The bound headstock is another custom feature, but this is slightly marred by a scruffy bottom edge where the black headstock veneer meets the otherwise neat nut. This very dark rosewood fingerboard is generally neat, with tidy frets, but if you look closely (as we always do) you'll spot gaps around the parallelogram inlays and a few tool marks on the 'board itself.Īlso, this reviewer's never got on with Gibson's binding style - it often looks rough and grubby even when new. As is traditional, it's dovetail jointed. Genuine mahogany may be becoming ever more scarce, but you still get a one-piece neck here. The back's perimeter is the same as the top's, but there's no centre strip, while the sides' tapered end-joint inlay is matching white plastic. No excess glue around the scratchplate this time, either.Ī standard J-185 carries flame maple back and sides, but the visual splendour is considerably upped here with some complex-grained golden-hued slices of koa delivering dashing tiger-stripe figuration. Its simple black/white rosette is not the cleanest cut we've seen, but the perimeter's four-ply purfled binding makes a smarter border.
Still, it's not quite up to the impeccable standards of the so-called 'small shop' brands.The top's premium graded pair of Sitka spruce slices display some subtle lateral figuration (known as rays), which lend visual texture. Vintage Gibsons were never obsessively immaculate, but today's Montana luthiers take greater care to keep the innards clean and tidy. Looking inside, we find a strictly traditional bracing system, with tall, slim deeply scalloped and carefully carved soundboard struts.
0 kommentar(er)
