J45, J200, and J185

[SKYHIGH]

Originally Posted by String_Theory

I am mainly a finger picker and love my j185. It's my first maple acoustic. I have experimented with strings and I can make it sound less bright with nickel or monel strings. It has a great fundamental tone without being to complex if that makes sense. I have since sold 2 acoustics and have 1 more on the chopping block since I play the 185 all the time now.

How is it for strumming?

[Nctom]

Try a Waterloo WL-JK if you can find one. Mine is a great guitar, loud and clean. I prefer it to the Gibsons I've had/tried lately. Plus it is less expensive than the Gibson models you have listed.

[Brucebubs]

Check out this demo clip of the new Guild F-55 Maple.

[String_Theory]

Originally Posted by SKYHIGH

How is it for strumming?

Fantastic. The maple combined with the large size makes it loud and hard to overdrive.

[Mr.Woody]

Originally Posted by String_Theory

Fantastic. The maple combined with the large size makes it loud and hard to overdrive.

Which top does yours have? Regular Sitka?

[AndrewG]

I owned a J185 Koa custom, supplied by my good friends at Mansons Guitars, back in the early '00s and it was a pretty thing, but quite restrained. Definitely more suited to the fingerpicker than more aggressive styles. The less said about an appalling SJ200 I briefly owned, the better! A friend has a '57 original which is very nice.

[Mr.Woody]

Well, i went to CME yesterday and played a ton of guitars for 4 hours. Narrowed it down to a particular J-185 and a particular J-45. Really went back and forth on these 2. i think in the end i'll pick the J-45. I realized as i went to sleep last night that if the J-45 sells, i'll be more disappointed than if the J-185 sells. For purely personal reasons, i need to wait until August to make the purchase, so it's going to be a long month! lol

Walking away from them for a few minutes and coming back, i played the J-185 first and was pretty happy with the sound. But the J-45 was much louder/fuller by comparison. I think i really could be happy with either, though. I had Carl play them both so i could hear them from an audience perspective. The J-185 sounded clearer and more articulate but quieter/softer, but the J-45 sounded bigger/fuller/louder. I believe i WANT to like the J-185 more because it's such a rare/unique guitar and i want to feel "special" for owning one lol. But the particular J-45 i played is a limited run, so it's "special" as well.

In the end i also have to remember that this will be my only acoustic, so it means being loud enough for playing with multiple people singing if not plugged in, which def leans me towards the J-45. I also feel like they both have that "gibson sound" and could be EQ'd to be fairly close running though my Baggs Venue. There was also much less volume difference between strumming and fingerpicking on the J-45. It's a very responsive guitar with more oomph than the J-185.

[dodge]

No right or wrong, a good J-185 or J-45 would both serve you well as a sole acoustic.

[catfish]

J-45 is just easier to love
While J-185, being a maple body, needs to be played in quite a bit to sound fantastic.
For example,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSRa1zEYgFc

[eljay]

Interesting and fun conundrum, Mr. Woody!

The idea of having an out-of-the-mainstream guitar would appeal to me if it was a good one, like the J-185 you played seems to be.

If the killer J-45 you found is gone when you are able to buy, take comfort in knowing that '45s are plentiful and always will be available while the '185s, being a special run, might not come back around for a while once they all are sold. So you'd have something a bit special.

Good luck with your quest!

[Mr.Woody]

Originally Posted by eljay

Interesting and fun conundrum, Mr. Woody!

The idea of having an out-of-the-mainstream guitar would appeal to me if it was a good one, like the J-185 you played seems to be.

If the killer J-45 you found is gone when you are able to buy, take comfort in knowing that '45s are plentiful and always will be available while the '185s, being a special run, might not come back around for a while once they all are sold. So you'd have something a bit special.

Good luck with your quest!

Thanks for that. The J-45 is a banner-type and is also a limited run, so both of them are "special". I suppose the J-185 is a little less main-stream for sure. The J-45 is a good bit brighter than most from what the guy said, so i'm not sure if it would really tick the "vintage tone" boxes some guys look for. Most of the vintage style J-45's i've heard have had a very muted-type sound that sounds amazing when strummed or for lead runs. The problem is that i also play a LOT with just my fingers, so those guitars then become WAAAY too dark for that style. The ones that sound fantastic played with just fingers usually end up sounding WAAAY to bright when strummed hard. Both of the guitars in question would probably do well with a set of Phosphor bronze strings instead of the 80/20 currently on them. Again, i guess we'll just wait and see what's available in August. I'm also assuming i could always have CME order either one, but then i'd be stuck with whatever shows up.

I will say that J-45 was very lively when fingerpicked (more than i thought it would be), and much more lively feeling than the J-185. I'm guessing that's an Adirondack vs Sitka thing.