NGD: Gibson J-29, now with brand-new pictures !

[Flurko]

Hey there !

If you were there in May 2019, you might remember how I bought on Reverb and on a whim a beautiful old Höfner acoustic archtop :
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=112426

I enjoyed having this pretty guitar for a while, I was lucky enough to play acoustic jazz with it in a band, but after the end of this particular group it was -to me, of course- worse than a standard acoustic when played at home, and I really didn't want to mod a 50+ yo guitar by drilling holes for pickups and such into it, better pass this dilemma on to someone else.

So iI put it for trade on our beloved Leboncoin, and a few weeks after I got an interesting trade proposition. The deal was done, and I now have my first Gibson ! Looking at the papers given to me by the former owner, he bought it for quite more than what I got the Höfner for, but that's guitar trading for you.

I'm pretty sure someone will guess what model it is by looking at the headstock, because someone on this forum got the same model.

[Jonesie]

J15?

[Larry Mal]

No, it wouldn't be a J-15, because that's got a maple neck on it.

[Larry Mal]

I'll guess an L-00.

[Flurko]

Nope, nope and nope !
I was like "Larry's got one like this, he's gonna find out first try", but then remembered how many different Gibsons you have !
But it's an acoustic alright.

[Flurko]

Also, I'm so clueless about Gibson acoustics that I thought the headstock was specific to this model, with those grovers and the year on the truss rod cover, but maybe it's more common that I thought in Gibson's lineup !

[Larry Mal]

Yeah, they tend to use the Grovers on the "Standards".

A J-45?

[Flurko]

Not a J-45 either, it's got the same shoulders but different woods !

Here's a full size picture I took with the last daylight yesterday, later when I have some time and some light I will take some beauty shots.

[Larry Mal]

A J-29, then!

[Larry Mal]

I should mention that it's not also different woods from the J-45, but it's also braced differently, it has Gibson's "advanced" bracing which is lighter and shifted forward from the Standard bracing.

[Flurko]

And yes, it is an as-new Gibson J-29!

I can't really say much about it in a review, except that it just sings, I'm playing random chords, little bluegrassy runs, anything just flows beautifully out of this guitar for now.

It's pretty weird, I really havent spend time before with a quality standard flattop guitar.
I've learned to play on entry-level, but decent Yamaha classical guitars, then was pretty much an electric-only player for as long as I knew my way around a guitar.
The only steel-stringed acoustics I've played before have ranged from terrible cardboard/plastic boxes (staggs, the really cheap yamahas...) to okay players with no real problems but kinda bland (my brother's cheap-ish Takamine), and this Gibson that dropped unexpectedly onto my lap feels really strange:
I both feel undeserving of an expensive, american-made guitar given how I play, and also a bit underwhelmed, because, while I'm not taking anything from what i've written above, at the ends of the day it just feels and sounds like a "normal acoustic guitar" should sound in my head, I cant put it more clearly for now.

[Flurko]

Now with prettier pictures :






Editing the back picture made me think about the strap button, I read several reviews of this guitar on random forums saying they had to install one themselves on the heel side, mine came with one already in place, is it stock ? The previous owner didn't seem like someone who would drill a hole in an expensive guitar to add a strap button.

[Scout]

Enjoy! The sound should only improve as you play it and don’t worry about the strap button and whether it came stock or not , its needed either way.