This one was in the Retrofret showroom in Brooklyn, and probably would not have stayed there long had it not come to live in France. Especially when it has been preserved in magnificent condition for a guitar that turned fifty several years ago.
When you are lucky enough to find that J-200, you should seize the opportunity. It delivers the big volume you expect when you see its size, but without letting the bass notes overrun, thanks to the sharpness of the maple. The sound generally stays inside, with a very short sustain that does not encourage you to venture beyond strumming rhythm chords in the first three frets.Īnd then sometimes we come across a magical one that puts the others to shame and helps us to better understand why so many great musicians have chosen the giant from Kalamazoo as their preferred partner (beyond of course its undeniably cool look). Often, the maple wood gives them an overly aggressive timbre, and few of them project their sound really well. My concern was going back through customs and charges but there was no one there! I was at Rudy's store in Soho in NYC and they had some serious acoustics in there - very nice.Good J-200s are not easy to find, even vintage ones.
Gibson j 200 custom shop plus#
I am kicking myself for not buying when in the US a couple of months ago - the exchange rate was great, plus prices are significantly cheaper there anyway. I have played a couple and loved the feel and deep sound. I hadn't realised the variety in the J200 range. So could be tempted to wait until my bonus come in a couple of months and go the whole hog! I am viewing this as my 'life partner' acoustic :-) I have a couple of very nice electrics, but only a modest yamaha acoustic at the moment so need to decide where I stop my budget stretching.
ebony fingerboard, albone inlays, bone nut, gold harware, etc. It looks like you need to go to a custom to get some real extra benefit, e.g. On the other hand, it doesn't have a pickup on it, and for an extra few hundred pounds I could get a brand new modern classic which it sounds is not that different. On the plus side it is a J-200 standard in tobacco sunburst, available locally which is about £800 pounds less than new. Not really impressed with the seller - he has been at best cagey, at worst misleading about the guitar which makes me wonder about it (also, he has not told me why the ebay sale fell through), plus he is not open to an offer (I would probably have gone in £100-£200 below what he was asking). I think it is ridiculous to say that just because it says "CUSTOM" that it is worth 600 bucks more? If it has 600 bucks of extras, like gold hardware, bone nuts and saddle, special inlays, or the like, THEN it may be worth more, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and is it beholdin' $600 from your wallet? For me, that is rubbish.
So, for me, the jury is out on whether that custom sticker on the back of the neck, or the neck block, or the truss rod cover actually changes the value much. He said in his listing, that it cost $150 MORE for that feature? Well, like I said, a lot of guitar player/collectors, are traditionalists.so it sat, and sat, and sat. One guy locally had a J-200 "CUSTOM" for sale.the custom feature was that the pick guard was plain, with no engravings or color on it. Those Martin guys like tradition, and Martin's exact records go back almost to the beginning. So, I've noticed that if a HD28 is being sold beside an HD28 "CUSTOM" the HD28 usually sells for more.
Gibson j 200 custom shop serial number#
You can write to them with the serial number and get all the specs, but it just says custom. When Martin makes a custom, they just put "CUSTOM" on the neck block. I watch the local Craigslist a lot and I've noticed that for MARTIN guitars, the "CUSTOM" label actually LOWERS the value of a guitar. It sounds like the seller thought they had a standard, have been told its a custom shop but don't really know that for sure. They also could not articulate the extra features that are on this guitar as a custom shop model. On the plus side it is local to me so I can easily go and see it - however I don't want to be stumping up extra cash for a 'custom shop' model that is just a standard j-200. They also didn't respond to my request for the serial number. I am a little nervous about it as I have asked about why the ebay sale fell through, but not really had an answer on that. When I approached the seller by email they said they had recently taken it to a shop and were told that it was a 'custom shop' so are now asking an extra £400. This ended but has been relisted on a local advertising site. The guitar was originally listed on ebay (link below).