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Any information on my SJ-200, I'm new to great guitars?


liam

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Hi all,

 

I have just received my Gibson SJ-200 and have a limited amount of information on it so any help would be appreciated.

 

It is a sunburst SJ-200 and has gold Grover tuners and an Ellipse Aura pick-up, the serial number is 00599046 and the white internal sticker says SJ-200 standard.

 

Can anyone shed any light on these facts to tell me age or any other info would be appreciated.

 

Cheers

 

Liam

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Hi Liam

 

Congrats on a fabulous guitar and welcome to the forum.

 

There are quite a few members who own 200s on here so I'll leave it to them to wax lyrical about your new bat.

 

The serial number states that it was made in 2009 and is the 46th neck to be stamped on the 59th day of that year.

 

Something like

 

YDDDYSSS Y= year, D=day, S=series(on a given day)

 

Yours with jealousy!

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Hi!

Congrats for the WOWnderful guitar you have now!

Did you ordered the guitar or somebody made a present to you?

If the choice was yours - tell us why did you pick that model of Gibson Acoustics?

Post some pictures of the guitar please and tell us what was the first song you played on that powerful treasure?

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Welcome! The SJ-200 is a fine piece - own one myself in Western Classic dress. An '09 200 with factory pickup must be the Modern Classic version, but I'm surmising this as I'm not sure which pickup they are installing. You say yours says "Standard" on the label.....hmmm. Maybe it is a standard with an aftermarket pickup install. White is the color of the new Gibson labels......seems I remember hearing of this change sometime last year. Anyhoo, enjoy your new 200!!

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Welcome! The SJ-200 is a fine piece - own one myself in Western Classic dress. An '09 200 with factory pickup must be the Modern Classic version' date=' but I'm surmising this as I'm not sure which pickup they are installing. You say yours says "Standard" on the label.....hmmm. Maybe it is a standard with an aftermarket pickup install. White is the color of the new Gibson labels......seems I remember hearing of this change sometime last year. Anyhoo, enjoy your new 200!!

 

[/quote']

 

Buc, I think they moved from "Modern Classic" to "Standard" sometime in '08 or '09. The only change I could discern was the upgraded Fishman Aura. I have an '08 "Modern Classic" and the specs seem to be the same as the "Standard" except mine has an LR Baggs undersaddle.

 

Now, the Gibson "Modern Vlassic" - that's an amazing piece of work.

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Thanks all, been playing and it sounds wonderful so easy to play as well!

 

Not quite sure what I want to know really just if it is worth me changing anything (the gold grovers for example), if it is worth changing the saddle or anything else (even strings)?

 

Bit confused on the pick-up is the ellipse aura standard or has it been modified?

 

Is there anything I should look at to check the condition or authenticity of the guitar (i.e are they known to have common defects that can occur etc).

 

Pardon my stupidity just looking to learn as much as I can about the guitar I now own (it hasn't sunk in yet that I can say that now!!!)

 

Pictures to follow tomorrow.

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Buc' date=' I think they moved from "Modern Classic" to "Standard" sometime in '08 or '09. The only change I could discern was the upgraded Fishman Aura. I have an '08 "Modern Classic" and the specs seem to be the same as the "Standard" except mine has an LR Baggs undersaddle. ...[/quote']

 

One other cosmetic change - the MC had 2 MOP inlays on the bridge, then Gibson brought it back to 4 MOP bridge inlays on the Standard. (I've got 08 MC).

 

 

liam -

 

Changes - you might consider changing the bridge pins as they're usually plastic from the factory. The MC (previous iteration to the Standard) had a bone nut and compensated tusq saddle. I'm not sure if that's still true of the Standard - so there's a couple other things to look at as far as changes go. I like the gold Grovers, but some of the guys here like the Grover Imperials on the fancier (bound and inlaid) guitars. But as ksdaddy says, get to know her first.

 

How about some pics? Help - http://forums.gibson.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=21335

 

Great guitar! Congrats!! [cool]

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Not quite sure what I want to know really just if it is worth me changing anything (the gold grovers for example)' date=' if it is worth changing the saddle or anything else (even strings)?

 

Bit confused on the pick-up is the ellipse aura standard or has it been modified?

[/quote']

 

AFAIK, that is the standard issue pickup system on J-200 Standards now.

 

As far as changing anything, as BigKahune said, play it a bunch before you mess with anything. Lots of folks like to swap out bridge pins and saddles, but you wont know what you want til you have a baseline feel for your guitar. Frankly, they sound awesome out of the box, and all the fiddling is sometimes just for kicks (guilty).

 

As far as the tuners, I have those same Gold Grovers on mine, and I abhor them. Well, I abhor the look of them, Functionally, they're very good tuners. When I got my J-200 I swore the first thing I was gonna do is swap out the hideous tuners, but I just kinda got used to them and decided to spend my time and money elsewhere. Someday maybe some Imperials or Tulips, but for now, I just play it.

 

I would recommend, as with any new guitar, you have a pro set it up.

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