Gibson SJN

[Raul Rehlmann]

and everyone gets a ribbon.

[BennyBoy]

Actually love y'alls passion for vintage guitars. My daughter really wanted something older. She's 18...plays a Taylor GS mini Koa. The lady we bought this Gibson from has owned it for 38 years. Her dad played lead guitar for some big name country bands in the 70s and 80s. They bought it from a truck driver that was a family member of Hank Williams. Supposedly Jr has played this guitar but can't be proven. The guitar has been in lower Alabama its whole life. The guitar has really low action. It plays extremely well all the way up the neck. I'm going to get it setup and inspected this week. She really excited about it. I've learned alot from you guys.  Y'all been so helpful. I'm so grateful. 

[E-minor7]

16 hours ago, zombywoof said:

That is extremely well said!  

 

16 hours ago, Sevendaymelee said:

I don't. This guy comes on a forum, looking for help to buy a guitar for his daughter, and he gets people on here telling him that the guitar he actually did end up buying may be lesser-than-good, may have bad braces, too many braces, may be from a bad era, may be fake etc... and then, to cap it off, it's "not the best place to start". 

 

It's like, come on people, stop pissing on his parade. He got the guitar he wanted, at the price he wanted, his daughter is probably ecstatic about, and all ended well. Be happy for them. I am. Not everyone is as anal-retentive as us when it comes to guitars, nor needs to be. 

I gave both comments a like. 

Sevendaymelee - If the threadhost is serious and therefore enters a serious Forum, he'll get a serious response.                                                       My earlier post sat up the perspective, which will serve as an insight to this haze-maze of (vintage) Gibsons. 

I did not stand up at the daughter's birthday-party and ditched the guitar. I offered her father a fair and competent guided tour. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by E-minor7

[zombywoof]

1 hour ago, E-minor7 said:

 

I gave both comments a like. 

Sevendaymelee - If the theardhost is serious and therefore enters a serious Forum, he'll get a serious response.                                                               My earlier post sat up the perspective, which will serve as in insight to this haze-maze of (vintage) Gibsons. 

I did not stand up at the daughter's birthday-party and ditched the guitar. I offered her father a fair and competent guided tour. 

I only wish I had somebody around 55 or 60 years ago to rain on my parade.  It might have saved me several wrong turns I took when making selections among the used instruments at ye olde guitar shoppe.  But I am much better now.

Edited September 5, 2022 by zombywoof

[Sgt. Pepper]

2 hours ago, zombywoof said:

I only wish I had somebody around 55 or 60 years ago to rain on my parade.  It might have saved me several wrong turns I took when making selections among the used instruments at ye olde guitar shoppe.  But I am much better now.

I'm 55, and old enough to make bad choices all by myself. Like buying Martins and listening to Zappa.

[fortyearspickn]

I learned more from my mistakes than the trophies I won.  (Ok, technically no actual 'TROPHIES'). 

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

56 minutes ago, fortyearspickn said:

I learned more from my mistakes than the trophies I won.  (Ok, technically no actual 'TROPHIES'). 

 

I learned from mine, but usually made them again. I joined the Navy. Got out. Mmmm that was 4 years of being told what to do. What fun. Let’s try the Coast Guard now and stay in for 19 years.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Sgt. Pepper

[E-minor7]

3 hours ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

I learned from mine, but usually made them again. I joined the Navy. Got out. Mmmm that was 4 years of being told what to do. What fun. Let’s try the Coast Guard now and stay in for 19 years.

 

"Now Paul is a real estate novelist
who never had time for a wife
And he's talkin' with Davy who's still in the navy
and probably will be for life"

                                       B. Joel  1973

 

 

                     An important task to lift. And you surely must have a lot of sea-tales, sights and adventure.                                                                                                                                                                            Things us land-lobsters can't even imagine. 

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

2 hours ago, E-minor7 said:

 

"Now Paul is a real estate novelist
who never had time for a wife
And he's talkin' with Davy who's still in the navy
and probably will be for life"

                                       B. Joel  1973

 

 

                     An important task to lift. And you surely must have a lot of sea-tales, sights and adventure.                                                                                                                                                                            Things us land-lobsters can't even imagine. 

 

I do and some I will take to my grave. Some I have not even told my best friend about. I was a carrer man not a lifer. Lifers live for the service, for me it was a job.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Sgt. Pepper

[BennyBoy]

What strings would y'all recommend putting on this guitar?

[Sgt. Pepper]

42 minutes ago, BennyBoy said:

What strings would y'all recommend putting on this guitar?

That’s way to personal. 
I like D’addario XS.

[zombywoof]

1 hour ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

I do and some I will take to my grave. Some I have not even told my best friend about. I was a carrer man not a lifer. Lifers live for the service, for me it was a job.

At least you had a choice.  What I was planning to do is a story for another place and time.

[Sevendaymelee]

On 9/5/2022 at 3:05 PM, BennyBoy said:

What strings would y'all recommend putting on this guitar?

I use Martin Lifespan 2.0 on all my guitars. On short scale, I use 12's (lights). On long scale, I use 13's (mediums). 

[Sgt. Pepper]

On 9/5/2022 at 6:03 PM, zombywoof said:

At least you had a choice.  What I was planning to do is a story for another place and time.

I will sit on the edge of my seat until that time and place.

[Sgt. Pepper]

9 minutes ago, Sevendaymelee said:

I use Martin Lifespan 2.0 on all my guitars. On short scale, I use 12's (lights). On long scale, I use 13's (mediums). 

When ever I got a new Martin those were usually on them. They are not bad. I hated coated strings till I tried the D'ad XS. I put 11's on the 00 and 000's and 12's on the Dread. 13's are for guys with hands like SRV. 

[Sevendaymelee]

1 hour ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

When ever I got a new Martin those were usually on them. They are not bad. I hated coated strings till I tried the D'ad XS. I put 11's on the 00 and 000's and 12's on the Dread. 13's are for guys with hands like SRV. 

Nothing like a vintage D-35 with a new set a 13's. It's enough tone and depth to split the earth. The pain is worth it lol.

 

[zombywoof]

5 hours ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

When ever I got a new Martin those were usually on them. They are not bad. I hated coated strings till I tried the D'ad XS. I put 11's on the 00 and 000's and 12's on the Dread. 13's are for guys with hands like SRV. 

Archtops with carved top plates really need 13s to get the best out of them you are going to get,  While I have never been a fan of the D35, so have no experience in putzing around with different gauge strings,  I have played enough of them to figure because of the lighter top and back bracing 12s would be the thickest strings you would need. 

[Sevendaymelee]

17 hours ago, zombywoof said:

Archtops with carved top plates really need 13s to get the best out of them you are going to get,  While I have never been a fan of the D35, so have no experience in putzing around with different gauge strings,  I have played enough of them to figure because of the lighter top and back bracing 12s would be the thickest strings you would need. 

I tried both 12's and 13's on my D-35. 12's sounded great. 13's sounded like the heavens had made their appearance and Gabriel was leading the march. It was that dramatic a change. I had the wife, who knows jack about tone, sit and listen to the difference and for a few seconds, all she could do was sit there with wide eyes. It was really something else.

Will that tiny sample size work its way across all examples? No. But in my experience it has. I've had multiple Martin dreads, and all of them sounded best with 13's.

But that's just my subjective opinion. Others can and will disagree. After all, it's the internet. lol

[E-minor7]

1 hour ago, Sevendaymelee said:

I tried both 12's and 13's on my D-35. 12's sounded great. 13's sounded like the heavens had made their appearance and Gabriel was leading the march. It was that dramatic a change. I had the wife, who knows jack about tone, sit and listen to the difference and for a few seconds, all she could do was sit there with wide eyes. It was really something else.

Will that tiny sample size work its way across all examples? No. But in my experience it has. I've had multiple Martin dreads, and all of them sounded best with 13's.

But that's just my subjective opinion. Others can and will disagree. After all, it's the internet. lol

My old squire likes 12s.

Had a brand called Everly Sessions on since August 2016 and is now waiting for a D-35-evening where my pal will arrive with a 1974 ditto he recently half inherited from a deceased friend. That will be interezantos - the strings will not be changed. 

 

Can I ask : Has your 1979 a truss rod ? 

[zombywoof]

What I always found interesting about the D35 is Martin took the 1/4" un-scalloped bracing straight out of the Gibson playbook.  I have not played a D35 though in well over 15 years and that one was actually a D76 Centennial guitar a friend of mine offered to sell me,  My take on the model is they were about as perfect a singer/songwriter guitar as it gets. 

Edited September 8, 2022 by zombywoof

[Sevendaymelee]

20 hours ago, E-minor7 said:

My old squire likes 12s.

Had a brand called Everly Sessions on since August 2016 and is now waiting for a D-35-evening where my pal will arrive with a 1974 ditto he recently half inherited from a deceased friend. That will be interezantos - the strings will not be changed. 

 

Can I ask : Has your 1979 a truss rod ? 

I kept using 11's on my Strat for years, but I recently gave up the ghost on that. Seems it just wants to love 10's more. I use 11's on a Les Paul though. 

My '79 has a non-adjustable truss rod. I was hesitant about buying it because of that, but thankfully this one seems to have a good, strong neck. When measured using a capo on the first fret and holding down the 12th, there is only a tiny amount of relief. The neck is almost flat. 

Edited September 9, 2022 by Sevendaymelee

[Sevendaymelee]

17 hours ago, zombywoof said:

What I always found interesting about the D35 is Martin took the 1/4" un-scalloped bracing straight out of the Gibson playbook.  I have not played a D35 though in well over 15 years and that one was actually a D76 Centennial guitar a friend of mine offered to sell me,  My take on the model is they were about as perfect a singer/songwriter guitar as it gets. 

I would agree on that last sentiment. My Southern Jumbo almost gets there, but it doesn't have the muscle. If you're playing softly, or finger picking, the Southern Jumbo is a great singer-songwriter guitar. But if you laying into it, it just seems to hit a wall. The D-35 does not. In fact, if you dig in too much, it'll swallow all but an opera singer lol.

The 70's Martins get a bad rep, but I think D-35's are the exception due to their braces being so small. Any tone lost due to that era's over-building are negated by them to the point where you get this really balanced (albeit on the bossier side of the equation), wonderful tone. 

Those forty-plus years of aging helps a lot too... 

Edited September 9, 2022 by Sevendaymelee

[E-minor7]

27 minutes ago, Sevendaymelee said:

I kept using 11's on my Strat for years, but I recently gave up the ghost on that. Seems it just wants to love 10's more. I use 11's on a Les Paul though. 

My '79 has a non-adjustable truss rod. I was hesitant about buying it because of that, but thankfully this one seems to have a good, strong neck. When measured using a capo on the first fret and holding down the 12th, there is only a tiny amount of relief. The neck is almost flat. 

Thx - can you see this rod ? , , , or the hole in  which it lives. .

(trying to prepare for the 35-gathering with my pal). 

 

Note - When saying squire, I mean the 1984 D-35 😸

 

 

Edited September 9, 2022 by E-minor7

[Sgt. Pepper]

The D-35 got 1/4  bracing cause the 28 had 5/8 bracing and they didn’t want them to sound similar. I saw Chris IV talk about it in a video on their site. Plus with lighter bracing the top can vibrate more. Unlike glueing huge p/g’s to the top that some company does.

Edited September 9, 2022 by Sgt. Pepper

[Sgt. Pepper]

A ‘79 Martin should have a non adjustable rod. 1985 was the first time Martin installed adjustable ones.

Edited September 9, 2022 by Sgt. Pepper