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Couple of Questions for AJ Owners


Honky Dog

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I'm getting close to having the money to pull the trigger on a new Gibson. Leaning very much toward an AJ. In thinking about the guitar, I got to wondering:

 

1) what finish you have, and

 

2) whether you use light or medium strings on your AJ.

 

I have a J-45 RW in the Vintage Burst. I don't have a natural finish Gibson at this point, so have been giving that some consideration. That burst is awesome, though.

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I frequently play my sunburst AJ finger style, so I always use high tension core lights (John Pearse PB).

 

I played three original AJs from the 1930s and they were all sunburst. I am not even sure the natural models were made back then. Maybe someone else knows the answer to that, but for me burst was the only consideration.

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I have a fairly new (to me) AJ and love it. I don't think anyone does a sunburst quite like Gibson, and I'm real pleased with mine. I asked this forum a similar question a while back, and found that lots of people, for good reasons, are running both gauges. I flatpick exclusively (damaged right index finger), so I'm running 80/20 mediums. I don't like plastic pins, so I'm using bone. Next string change, I'm thinking of experimenting with ebony.

Also thinking of trying Pearse Nickel Wound mediums. The guitar has a lot of presence and bark, so I can't imagine how it'd sound really bad with almost any type or gauge of string. Well, maybe extra lights. Good luck with your hunt.

Colin

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I have a natural finish and right now I have lights on it.

Likewise. 80/20 bronze to be exact. Fingerstyle set-up. Suggest meds for bluegrassers. Mileage may vary for folkies, ssws & rockers: .13s brings the powah, but you can get a lot of sound out of these with 12s and still be able to do string bends without risking early onset arthritas! J

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My 05 AJ is a burst (which I love since I alreay have two other "Natural" guitars.) I keep Elixir Nano's 12-54's on mine and use it primarily for fingerstyle. I had been keeping 80/20's on it but last string change I had an extra set of Elixir Nano Phospher Bronze 12's and strung it up with those to see what it sounded like and I am loving it! I though it may be too dark, but the tone is to die for and sounds even better to me than the 80/20's did. Guess I am sticking with PB's on all my guitars now.

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