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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Gibson J 200 / Gibson LG-1 series Steelstring Acoustic

Gibson J 200







Presented here is one of the flagships from the Gibson company:
the J200. This one dates from 1996 and is equipped with an
X bracing. Furthermore AAA class Sitka spruce top and the
back is figured maple as are the sides. Hardware is gold-plated
and luckily the adjustable bridge and inner brace reinforcement
tone killer of the sixties is gone. The concept still works to my
ears as this instrument has a deep voice with beautiful brilliance
of the higher notes which separate nicely as well so fingerpicking
goes along with strumming on this instrument.


As history replaces the focus especially for younger
players to "younger" instruments.Times weren't always 
well for Gibson as quality control suffered at certain stages. 
We only have to think of the seventies where a lot of 
instruments didn't do justice to the Gibson name though 
there are always exceptions. Noteworthy is for me the 
lesser degree of spraying on the instruments of the last 
decade. I must say: This instrument has no flaws in its'
laquer. The inner woodwork is immaculate as well.
My only critics go to the somewhat roughly finished 
top nut which causes the guitar to get out of tune too
easily. But that can be fixed!


The somewhat older style headstock: Simple but so gracefully.
Note the plain truss rod cover. Sometimes it says: Standard.


A nice shot of the Grovers who carefully copied the older
well known Klusons that were in fact quite mediocre!
But the style as a whole already was there! These ones
do the job! Compared to the instruments of the sixties /
seventies the edges all around the instruments of these
times are somewhat sharper. No problem but I digged the
old way of working more. Machines took over a lot of
jobs formally executed by the workforce. That results
in a more even kind of quality but it lacks a bit the
personality the older instruments tend to have.





Gibson LG1


The LG-series guitars of the mid sixties were fitted with
a sort of plastic bridge that more than often came off after
a while. On this guitar the bridge has been replaced with a 
rosewood one. The head was cracked and had been 
repaired but still this guitar sounds great for Blues.

This guitar has been refinished.
The back and neck are made out of mahogany.
This LG1 guitar has a spruce top with ladder bracing.
The LG 0 guitar has an all mahogany soundbox.

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