removing it, low and behold...  no more rattles.   I installed a fishman and that does not make any unwanted noises at all.

I did like the way the Anthem sounded, as it very natural sound to it.   Aside from the ground issues, and too many moving parts in the sound module, (in short, a rattle trap) the output of that system is about half of what the Fishman's output is.  Plus it did really chew up 9volt batteries.  about 1/4 of the life span from the fishmans I use in my other guitars.

Good luck with yours,  I hope you don't encounter the issues I did, but if you do, you'll know where the source is!

[rontarrant]

Mine was used as a rental for about three years before I bought it, mostly by touring musicians doing local concerts here in Ottawa. I have to think they shook the bugs out during that time, so I don't think I'll have those problems. Fingers crossed. Hearing your story makes me glad I went for the used one instead of the new one. Makes me mind even less about the dents in the finish... not that it mattered much even when I bought it. When I first played it, it sang to me, so the rest was kind of moot. I didn't even think to test the pick-up until I got it home.

 

 

[kidblast]

2 hours ago, rontarrant said:

Mine was used as a rental for about three years before I bought it, mostly by touring musicians doing local concerts here in Ottawa. I have to think they shook the bugs out during that time, so I don't think I'll have those problems. Fingers crossed. Hearing your story makes me glad I went for the used one instead of the new one. Makes me mind even less about the dents in the finish... not that it mattered much even when I bought it. When I first played it, it sang to me, so the rest was kind of moot. I didn't even think to test the pick-up until I got it home.

 

 

ah  you could be in the clear, sounds like it's been shaken down amply!   In both cases, you'd have to be really going through it to see what was going on.

With the ground issue, it took me a bit of time to even realize what the heck was going on.  A cursory test would not have revealed the problem.