On the button: the utile necks are set with hide glue and dovetail joints But what rises up is a big sound with a faster attack that we’re used to from a jumbo. Or maybe it’s the slimmer body, maybe it’s the Player Port, maybe it’s the longer 25.5” scale length, or a combination of all these things and more. Maybe it’s the walnut back and sides which can often lend a more immediately musical response to a factory-made acoustic guitar than maple. This G-200 doesn’t so much whisper as growl. This fact has led collectors of vintage J-200s to refer to them as “whispering giants”. Instead, what you can expect is a rich sound by virtue of the size of the chamber with a slightly ponderous response as the large soundboard flexes with each new attack. Now, here’s the thing about the SJ-200 and its variants – despite its size, it is not by nature an excessively loud guitar. Unable to resist the call of the jumbo we begin our playing session with the G-200. Window seat: the Player Ports allow you to peer into the guitars In use The ebony ’boards and bridges of both guitars are well cut and the fretwork is uniformly smooth. The necks are made from utile – an African mahogany often referred to as sipo – carved to Gibson’s Advanced Response profile, which in real terms is a slim and slinky C shape. As with the other models in the range, the back and sides are made from figured walnut, the soundboards are Sitka spruce and the bodies are a little slimmer than usual. Each has a Venetian cutaway, more elaborate bar inlays on its striped ebony fretboard, body binding and an LR Baggs Element Bronze pickup system. The G-Writer and G-200 take things up a notch in terms of both functionality and aesthetics. That said, we loved the sonic impact that the Player Port design had on the G-45 and G-00 so it will be fun to see how it works here.Įarn your stripes: each guitar has a belly-down striped ebony bridge Peaking through it reveals not just the X-bracing and two tone bars but also internal construction that’s a little rough and ready. Gibson has since done extensive research culminating in the Player Port, an elliptical plastic-edged soundport in the shoulder of the guitars in this range.Īs with the other Generation Collection instruments we looked at, the Player Port also functions as a handy viewing port. Dating back to 1964, the ‘Modern J-45’ never went into production but the design featured a large circular sound hole in the lower bout. The Generation Collection, made in Gibson’s dedicated acoustic facility in Bozeman, Montana, is inspired by a recently discovered blueprint from the Gibson archives.
Gibson j 200 series#
This slinky dreadnought outline – originally designed by Ren Ferguson – first emerged in the 1990s in the Gibson Custom Line series before becoming the Songbird and finally the Songwriter.
While the callipygian silhouette of Gibson’s J-200 needs no introduction whatsoever, the same is not necessarily true of the Songwriter model.
READ MORE: The Genius Of… Parallel Lines by Blondie.Here, we’re looking at the upper end of this nascent range with the G-200 EC and G-Writer EC, both of which apply the minimalist Generation Collection design language to existing Gibson designs. Last time out we explored two of these new models, the fully acoustic G-00 and G-45. It’s always the way, isn’t it? You wait 120 years for Gibson to make an acoustic guitar with a shoulder-mounted soundhole and suddenly four come along at once.