NGD: Original Southern Jumbo

[ruger9]

Fuller's was having a sale, couldn't resist.  It's pretty much everything I hoped for (it was time for me to finally buy a "real good" acoustic, being primarily an electric player all these years, I have settled for cheaper imports... good guitars, but nothing to write home about... laminate, etc.) I love it, the tone is exactly what I wanted, it's easy to play (more on that below), and it's drop dead gorgeous of course.

 

ANYWAY... the only thing I'm wondering about is the neck.  All these Gibson slopes are 1-3/4" nut. I am not used to that. This guitar also has the Slim Taper neck.  It's not uncomfortable, but it is something I will have to get used to... (I have large palms/relative shorter fingers)...but I have to imagine that this guitar with a 1-11/16" nut would be more comfortable for me.  As 1-3/4" nuts go, I've never played one I liked, this SJ is definitely the easiest to play.  But I'm just wondering, I know Gibson used to do 1-11/16" widths, how far back would I have to go to get a J45 or SJ with the narrower nut?

[PrairieDog]

Congratulations!! Load up some pics, so we can drool!! 

[fortyearspickn]

Congrats on the Good News.  Classier version of a classy guitar !   I'm sure you'll get use to the additional 1/16''  across the six strings.  I've got different widths, and it only takes me a few minutes to adjust.  Muscle memory or whatever it is - still working after all these years. 

[PrairieDog]

17 minutes ago, fortyearspickn said:

Congrats on the Good News.  Classier version of a classy guitar !   I'm sure you'll get use to the additional 1/16''  across the six strings.  I've got different widths, and it only takes me a few minutes to adjust.  Muscle memory or whatever it is - still working after all these years. 

Yeah, what he said! I have everything from a tiny 1.5x on my DIF up to the prewar baseball bat, and I can play all of them, after just a strum or two of adjustment. 

[ruger9]

[PrairieDog]

Great looking guitar!!

[Dave F]

Great looking guitar! I've always liked the looks of an SJ. I'm on my third one which is rosewood with the aged top and I like it. The other two were nice but didn't get the sound I wanted. I've been wanting to find a hog one with e aged top, either artificially or naturally.  I may need to hunt down one like yours or order one.

 

 

[MorristownSal]

Congrats on such a great guitar

[E-minor7]

Something very dignified about the slope shouldered Southern Jumbo with neck cream-bindings.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Almost sure it can be heard too. 

[62burst]

Congratss indeed, on the SJ. And the bound neck and split parallelogram inlays are such a Gibson thing. 

10 hours ago, ruger9 said:

ANYWAY... the only thing I'm wondering about is the neck.  All these Gibson slopes are 1-3/4" nut. I am not used to that. This guitar also has the Slim Taper neck.  It's not uncomfortable, but it is something I will have to get used to... (I have large palms/relative shorter fingers)...but I have to imagine that this guitar with a 1-11/16" nut would be more comfortable for me.  As 1-3/4" nuts go, I've never played one I liked, this SJ is definitely the easiest to play.  

. . . And as 40YRS and PDog said, . . don't let it psych you out. . . it's the guitar in your hands- play it.

Enjoy your NGSJD and your NGSJ weekend.

[62burst]

7 hours ago, Dave F said:

Great looking guitar! I've always liked the looks of an SJ. I'm on my third one which is rosewood with the aged top and I like it. The other two were nice but didn't get the sound I wanted. I've been wanting to find a hog one with e aged top, either artificially or naturally.  I may need to hunt down one like yours or order one.

 

Dave- that's a nice couple of bursts there. . 'like the smooth transition on the tight grained one on the right of the Dwight.  What's that SJ?

[Dave F]

Kris Kristofferson

[Sgt. Pepper]

Nice axe.

Is that a real light saber?

[ruger9]

34 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

Nice axe.

Is that a real light saber?

 

Yeah, I trim my bushes with it LOL

[Buc McMaster]

Very nice, sir.  The split parallelogram inlays are my favorite.  The nut with thing shouldn't be an issue for long.............the hand is nimble.

Happy new guitar!

[62burst]

2 hours ago, Buc McMaster said:

The split parallelogram inlays 

. . . and ever since Buc mentioned some years back that the direction of the inlays,   \ \ ,  reverses on left-handed guitars, / / ,   I've been waiting to find one where Bozeman accidentally Gibsoned Up & fitted a leftie with a rightie's 'board or vice-versa.

[ruger9]

I wish I could post "likes" to these replies, but I don't seem to have the option (this has been discussed before). But thanks for all the replies!  Every time I pick it up, I LOVE the sound- it's EXACTLY what I have been hearing in my head all these years: woody, mid-forward, plenty of low end but tight, and fat trebles. Lush. Resonant.

The nut width won't be an issue for strumming but I'll never be able to fingerpick this guitar... between the nut width and neck profile (even tho it's slim taper), it's just too chunky for me to be that nimble on. I'm not really a fingerpicker anyway,  but I certainly will never be with this guitar.  If I ever decide to really explore that world, I'll have to look for another guitar.

[Sgt. Pepper]

1 hour ago, ruger9 said:

I wish I could post "likes" to these replies, but I don't seem to have the option (this has been discussed before). But thanks for all the replies!  Every time I pick it up, I LOVE the sound- it's EXACTLY what I have been hearing in my head all these years: woody, mid-forward, plenty of low end but tight, and fat trebles. Lush. Resonant.

The nut width won't be an issue for strumming but I'll never be able to fingerpick this guitar... between the nut width and neck profile (even tho it's slim taper), it's just too chunky for me to be that nimble on. I'm not really a fingerpicker anyway,  but I certainly will never be with this guitar.  If I ever decide to really explore that world, I'll have to look for another guitar.

This isn’t facebook, and I’m not here for “likes” to get my ego stroked. I’m here for guitar porn.

[E-minor7]

1 hour ago, ruger9 said:

I'm not really a fingerpicker anyway,  but I certainly will never be with this guitar.  If I ever decide to really explore that world, I'll have to look for another guitar.

Don't out-count that possibility. F-picking is a holy path to walk in life - and an extra guitar would never be negative.

Meanwhile enjoy the precious SJ by all senses. 

[Sgt. Pepper]

The sad emoji fairy is back, sprinkling sad faces on my posts. How old are we here, over 18 most of us, so adults?  I know forming a thought and typing it out is hard and its just easier to click on a face to show how you feel.

Edited June 2 by Sgt. Pepper

[PrairieDog]

1 hour ago, ruger9 said:

I wish I could post "likes" to these replies, but I don't seem to have the option (this has been discussed before). But thanks for all the replies!  Every time I pick it up, I LOVE the sound- it's EXACTLY what I have been hearing in my head all these years: woody, mid-forward, plenty of low end but tight, and fat trebles. Lush. Resonant.

The nut width won't be an issue for strumming but I'll never be able to fingerpick this guitar... between the nut width and neck profile (even tho it's slim taper), it's just too chunky for me to be that nimble on. I'm not really a fingerpicker anyway,  but I certainly will never be with this guitar.  If I ever decide to really explore that world, I'll have to look for another guitar.

For learning to fingerpick, you can’t beat a two inch wide classical neck.  It’s what I learned on back when I was a kid (image being half grown and trying to master bar chords on that railroad track! 😆

Anyway, you can pick up a used starter yamaha classical for the price of a good dinner out.  You get the mechanics down on that and then it’s much easier to transition back to steel strings and narrower widths.  I compare it to learning to ride a bike in a parking lot versus a narrow sidewalk.  In the middle of just learning to ride, you don’t have to worry about also going in a straight line.  

On a classical, there is a large margin of error.  You splat all over the fingerboard and still have a good chance of only hitting the string you are aiming for.  

Anyway, again, great new guitar today! 

[Sgt. Pepper]

I think finger picking is best learned on the guitars you own. Chances are those are the ones you play the most. 

[PrairieDog]

2 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

I think finger picking is best learned on the guitars you own. Chances are those are the ones you play the most. 

In this case he said it was a finger size issue. If you have chubby fingertips, like I do, it can be a hard skill to learn on a skinny neck since you are working as hard to avoid pressing the wrong strings as learning how to fret the right ones.  It’s extra noise in your brain that is not necessary.  It was just a suggestion that WORKED for me. Just because you have a different approach, doesn’t mean it’s the right one for everybody 🙂

[Sgt. Pepper]

5 minutes ago, PrairieDog said:

In this case he said it was a finger size issue. If you have chubby fingertips, like I do, it can be a hard skill to learn on a skinny neck since you are working as hard to avoid pressing the wrong strings as learning how to fret the right ones.  It’s extra noise in your brain that is not necessary.  It was just a suggestion that WORKED for me. Just because you have a different approach, doesn’t mean it’s the right one for everybody 🙂

So he should go out an get another guitar just to learn on? Makes no sense to me. My statement makes sense. He will be playing HIS guitars in the long run. Will he fumble at first. Of course if your just starting out its a pain. The first song I learned  any finger picking on was Blackbird, and at kicked my a-ss, but I didn't need to go out and get another guitar to start to eventually learn how to play it.

Edited June 2 by Sgt. Pepper

[PrairieDog]

14 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

So he should go out an get another guitar just to learn on? Makes no sense to me. My statement makes sense. He will be playing HIS guitars in the long run. Will he fumble at first. Of course if your just starting out its a pain. The first song I learned  any finger picking on was Blackbird, and at kicked my a-ss, but I didn't need to go out and get another guitar to start to eventually learn how to play it. 

Geeze, I said get a used, 60-70 dollar yamaha.  There are folks who literally p*** away more than that on coffee every couple of weeks.  Heck, he might be able to borrow one from his library for that matter, you could here. Kudos you were able to learn it.  It might have been faster on a bigger neck guitar, but we’ll never know.  

He already was anticipating getting another one, so all I did was  offer him a cheap option so he could transition easier to better guitars or the one he already has. So really what are you arguing about?  

Edited June 2 by PrairieDog