Does anyone have a D18 and a J45?

[ChrisE]

I've thought about getting an all mahogany Martin at some point, but if I ever decided to get another "nice" guitar, J-45 would be the one.

[Shades of Blue]

I had both a J45 and a D18. My relationship with these two guitars was strange. I bought the J45 mainly because no stores around me had one to try, so I just bought it on a whim. Turns out, I loved it. I bought the D18 to give me what the J45 couldn't, being that the J45 was short scale and not very loud.

The J45 just sounds old to me. It has a sound that is so folksy, yet bold. It is a foot tapping, knee slapping guitar. It's fun. I enjoyed the heck out of it. That said, the D18 to me sounds better, but it didn't give me the same experience. The D18 is stronger, louder, more snappy, and just more bold with more sustain. On paper, its just a better guitar IN MY HUMBLE OPINION. My J45 was SHODDY under the hood. Just ugly and sloppy construction, with glue seeping from the braces, wood shavings hanging off the edges of cuts, and the bridge plate had weird sloppy holes all drilled in it.

I ended up selling both to fund my Grand Pacifics. Do I regret it? Sometimes I regret selling my D18, but not the J45. The J45 turned out to be a "phase" guitar for me. It was fun for a while and it made me feel like a country artist. However, I discovered that I'm not a fan of short scaled acoustics, and I didn't think the guitar was very loud, which I need.

My conclusion is that if you just need/want that Gibson sound, then get the J45. If you want a better guitar all around, get the D18.

[generalliamsayn]

Not to complicate matters, but since you already have a dread, maybe try some smaller bodied guitars? I love that I own guitars in different body sizes.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by generalliamsayn

Not to complicate matters, but since you already have a dread, maybe try some smaller bodied guitars? I love that I own guitars in different body sizes.

Matters are already complicated

Besides the D18 I have a Gibson J200, Martin 00015sm and most recently a Eastman E2OM-CD (cedar top).

I know, real 1st world problems here.

[Colt45]

I say get the J45. I love mine (2018 standard). I’m in the same boat as you..only reversed.
I’m thinking of getting D-18 after I played one recently. I really liked it and definitely different than my Gibson. I used to own a D18GE but sold it only because of the neck ( pretty meaty? ).
And the J45 tends to come with electronics, in case you need them.
When the light bulb goes on about a particular guitar I want, well you know what happens!

[Larry Mal]

So, I don't have a D-18, when I was looking to get into a long scale mahogany dreadnaught a Guild D-40 with an Adi top was how I went. I know that the Guild and the D-18 share only some similarities.

But, I do have a J-45, and it's wonderful. It's got a very sweet quality, a lot of depth, it has a haunting nature to it and records great. Dig in and it will get to booming out, still not as loud as a D-18 no doubt, but it does have a great amount of dynamic range.

I can't imagine ever selling it- actually, I would be in big trouble if I did since it was made the year my older son was born and I'm going to give it to him when he's old enough.

Long story short, though, I do not feel that my J-45 has been made redundant by any of my other great sounding guitars and I feel that if I had a D-18 (sort of on "the list") then I would probably still find the J-45 different and useful enough.

At the end of the day, though, it's a legendary guitar and you'll really only be able to scratch that itch in one way, right?

You can always sell it if it doesn't add enough for you to keep it. You won't lose a lot.

[1Charlie]

At one point, I had a ‘49 J-50 (the natural-topped version of the J-45) and a ‘60 D-18 going head to head in a battle for #1 in my house.

The D-18 was definitely louder and more articulate, but it was not as “musical” as the J-50. There were fundamental differences in the way the two guitars made me feel when I played them, and I found myself reaching for the J-50 more often.

The D-18 went to a good home.

All that said, if I already had a D-18 and was looking for a different vibe in a Gibson, I would consider an LG-2 or an L-00. Totally different animals from a J-45 (especially the L-00).

[gfirob]

So I have always been a Martin guy and I just thought Gibsons were crappy sounding guitars. My main guitar is a rosewood Martin OM. A couple of years ago I came across a 1957 National 1155, which is made with a Gibson-built J45 body and a National neck and I thought it was an inexpensive way into a vintage Gibson, so I bought it.

What I found was that the absence of a lot of the overtones in a Martin made the Gibson a better guitar to sing with in many cases. Its bass is a very big thump and its overall resonances are really very nice, just very different from a Martin.

So I am happy to have it in my collection and I play it quite often. I think all Martin fans ought to have a Gibson in their back pocket—but—you have to unwind your Martin expectations or you will think it is just a crappy guitar.