Red Spruce J-45

[nid2007]

Got my GC flyer yesterday and read about the GC Red Spruce J-45 Vintage. Anybody play one yet? Maybe this means my local GC will get a TV for me to play around with. I don't think my local GC has had a single TV model in the store yet. (GC is right across the street from the supermarket --hence, I do all the grocery shopping in my house!).

[nid2007]

Any one see or try one yet? My GC does not have it yet.

[jannusguy]

nothing around here yet. seems our 2 GCs are rather lame. their stock changes very infrequently. would love to see a red spruce/ rosewood combo in a J45!

[John G]

Just brought home my new "Custom J-45 Red Spruce Edition". That is how the Official looking certificate that came with the guitar describes it.

Our local music store has pretty much every current Gibson model available so I was able to make a slow and careful comparison.

It blows the doors off the standard J-45,(I still like them though). The closest it compared to in sound quality overall was the Advanced Jumbo.

I actually traded my Advanced Jumbo in on this guitar because of the shorter scale. The warmth, clarity and sound volume are very very impressive for a Mahogany guitar. I don't think that the Adirondack top is the only reason. I think that the bracing is special on these things too.

I feel very fortunate to have scored one of these in as much as there were only 50 made. My guess is that I may have got one of the last ones, but for your sakes nid & jannusguy, I hope not!

[guitarstrummer]

Welcome to the forum. Enjoy your new guitar.

[John G]

Thanks guitarstrummer! I see that compared to you I most certainly am a newbie. Wow!

I hope to putter around for a while on this forum. I am 53 and haven't picked up a guitar since I was a teenager so I have a lot of catching up to do. Funny though how some things are not that much different(like my cowboy chords). Most folks still seem to compare acoustic guitar features to Martins & Gibsons in one way or another. There may be finer guitars out there of course, but it is nice to see that the standards are still the same as when I was a kid. By the way, what got me to this forum and this thread in patricular, was my search for info on the new guitar. Absolutely nothing came of any of my searches except what you see on this thread. Gibson doesn't seem to be a wealth of knowledge on anything except their regular production models. I suppose that know which side their bread is buttered on! They sure seem to be making some fine instruments these days. All that I tried were quite good, just some better than others. Anyway, thanks again for the welcome!

[guitarstrummer]

There's certainly nothing wrong with "cowboy chords".

[fp]

John, what guitar store is it that you speak of ?

[John G]

Hi fp, It is Guitar Showcase, on South Bascom Ave in San Jose. One of the few music stores besides Guitar Center that carries Gibsons full line. It's a really great store.

[nid2007]

John,

is it one of the honeyburst custom J-45's?

[John G]

Nid, Yep, it sure is. The soundhole label just identifies it as a J-45 Custom Shop. It also comes with a signed Certificate describing it in more detail. The honeyburst on it is only slightly lighter in tone than the usual Gibson burst. It is nice though. It appears as though they were all made in mid 2007 so I have to wonder how many of them are still available. Also, with only 50 made, I wonder what the process was for distributing them to dealers. There are certainly more than 50 Gibson dealers out there, so many, if not most stores didn't get one.

[nid2007]

I have a red spruce custom shop model that says j-45 honeyburst on the label. I bought mine off ebay and it did not come with a certificate, but I'm told it also came from a run of 50 that originally came with a certificate. It would be great if yours was from the same run, so I can nail the history of mine down a bit.

 

Mine is an '06 and has noticably quilted mahogany on the sides.

[Rambler]

This it?

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Gibson-Acoustic-J45-Antiqued-Acoustic-Guitar-with-Red-Spruce-Top?sku=515898

[John G]

jkinnama, Nope. The model in your link is very close in it's specs, however, the model we were talking about was limited to 50 & built in 07 not 08. I took 3 photo's of mine, the entire guitar, the soundhole label & the Certificate, but I don't know how to attach them to one of my reply's. I am a computer klutz! How were you able to add the link? Maybe I can attach my photo's the same way.

[nid2007]

Here's mine:

 

 

[John G]

Nid, That is the spittin image of mine. Looking at your serial #, yours was made in 06 mine was 07 so they are definately a different run. The Certificate with mine specifically states 50 guitars all made in 07. That probably explains the different model name on the soundhole label. They sure do look like identical twins other than that. Same tuners, everything!

[Ras El Hanout]

I just signed up so i could comment on this thread....

 

Purchased my Red Spruce TV Custom Shop J-45 last month here in the Bay Area. Got it at a local smaller shop rather than the CG down in San Jose. (And somebody mentioned Guitar Showcase, which i fondly remember visiting by bus as a young boy in the late Seventies)

 

Mine came with a Certificate and is one of the 50 made in 2007.

 

Most expensive guitar i've ever bought, and my daughter and I compared it to the other Gibsons this smaller store had. (I probably should have gone to GC where there would be more to choose from) We ended up torn between it and the Blues King, based on tone, natural and amplified.

 

The brightness of this True Vintage was just amazing, and though we like the non-amplified version, i wanted to be able to plug it in direct for recording.

 

I recorded it for the first time last week, pairing it up with my Guild acoustic bass guitar B4CE.

 

A match made in Heaven.

 

Being a small shop they only had the one, and it was Honeyburst, but interestingly i think it is similar to my Hofner Beatle Bass (69) though that burst has more red, and my Rickenbacher 4001 (75) which is Autumnglo, i think.

 

Came with a nice satchel full of accessories, which i was told to preserve for resale value (though i never get rid of guitars)

 

The first guitar i picked up that day was the J-160 which was dead and non-thrilling, which was tough for me as a Beatle fanatic. Might have to go back and get a Blues King one of these days.

[Ras El Hanout]

Yeah John G, i could find NOTHING on this guitar when i first got it. no photos, no mentions.. then i found this thread this morning.

 

I got mine at Gelb Music.

[Ras El Hanout]

Nid2007, you started this post out asking about the Red Spruce Custom sounding like you had not tried one, then several posts down posted photos of yours.. Did you get one in the interim, or did you already have it?

[guitarstrummer]

Welcome to the forum. Glad you like your J-45. I'm a little confused with the True Vintage tag though. It was my impression that the True Vintage models were one of their lines and that they didn't come as a custom model. Are you sure it says "True Vintage" or does it just say "Custom J-45"?

[Ras El Hanout]

Thanks for the welcome, Guitarstrummer!

 

Yeah, i might be confused about the TV tag, though it was handed to me as the amplified alternative to the TV J-45 i was looking at, but that IT plugged in.

 

It has the butterbean tuners which i might also have mistakenly associated with the True Vintage.

 

My Certificate is at work, so i can't confirm.

[Ras El Hanout]

and Nid2007s original query has the word "vintage" right after J-45

 

one thing i absolutely adore about this guitar and the TV i was looking at, was the loose buttery feel of the strings; i guess they use a different guage, or whatever, but it is very springy and delicate, rather than stiff and tight. I'm a bass player primarily and am not well versed in which guages translate to which feels.

 

before this my best acoustic was a Washburn D-15M i traded my high school french horn for back in the early Eighties.

 

I have a Mackie Active P.A. Speaker which i have played this guitar through (think it's 400 watts) and the tone is just phenomenal.

[Ras El Hanout]

Guitarstrummer, i went to summer camp near Glenwood Springs CO as a kid in the Seventies. my biggest memory of that is having our cabin counselor play us Jeff Beck's WIRED, and we all air guitared with brooms. That is still one of my favourite albums to this day.

 

That plus the Rio Grande trains going through the tunnel across the river from camp, making that mournful horn sound, and the occasional Amtrak, IIRC.

[guitarstrummer]

I'm guessing yours is a custom model J-45 and not an actual True Vintage model. There are five models in the True Vintage line. None of them have electrics. They also don't limit the True Vintage models to only 50, so yours is more rare.

 

The strings that were on it from the factory were most likely Gibson Masterbuilt Lights. That's usually what they ship everything out with.

 

Glenwood Springs is a nice area of the State. It's probably grown a bit since the 70's.

[Cla]

Mine is one of those 50 from 2007. I never got a certificate, bought it on eBay, in fact I asked the people at Gibson, and they told me that there was not a certificate for either some of them or for that model. I can't remember now/. I doubt they would send me one if I asked though heh. But it is the red spruce top Honduran mahogany back and sides gold Gotoh open back tuners. I have been experimenting with strings for several months now with it in combination with a west African hard ivory (elephant ivory) saddle. I may order a bone soon, just do see how it compares. I have noticed that different brand strings make a noticeable difference in intonation. I like the Martin SP lights, but I am afraid that it may not work for intonation. Don't get me wrong, the Martins I think are almost there, and I like the sound of them. They also seem to last a tad longer than your basic 20/80 bronze. Lowering action also helps intonation, but you can't dig in as well if you lower too much. I have never tried these cleartones. Just afraid of coated strings after experience with elixirs. I need all the life of a good 20/80 bronze myself. I'll make another post and ask opinions on that in a sec;D Well anyway, on occasion, when I do get this guitar intonated right, it is fantastic sounding. Moves me to want to try a J-45 Legend, but none around here.

 

The saddle I am using by the way is compensated as far back as I can get it on the B and the Low E. and still those two strings, not to mention the A give me occasional troubles using the martins. But I am still experimenting. If you own one of these, lets here your thoughts, and your experiments:)

Paul