Nice

[ol fred]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2002-GIBSON-J-185-EC-SOLID-QUILT-MAPLE-CUSTOM-ORDERED-ONE-OFF-ACOUSTIC-GUITAR-/110819989994?pt=Guitar&hash=item19cd62d9ea

[retrorod]

Very pretty! But I am not a blonde or quilt fan. SOOoooo, Not my cup of tea

[dchristo]

very beautiful, wished it wasnt a cutaway

[rar]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2002-GIBSON-J-185-EC-SOLID-QUILT-MAPLE-CUSTOM-ORDERED-ONE-OFF-ACOUSTIC-GUITAR-/110819989994?pt=Guitar&hash=item19cd62d9ea

There was a fairly small run of these built in 2002 -- I'm thinking around 20, but don't trust my memory. A new one, priced around $2500, hung for over five years at a local dealer. It was still there when that branch of the store closed, I think. Looked great, but sounded, well, ... less than great. The other one I got a chance to check out also looked great and sounded, well, ... a bit better. These were pretty clearly meant for use on-stage, plugged-in, period. A successor to the old Star/Starburst model, if you will.

 

The problem was, for about the same money, you could buy a spruce-topped J-185 EC which sounded much better when played acoustically (especially if the back was flamed rather than quilted). Or, for about the same money, you could buy a J-190 EC, which both sounded much better played acoustically and was much more versatile when plugged-in. So there wasn't a whole heck of a lot of demand, even from players (such as moi) who like quilted maple.

 

-- Bob R