New guitar delivered today... anybody want to guess?

[oid]

That is not elmers, could be something in the Gorilla Glue family, which is kind of a pain to deal with, but it may not be as bad as it once was, it was fairly new on the market when I was doing this stuff and the tricks of reversing it may have since been figured out. There does not look to be a tan line which suggests the pickguard was either reglued very early on in the guitars life or it is in the same spot Gibson put it. I suspect it is where Gibson put it, lined up with the end of the fretboard. Gibson never seemed to concerned about following the rosette, some eras are better than others.

I would have your luthier give it a good look over before making a finale decision, even if they are willing to knock more off. Polyurethane glues like Gorilla Glue can be a pain to remove cleanly once dry, I would want to be certain my luthier is confident about reversing it before deciding.

[Larry Mal]

Yeah... I asked the eBay seller if he could advise as to what the glue even is, as well as some other complaints. I'm not under the impression that this is where Gibson put the pickguard because it's also not lined up with the fingerboard, either. It's not where it had been placed.

I am this guy's only eBay sale ever so I'm not very confident in his ability to communicate and resolve this. I will likely be forcing him to take it back if I end up deciding it's not worth it.

I'm on the fence... it sounds glorious, and plays very well. It's inspiring and what I was hoping it would be when I bought it.

[Unicorn Warrior]

I had a 70s jazzmaster that I really liked and sent back because it had a few issues with the neck. My tech told me it was minor, but that he couldn't do it. Because of that and limited access to a good luthier I had to make the call. Now, it's my "what if" guitar. In the end I think I made the right decision.

But, at least now you know that you like Jumbos. Did you get a good deal on her?

That's kinda my holy grail acoustic if I were to ever be ina position to splurge on one. As it sits though, my passion is still electric and the likelihood of me ever owning one is slim. You never know though

[Larry Mal]

The deal was OK... low end of normal.

I think I'll keep the guitar. I played it a lot this weekend and it's great. It sounds wonderful, and is inspiring to play and leads me in directions that I otherwise might not go, I'm sure that makes sense to you.

It also complements the guitars that I already have pretty well.

I have no way of thinking that I'd like any other used Gibson at this price point any better, and as I was playing it I was thinking there's no way I'm sending this back. That doesn't mean I am done with the seller, though, but my ultimate strength of sending the guitar back is not really an option.

I got it strung up yesterday with new strings finally and gave it a look inside. I don't feel anything broken or loose in any way, it all looks as it should from what I can tell with my hands and shining my iPhone in there. I used it as a crude mirror to see if anything looked awry, it all looks as expected to my un-expert eyes.

I'll probably proceed with the usual things I do to my guitars now, get a new bone saddle (this one is pretty slotted over the years) and some kind of bridge pins to replace the cheap plastic ones.

Maybe I'll get a new pickguard and put it on. The one that came with it is pretty homely.

[Larry Mal]

I guess I'll put up some better pictures... I also cleaned the thing, and oiled the fingerboard and bridge:













Bubinga looks sharp:

[mediocreplayer]

FWIW -- the pickguard on my L-130 looked exactly like this, hiding the rosette.

It looks pretty good and you seem to enjoy playing and hearing it. Keep it.

[Larry Mal]

I had to look up the 130, that's a new one to me. Looks like a cool guitar.

But no, this isn't where Gibson put the pickguard on. It's a problem, frankly. I can see that the pickguard was probably lifting and the seller glued it down. I don't want it glued down at all, frankly. That's how they used to do it and now they use a more gentle adhesive, which is preferable. But I can see what happened because there is glue under a good amount of the pickguard, and where there is no glue, it still is not quite affixed to the top, I can slide a guitar pick under it at points pretty easily. I could pull it up if I wanted to but how much of the gloss would come up with it if I did that?

I'll keep this one, I go through this process sometimes when I get a new guitar especially if it arrives in a condition that is different from advertised and I can see some amateur glue jobs throughout it.

Other times I don't care, that J-60 I like so much arrived with some kind of finish damage to the top of it and I didn't care about that at all, and that wasn't disclosed either. Then again, that was just the finish, and I don't really get all that worked up about the finish typically.

It's a fun guitar, and the Super Jumbo shape is great. I can see why you would find maple in the J-200, these guitars could probably be super bass heavy if you went with something else.

It's a great guitar. Tons of sustain to it, the note clarity is OK, it's pretty good for fingerpicking, great with a pick. Good for chords and very nice for single note lines.

It's a pretty brightly voiced instrument, it doesn't have the gentle melancholic quality of my J-45 nor the haunting extravagance of the J-60. I'll give it a more full review sometime soon when I do a real NGD or something separate from this neurotic thread.