Gibson J-35

[Jorje]

Hi everyone,
just wanted to share my excitement and ask some questions.
last Thursday i got the chance to [play on the Gibson J-35, i must say it awesome.
the wow came just after couple of min of playing. (when you are Taylor man, you expect to the boom come at first strum..lol)

some questions:

1.Does anyone have something to share about this model?
2.I guess the body model is slop/round shoulder dreadnought, but the J at the model name mean its a jumbo? can anyone explain, what are the characteristics of this guitar?
3.today i own 214ce and breadlove d/mme which all laminate back and sides t, bought just at last 6 months, can anyone believe me that i look at them so differently now. what to do now??
Tnx. J

[GibbyPrague]

Hi, I suggest you do a search query for Gibson J-35 and you will find a few threads about this guitar as its been discussed quite a bit here.

You can also join the Gibson acoustic guitar forum where you will find many threads on this guitar, lots of love for it in short space of time.

I played one for first time last week and found it a really easy, fun guitar to play. Highly responsive and crisp for a Gibson, the trebles really ring out. Hence I can imagine why it might appeal to Taylor fans. Having said it still has that Gibson midrange growl and old school, woody tone that you expect from a Gibson slope.

Be careful now, when I returned to playing guitar after a 15 years break the guitar I bought was a 214ce. I had it exactly six months before I realised I wasnt a Taylor guy, sold it and bought my first Gibson .... and look how that turned out ...

[NewMartinFan]

Gibby: I can see why you like Gibsons so much. They are tailor made for your playing. Good stuff.

[zombywoof]

Two guys I play on and off with have bought new J-35s. Both have played Gibsons for decades and own vintage guitars (one a 1939 J-35 and the other a 1943 J-45). Their take is the J-35 is they feel it will appeal to both those who have played Gibsons all their lives as well as those who may have shied away from them in the past.

The J-35 is differently balanced than what you might be used to with a round shoulder Gibson. They are not as dry and warm sounding as say a J-45 or SJ but as GibbyPrague has noted tend to be a bit on the brighter sounding side.

Nice price point with these too. It has been a long time since Gibson offered a round shouldered jumbo for under $2K.

[powerpopper]

The one I played was noticeably not as loud the J-45's I have had but somehow I am still drawn to it. Trying to keep GAS at bay...

[bohemian]

The 35 appears to be the new WM-45 but with even more inpact.

Only within the last few years are players recognizing the WM-45.

Sadly I sold mine to fund a disastrous custom Martin.

I am considering the J-35.

[estayton]

I think the J-35 is awesome. I played one at a GC recently, and it is the first Gibson I've played that I actually have considered owning. Their sound rarely does it for me. I'll be in the store and I'll hear someone else play a J-45 and it will sound great, but they just don't come alive for me when I play. The J-35, on the other hand, did.

I didn't think it was a good fit for my type of fingerstyle so I left without it, but for strumming I thought it was awesome.

[Opa John]

I haven't played one yet, but I watched and listened to this video and came away thinking I like the sound of the J-35 better than the J-45. To my ears, it sounds a lot less muffled and let's not forget the big price difference. A no-brainer for me if I was in the market for one of 'em. I expect Gibson will sell all they can turn out. I haven't owned a Gibson since way back in the late '60s, but this new J-35 could change that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ePmR2WMUMk

As a Gibson fan I love reading this thread lol . . . .

[madhat]

I think the new J35 is a great guitar!

having played 3 different J35 guitars- including the one I own- I would have to disagree with powerpopper- in that they were ALL louder than the J45s in the room... though not as warm sounding.

believe me- the J35 fires on all cylinders and can be very loud- could even be considered a bit harsh at first.

BUT- you have to really embrace the beast- for me that meant tuning the guitar down a half step and installing a bone saddle- also choice of strings is critical.

after these simple adjustments- I have to say I am amazed how crazy good the J35 is- and it has a voice not like anything else I have heard.

yes- I love my J35!

madhat.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Jorje

some questions:

1.Does anyone have something to share about this model?

Sure. Happy to. My friend Fred brought his with him when he visited me up here in the Anchorage area a few weeks back, so I got a good chance to play it and also to listen to it in his hands,

I also spoke to Gibson product specialist Don Ruffato at the Gibson Montana facility a couple of days ago, and he gave me some further insights into the J-35 during that conversation.

Originally Posted by Jorje

2.I guess the body model is slop/round shoulder dreadnought, but the J at the model name mean its a jumbo? can anyone explain, what are the characteristics of this guitar?

That's one of Gibson's longstanding pretenses, that their round-shouldered dreadnoughts are not actually dreadnoughts but are jumbos. This goes back to the 1930's, when Gibson introduced these models to compete with Martin's new-at-the-time dreadnoughts.

If you look at Gibson's website now, they don't make any bones about this, but the model names live on with the nomenclature that was established back then.

For what it's worth, there have been periods when Gibson made various J-35 models before this. An early J-35 was the great blind flatpicker Doc Watson's first decent guitar.

As for the guitar itself, it's made in the same body mold as the J-45, and has the same short 24.75" scale length.

Bohemian compared it to the WM-45, which was another natural finish J-45 that Gibson made for a few years before discontinuing it. It's an apt comparison, and the WM-45, J-35 and J-45 are all closely related.

The main differences between the WM-45 and the J-35 is that the WM-45 had its fingerboard and bridge made of morado, not Indian rosewood; the back of all the WM Series guitars I saw were stained walnut, whereas the J-35 is all natural with no stain.

The last important difference is that the WM-45 had the same bracing underneath the top as the J-45, but the J-35 has the advanced scalloped bracing of the Gibson Advanced Jumbo adapted for the shorter 24.75" scale.

So it's a somewhat different guitar in terms of its tonal response from either the J-45 or the WM-45. Having owned a WM-45 and played a great many J-45's, I would say that the J-35 I got a chance to play was a somewhat livelier instrument.

One thing many of us who have played J-35's had noticed is that it feels lighter than the J-45. I asked Don Ruffato about this, and he denied that there were any major differences in the construction or glues used between the J-35 and J-45. "It probably feels a bit lighter because the bridge on the J-35 is a little bit smaller, and the tuning gears have plastic buttons, which take off a little bit of weight."

But these new J-35's are not made with hide glue, he told me, which was one rumor that was going around. I checked specifically on that, and they're made on the same assembly line with the same materials and adhesives as the J-45.

My guess is that the livelier feel of the top with the advanced bracing and the ever-so-slightly lighter weight of the J-35's bridge and tuners all contribute to an impression that it's lighter than it actually is.

Originally Posted by Jorje

3.today i own 214ce and breadlove d/mme which all laminate back and sides t, bought just at last 6 months, can anyone believe me that i look at them so differently now. what to do now??
Tnx. J

Well, welcome to the big, brawling world of Guitar Acquisition Syndrome, referred to in brief on this and other online guitar forums as GAS.

It's a chronic infection, like athlete's foot: you can try to treat it with ointments and medication, and might succeed in suppressing it for a while, but sooner or later it will pop right back up!

Sardonic humor aside, my suggestion is that you keep one of the guitars you now own and sell the other, keeping the better of the two, naturally. Then save up if you need to and get a J-35.

Even after you acquire a J-35, hang onto the older guitar as a backup. It's a law of nature that if you don't have a backup, you'll need one.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Dru Edwards]

Wade, excellent post (^). I learned a lot and appreciate you sharing your discussions with Gibson. I didn't realize that the J-35 had different bracing (advanced scalloped bracing) than the J-45. That'll give it a new voice for sure. A lot of volume can come from that guitar.

[magazine]

I saw this one on sweetwater yesterday. I've never seen one with an < sign in the wood, perfectly bookmatched making an X! Very unique. Check out the backside!

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RS35ANNH

[Wade Hampton]

Dru, it was interesting when Fred and I were sitting around my living room and swapping off on my Gibson Advanced Jumbo and Klepper KJ and his J-35.

All were quite a bit different from each other, but each of them inhabited that same round-shouldered dreadnought tonal universe, if that makes any sense. What I mean by that is that all of them had good tonal balance, all of them had even loudness to each note in each chord in every position up and down the neck, which is not something you run across much with square-shouldered dreadnoughts.

I really liked Fred's J-35 a lot. Now Fred benefits from having a good relationship with the store that sold him that guitar, and so when they got a really good one in they put it aside for him and gave him a call.

It's probably not realistic to assume that all J-35's will as good as the one Fred has. But the very fact that they CAN be that good is very encouraging.


whm

[Joe M]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

But these new J-35's are not made with hide glue, he told me, which was one rumor that was going around.

Wade Hampton Miller

I know you're not supposed to believe anything you read on the 'net, especially on a manufacture's web site, but Gibson's site does say that the J35 is made with hide glue. Sure doesn't matter to me and my J35, I don't know the difference between hide glue and Elmer's.......