[patmatt]

I had the opportunity to meet Ren at a Gibson promotion at Rudy's in NYC a couple of years ago. Years before I had purchased a translucent red J-200 Jr. on ebay. When it came it had all the original hang tags and paper work with and it and about ten times the tone, volume and mojo of any guitar I had ever owned, including Goodall, Bourgeois and Lowden, it so I called Gibson to find out if I could register the warranty. The kind Gibson rep on the phone told me no because the guitar had been in a liquidation sale of a closed dealer and was considered second hand. But he then went on to say. "you should hang on to that guitar, it is one of about 60 hand built by Ren Ferguson as a special project he did in the mid '90's. It is probably worth ten times what you paid for it"

So I took it and a Madagascar Adirondack AJ I had to Rudy's to get a confirmation on that when Ren held the workshop there.

What a sweet man he is. He gave me all the time in the world to talk guitars relating stories of my favorite singers he new personally and then we opened up the cases. When I pulled the AJ out he took one look at the back of it and said "I remember this one" He had built it himself a year before. He likes a beefy neck and that was my complaint about the guitar. He explained that with age and wear and tear, your hands don't work as well on skinny necks and it was his own personal preference. It also imparts more volume to the top as it acts as a counter weight to the body of the guitar. I asked him if I could have a reputable luthier shave it down a bit and refinish it. He advised against it and said it would devalue the guitar and diminish the sound. He said if there is something about a guitar you don't like, sell it and get one that is more suited to your playing.

Next we took out the J-200 Jr. It was considerably older and he looked it over for several minutes reaching his huge paws inside to feel the top braces, then said "oh yeah this is one of mine". When I asked him how he knew he explained that he was the only one at Gibson who scalloped the braces the way these were scalloped. He said you train the guys to do it this way but as soon as you turn your back they go back to their own way. Could be why the guitar had such amazing tone. He then took out paper and pen and wrote down the serial numbers of the guitars and my address. About a week later I got two new signed Gibson labels in the mail for my guitars with his signature on them.

I did end up selling the Advanced Jumbo and buying a different one with a lower neck profile but it didn't have the tone and volume of the one I let get away. Wish I'd kept it.
As far as the move to Guild / fender... Gibson's loss, Fender's gain. Probably going to be a lot of great Fender Acoustics coming on the market.