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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great bar guitar, September 30, 2006
This review is from: Gibson J-45 Rosewood Modern Classic Acoustic-Electric Guitar, Vintage Sunburst Gold Hardware
I've had my J45R for a couple of years. After trying all kinds of different guitars, pick-ups, combinations and configurations, I find this guitar to be great for just walking into a club, plugging in, and playing. Whether played through an acoustic amp or a P.A., it just sounds wonderful.
Played unplugged, it has nice clean action, good response across the range, and great presence.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Letter to a friend (concerning Heaven, and my "Gibson Girl"), February 12, 2009
This review is from: Gibson J-45 Rosewood Modern Classic Acoustic-Electric Guitar, Vintage Sunburst Gold Hardware
Remember the poem (quoted in a 1970 Elton John movie song "Friends") the one by "Richard LeGallienne" (correct) that starts,
"I meant to do my work today . . . but a brown bird sang in the apple tree . . . and what could I do? . . . but run and play!"
Well, I heard that "brown bird" . . . on my lunch hour, just before Christmas; To escape the minus 40 windchill (here in the "World's Coldest Major City" I ducked into our pre-eminent fine instruments store, and only authorized Gibson dealer (Long & McQuade) and lo and behold!
First things first, I should tell you that all my life, I've coveted "Gibson" guitars (always it seems, out of my reach, by a thousand dollars or more). Yes, I love their electrics too! (My all-time favorites, the Wes Montgomery style L-5, and the (1960) ES-355 - the one with the gold Bigsby tailpiece - minty copies of which are auctioned these days, for upwards of 20,000 dollars. (Ah, if I win the lottery . . .)
But I've REALLY always wanted a classic Gibson flat-top -- round-hole, acoustic -- like Chet Atkins himself recommended to me, almost 40 years ago (more about that in a moment)
Yes, give me an acoustic like the one Chet was holding on his "DOWN HOME" album cover - with those mother-of-pearl, "split parallelogram" inlays, on a rosewood fingerboard; and that classic Gibson headstock - (the same design Chet would settle-on, for his Gibson electrics, 30 years later).
----
Anyway, see me there that day, before Christmas, warming my hands in the music store and . . . suddenly there she was, high on the wall, amid Gibsons selling for 3-to-4-thousand dollars: "Sale: $1800." I swear I heard her saying aloud, (in a feminine voice,) "Take me down and play me NOW, Mark!"
What could I do, but run and play! A few minutes of finger-style picking (Jerome Kern's THE SONG IS YOU, is my favorite test) and I found myself saying to her (out loud) "Oh my. Would I ever like to own You!"
She plays like a dream! - with an action as easy as a Les Paul - not hard on the muscles of finger & hand like so many acoustic instruments. And the sound! Every note of each chord, no matter how quickly or strongly played, sounds sweet and clear. No muddy overtones, no buzzing sounds -- simply the best-sounding guitar I've ever played.
"I'll run it by my wife," I said. Irene told me that night, in front of girlfriends as witnesses: "Make it your Christmas gift, your birthday gift and next year's Christmas' present too." (Bless Her!)
Mine is basically a "Southern Jumbo" but the nameplate says "Northern Jumbo" and "Limited Edition." [For those who care about such things, the Northern Jumbo is the 'Woody Guthrie' style J-45 with a smaller "Firestripe" pickguard and with silver Grover tuners.]
Equivalent guitars listed "new" for $4200 U.S. Mine is one year old and was owned by a Canadian blues legend, "Big Dave McLean." Thank you, Dave!
This "Northern Jumbo" is a "Limited Edition" (65 copies made for sale in Canada) and is signed (on that familiar orange label inside,) Hand-Crafted by "Ren Ferguson." Post purchase, I was delighted to learn that Mr. Ferguson may be the greatest `luthier' in Gibson's 135 year history. (He may soon be asked to make their archtop jazz guitars.)
"I can't wait around (years) for my instruments to get better," declares Mr. Ferguson -- a reference to something great guitarists will tell you . . . something Chet Atkins himself told me(in 1971 when, as a radio interviewer, I had him to myself for half-an-hour before his lone appearance in my hometown of Ottawa Canada). "Find an older instrument that's been played a lot," Chet said, "they sound much better -- the more they've been played."
Well, that may no longer be the case: Today's experts -- including many life-long Gibson collectors -- are claiming that "the best acoustic instruments ever made" by Gibson are being made right now, at the "custom instruments" plant in Bozeman Montana.
That has everything to do with Ren Ferguson (who, incidentally has had a standing offer for "decades" from the Martin Company, to move to Pennsylvania and join their team; "I love Montana," (and Gibson) "too much to leave," says Mr. Ferguson.
Collectors are lining up to spend upwards of 50,000 dollars on a new "museum quality" instrument made by Mr. Ferguson; 500 to 600 requests per year now pour in for custom-made instruments carrying his signature.
[His most special to date was made with ornate inlay and carvings for Johnny Depp, (a personal commemoration for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie) for which the Disney Corp paid upwards of 100,000 dollars. Despite which, Ren Ferguson says such instruments don't sound any better "but they don't sound any worse either!" And his "favorite instrument" is the one he's working on "right now."]
A google-type search will take you to an interesting magazine article about Ren Ferguson, in which he discusses the different `temperaments' of his favorite woods - including Mahogany from Honduras, Rosewood from Madagascar, `select' Sitka Spruce, plus different Maple woods.
Mahogany (back & sides) on an instrument such as this one, gives a party sound - lively, warm -- more responsive to delicate finger-picking: i.e. You get greater voice with less force than Rosewood or Maple demands from picks or fingers. Each type of wood has its own character and virtues; [It's worth finding that article (on line) about Ren Ferguson - an informative, well-written joy to read!)
Yes, my "Gibson Girl" has made me very happy. And as I played her before bedtime last night, I recalled something else Chet said to me -- how he would "fall asleep each night playing the guitar" (usually) "after watching Johnny Carson." His wife, Leona, would find him asleep with an acoustic instrument such as this, in his lap, and a "contented smile" on his face. Now I know what Chet meant: I can't stop smiling and may awake after dozing off, having dropped a pick (a "Medium") into the sound hole - I did that twice before calling it a night, last night!
Did I mention that it plays like a dream! I wish every guitarist reading this may find an instrument they love as much! "Heaven" (for me) would be to reach the Pearly Gates and find the angels are issuing these (or something even better?) for those of us lucky enough to play in the heavenly chorus. As Chet himself sang, (a James Taylor tune written just for him)
"Me and my guitar -- always in the same mood,
I am mostly flesh and bone, and he is mostly wood.
Never does grow impatient for the `changes' I don't know:
If he can't get to heaven . . . maybe I don't want to go!"
Mark Blackburn
Winnipeg Canada
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