reverse GAS

[swampyankee]

I had a J45 decades ago, acquired brand new in 76. In my naivety I thought hey it's a Gibson, not realizing it was poorly redesigned in the Norlin era.
It was my one and only acoustic at the time and I gigged it extensively. But I never really liked the tone - which I'd characterize as dark and dead.
I stubbornly hung on to it for over 15 years and finally traded for a Telecaster when I had need of an electric.
I always regretted letting go of "my Gibson" until I bought a Martin.

I'd like to try another J45 but a "real one" this time.

Kind of a eureka moment. I cinched the ladder-back strap up a notch last night and played a bit before bed. Seemed much more stable and not uncomfortable like before.

I'm busy tomorrow so I did two practice sessions today and wow the J-45 felt terrific cinched up higher, even during some challenging repertoire. After a couple of seconds of fidgeting at first, everything fell right into place and felt and sounded great. Instead of feeling unstable and uncomfortable, I relaxed and my mind fell right back into the music where it should be.

I'll keep at it this week but I think the J-45 might be staying which makes me happy. It is a very fine instrument.

[Joe Beamish]

^ Good! You may have found your spot. If so, that's happy news.

UPDATE: Well that settles it. I deleted the ad copy and the pics. This week has been very successful. Cinching the strap up a notch solved the whole problem. It's amazing how sometimes something so simple just fixes everything. Plus it was nice to reconnect with the J-45 musically after so much frustration. It is a really fine example of a J-45, probably the best one I've played. It would have been a shame to let it get away.

[JimT]

Originally Posted by boombox

Not meaning to hijack the thread, if you want a nice little blues box, Gretsch do indeed do some nice laminated bodies, but £550 will get you a really nice second-hand Furch/Stonebridge, Faith, Guild or even a new Epiphone, all in solid wood and would come closest to getting the slope sound you may be after.

Originally Posted by J-Doug

Hi guys,

I've got that reverse GAS feeling right now. After ~8 years I'm looking at selling my Gibson J-45 Standard and related gear. I keep coming back to the fact that the J-45 does not fit me ergonomically and the past year of trying to make it work for me and using a strap has not alleviated that. While the tone is amazing and the setup is perfect, the body is just too big. I've stuck with it for 8 years because it takes me a long time to make a decision like this. I took me 11 years to decide to sell the last guitar! Luckily I've kept the J-45 in excellent shape and I know how to price it to sell so I think it will move pretty quickly locally. If the J-45 goes the amp, preamp, etc. will follow. I have no new gear "waiting in the wings" so to speak so I'll just bank the cash. I've written up the text of the ads and have taken some nice photos but I haven't posted ads yet. I will give the J-45 the old college try again this week to see if I can still find a way to make it work but I doubt it. It's just time.

Not really asking a question here, just sharing. Maybe you're in the same position.

I am downsizing currently, and traded 3 guitars this week (although I did pick up a new one). I don’t want to have guitars that don’t get played, so I am moving out the ones that don’t. That doesn’t mean others can’t, this is what works for me.