Innocent_Bystander
New member
So after a few weeks of looking and playing and looking some more I decided to buy a new acoustic. My old Takamine GS330S was a decent guitar but certainly doesn't stand up to the higher end offerings out there. I played a range of guitars from Takamine, Bourgeios, Epiphone, Gibson and Taylor as they were all offered by my local favorite shop.
I was basically looking for something with a lot of low and mid tones and not a lot of glassy high end. Right off the bat Taylor was out of the question as everything they make seems to be very bright. I tried a lot of different wood combo's on the Taylor's and even the combo's that should have made the guitars darker came up too bright in comparison to other makes.
Next up was Takamine, I loved my GS330S so I figured I'd give thier higher end guitars a shot. Their high end line was great but seemed to be missing something, almost like they felt cheap in comparison to the other guitars. They had the sound I liked but didn't grab me right off the bat so I moved on for now.
Next were the Gibson's, I dug the J-45 Rosewood and the Advanced Jumbo but sort of prefered the AJ a little more than the J-45. The AJ has a ton of bottom end and is just articulate enough on the top end to sound good but not glassy, color me impressed by this guitar. After I quick QC to make sure everything looked goo, this guitar was #1 on my list.
I moved on to a couple of Epiphone Masterbuilt guitars. Great tone, nice craftsmanship but what a horrible, horrible neck profile. I'm not sure where these neck profiles came from but they could the worst I've ever felt, they're shaped like this \_/ and just don't feel good at all, so I moved on.
Last were the boutique Bourgeois guitars which are modeled after Martin's. I tried a Country Boy and Vintage D. Both are works of art, Bourgeois reminds me of PRS in many ways, top quality materials and craftsmanship. Both played and sounded great but the rosewood back and sides of the Vintage D gave me more of the sound I wanted over the Mohagany of the Country Boy. Then I saw the price tag, $3850 for the Vintage D, I understand that quality comes with a price but I couldn't justify that kind of money on an acoustic. I only play acoustic maybe 10% of the time that I play guitar and nearly $4000 for one made me want to cry.
That pretty much left me with the Gibson Advanced Jumbo. After played some of the other guitars again, I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. It's a beautiful guitar with rosewood back and sides and a spruce top. Like I said above it has a booming low and middle section and just enough high end to make it all come together. The guitar projects sound like nothing else I've played and plays almost like an electric, I think if the strings were lighter it would. After a quick restring with a set of John Pearse strings, it was on it's way home with me. I figured that if I was going to spend some good money on an acoustic I may as well do it right, get what I want and be done with it and I can say that the AJ makes me very happy.
Here are some pics but they aren't the best as it's tough not to get huge glare off of it.
I was basically looking for something with a lot of low and mid tones and not a lot of glassy high end. Right off the bat Taylor was out of the question as everything they make seems to be very bright. I tried a lot of different wood combo's on the Taylor's and even the combo's that should have made the guitars darker came up too bright in comparison to other makes.
Next up was Takamine, I loved my GS330S so I figured I'd give thier higher end guitars a shot. Their high end line was great but seemed to be missing something, almost like they felt cheap in comparison to the other guitars. They had the sound I liked but didn't grab me right off the bat so I moved on for now.
Next were the Gibson's, I dug the J-45 Rosewood and the Advanced Jumbo but sort of prefered the AJ a little more than the J-45. The AJ has a ton of bottom end and is just articulate enough on the top end to sound good but not glassy, color me impressed by this guitar. After I quick QC to make sure everything looked goo, this guitar was #1 on my list.
I moved on to a couple of Epiphone Masterbuilt guitars. Great tone, nice craftsmanship but what a horrible, horrible neck profile. I'm not sure where these neck profiles came from but they could the worst I've ever felt, they're shaped like this \_/ and just don't feel good at all, so I moved on.
Last were the boutique Bourgeois guitars which are modeled after Martin's. I tried a Country Boy and Vintage D. Both are works of art, Bourgeois reminds me of PRS in many ways, top quality materials and craftsmanship. Both played and sounded great but the rosewood back and sides of the Vintage D gave me more of the sound I wanted over the Mohagany of the Country Boy. Then I saw the price tag, $3850 for the Vintage D, I understand that quality comes with a price but I couldn't justify that kind of money on an acoustic. I only play acoustic maybe 10% of the time that I play guitar and nearly $4000 for one made me want to cry.
That pretty much left me with the Gibson Advanced Jumbo. After played some of the other guitars again, I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. It's a beautiful guitar with rosewood back and sides and a spruce top. Like I said above it has a booming low and middle section and just enough high end to make it all come together. The guitar projects sound like nothing else I've played and plays almost like an electric, I think if the strings were lighter it would. After a quick restring with a set of John Pearse strings, it was on it's way home with me. I figured that if I was going to spend some good money on an acoustic I may as well do it right, get what I want and be done with it and I can say that the AJ makes me very happy.
Here are some pics but they aren't the best as it's tough not to get huge glare off of it.
