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20 Essential Facts About the Gibson J-200

Ask a guitarist to name the ultimate Gibson acoustic, and many will reply – it’s the J-200. Elegant and flamboyantly curvaceous even by Gibson’s top-line standards, the J-200 has found fame in the hands of numerous legends: Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Pete Townshend, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jimmy Page, Neil Young and The Edge, to name but a few. Heck, even kids’ TV cowboy Rex Traylor played a J-200.

The J-200 entered production in 1937, and continues to this day as one of the most-desirable guitars in history. The J-200 is known as the “king of the flat-tops” for good reason.

Here are 20 essential facts (and trivia) about a guitar that simply conveys: now, this is a Gibson.

1. In 1938, the guitar was launched as the Super Jumbo, Gibson’s top-of-the-line flat-top guitar. Made at Gibson’s famous factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, it boasted a super-large 16-7/8” flat-top body, with a double-braced red spruce top, rosewood back and sides, and initially only a sunburst finish. Given the weak, post-Depression economy and upcoming wartime austerity, the ornate Super Jumbo was initially produced in very limited, made-to-order quantities.  

2. In 1939 it was renamed the Super Jumbo 200. As with Gibson’s model-numbering practices of the era, the “200” referred to its initial retail price of $200. That would be circa $3,100 in 2012. If you had the money, an extra 50 bucks got your name inlaid along the fretboard. Bling!

3. The original Super Jumbo 200 was super rare – records suggest that in the first four years before the U.S’s involvement in World War II, Gibson shipped only 100 SJ-200s.

4. It was 1947 when the tonewoods changed – the back and sides were now being made of maple. Soundwise, many guitar aficionados prefer maple as it allows for clearer separation of the notes. But early models made from rosewood are highly prized by acoustic guitar collectors, purely for their rarity.

5. It was 1955 when the name was simplified again: from hereon, it was mostly called the Gibson J-200. That said, the model name SJ-200 has since been used on special models.

6. What’s that guitar pictured on the album cover of Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline? It’s Dylan’s J-200. Dylan was given the guitar by The Beatles’ George Harrison. Dylan played the guitar live at 1969’s Isle of Wight festival in the U.K.

7. The Beatles’ George Harrison himself was keen a fan of the J-200 – he “upgraded” from the Epiphone acoustics he previously favored to record The Beatles, a.k.a. “The White Album.” “For You Blue,”  “Here Comes the Sun,”  “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Long, Long, Long” and “Piggies” all feature Harrison playing one of his Gibson J-200s. Harrison also composed most songs for his solo debut, All Things Must Pass, on a Gibson J-200. Was this the very same guitar given to Dylan, and later given back? Fab Four fanatics, let us know the truth!

8. The Gibson J-200 eventually came with a “mustache” bridge. We just like that. A mustache bridge.

9. A Gibson J-200 was the defining acoustic sound of The Who’s Pete Townshend. He wrote “Pinball Wizard” on his J-200, which starred on most all recordings beginning with The Who’s Tommy album. “I picked it out from about five at Manny’s in New York in 1968,” Townshend told Gibson.com. “ It had a crisp sound and an easy neck. It was only later I found how well the J-200 records when you play it hard. Like the Everly acoustic, it has a rather dead soundboard and that allows you to really dig in when strumming. They are hard to bring to life with piezo pickups because the sound is so distinctive in real air, but the body shape, the necks and the sheer strength of the guitar are all very important to me. They also look utterly beautiful.”

10. Townshend’s favorite J-200 “exploded.” He was working on his solo album Iron Man in 1990 when disaster struck. Townshend told Guitarist magazine:  “I don’t have romantic misconceptions about musical instruments – they’re just wood, probably far more useful as pulp than anything else. There are actually a couple of instruments that I would miss, and in fact a weird thing happened to the J-200 that I’ve had for a long time. Half-way through Iron Man it got wet in the studio and exploded. It was almost like the guitar getting back at me – the only guitar I cared about dying on me!” Pete donated the original guitar to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1993. Townshend and Gibson later collaborated on his own signature model.

Pete Townshend still didn’t stop smashing J-200s, though. Watch Townshend on Letterman in 1993. Oh, Pete. Why did you do that?

11. Elvis Presley was a famous J-200 player. In October of 1956, Elvis acquired a new Gibson J-200N guitar, serial number #A22937. Elvis played the guitar for most shows in 1957.

12. Coldplay’s Chris Martin has auctioned his best-known J-200s. At the end of 2009, the U.K. band hosted an “End of Decade Clearout Sale” for members of their “Coldplaying” message boards, comprising instruments, clothes and memorabilia. Martin’s Gibson J-200 KC1, used to record “Til Kingdom Come” was auctioned for ?5100; his J-200 M1 used to play another X&Y song,  “A Message,” went for ?5650. The complete auction raised over $400,000 for Coldplay’s designated U.K. children’s charity, Kids Company.

13. If you want to “go large” on the already flamboyant J-200, you’ll be wanting the Gibson SJ-250 Monarch. It’s amazingly ornate, with gold-plated tuners, detailed inlays, intricate bindings and the very finest AAA tonewoods.

14. If you want to “go smaller” on a J-200, check out Emmylou Harris’s smaller Gibson L-200.  Harris played J-200s on all most of her classic albums, including Angel Band where she holds the J-200 given to her by Gram Parsons on the cover photo. The L-200 is just as nice as a J-200, but more manageable for smaller hands.

15. At the end of 2010, early J-200s came sixth on Vintage Guitar magazine’s “Most Valuable” list. Specifically, Vintage Guitar rated a 1938-42 Gibson Super Jumbo/SJ-200s at being worth between $90,000 and $120,000. The early use of rosewood = rarity.

16. The Everly Brothers played customized Gibson J-200s on breakthrough hits “Bye Bye Love” and “Wake Up Little Suzie.” In 1962, Gibson launched the Everly Brothers guitar model, a design blend of the J-200 and J-180.

17. Jimmy Page played a Gibson J-200 on most acoustic Led Zeppelin tracks. Some suggest Page “borrowed” his first J-200 from U.K. session player “Big” Jim Sullivan… in Page’s pre-Zeppelin session days, he was sometimes known as “Little” Jim, so producers knew who was booked. But Page definitely used his Gibson J-200 on Led Zeppelin cuts “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” “Your Time is Gonna Come” and “Black Mountain Side.”

18. Edge’s J-200 is his “bedrock” acoustic for U2 albums. The solo on “Love and Peace or Else” from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, is a J-200 stuck through effects and played with slide.
Edge can still “busk” acoustic, though. Another Letterman performance below – even if you hate U2, this is impressive: two 40-something men in chairs + a Gibson J-200 = singing with a cowboy vibe. Bono gets his own lyrics wrong, but Edge keeps a strummin’. Rex Traylor would be proud.

19. Noel Gallagher plays a J-200. But before the royalty checks started rolling in, Gallagher wrote many songs on its more cost-conscious sibling, the Epiphone EJ-200. It was Noel’s EJ-200 used to write and record Oasis’s “Wonderwall.”

20. After all this, much credit must go to pioneer Ray Whitley. The 1930s C&W singer worked with Gibson in 1937 to help develop the SJ-200. Whitley was the first performer to own a Gibson SJ-200 and that very first SJ-200, custom built for Whitley by Gibson, remains on display in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Gibson is currently building a 100-only limited-edition run of SJ-200 Ray Whitley Specials. Completely hand-tooled, these SJ-200s include a diamond dotting the “i” in Gibson’s logo on the headstock and handpicked, precious gems unique to Montana, are set in each bridge pin. It looks utterly beautiful, even for an SJ-200, and is a fitting tribute. Hats off to Ray Whitley... you helped start it.

More Gibson acoustics:
John Hiatt and his J-45
20 Essential Facts About The Gibson J-180

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You Don’t Know Jack: 10 Essential Performances from Jack White

Jack White is popular music’s most powerful riffsman of the past two decades, with a gift for writing, co-writing, arranging and producing songs that sink their hooks in, thanks to potent guitar parts that churn or roar even when he’s on the drum seat in his latest band, The Dead Weather. That quality won him the #13 spot in Gibson.com’s Top 50 Guitarists of All Time list.

This Saturday, July 9, White celebrates his 36th birthday, and to mark the occasion, here’s a list of 10 essential recorded White performances that map out the terrain of his remarkable artistry:

10. “Seven Nation Army”
This number is proof of White’s riff-making magic and his way with sonics. The tune from 2003’s Elephant by The White Stripes rocks like a pachyderm thanks to the climbing and descending chord sequence that underpins it, plus a unique octave hopping tone created by White’s use of the DigiTech Whammy pedal. Of course, White’s signature braying rock vocal also makes “Seven Nation Army” unforgettable.

9. “Icky Thump”
The title track from The White Stripes’ 2007 album is a play on a phrase that means, essentially, “Oh God,” as in “good grief,” from the Northern England dialect. What makes the song stick is its snaggled stumbling riff and White’s guitar interjections. He solos with his Whammy pedal again, making his strings whine like a jet engine beginning to fail. The song was a huge success and was the first track the Stripes put in the American Top 40.

8. “Wayfaring Stranger”
Although White’s mostly known for his electric guitar wizardry, this tune from the soundtrack for Cold Mountain, a Civil War film in which White plays a lost-soul soldier, gets to the heart of his love of roots music and shows how it extends beyond the country blues of his more publicly heralded idols like Son House. The song is a traditional British ballad that made it to the Appalachians with the region’s early English settlers. White plays his Gibson F-4 mandolin on this track and with fiddle accompaniment, turns back the clock by a century-and-a-half. Although it is absent on this track, White’s other acoustic instrument of choice is his Gibson Hummingbird guitar, which appears elsewhere on the Cold Mountain soundtrack.

7. “Fell in Love with a Girl”
Going back to 2001’s White Blood Cells, this White Stripes track is straight-out-of-the-garage Detroit rock. The grinding chords are direct descendents of the MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges, with a little bit of pop sugar added via White’s “ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah” chorus tag.

6. “Blue Orchid”
White’s on the Whammy pedal again as well as a vintage Electro-Harmonix Polyphonic Octave Generator for this tune, which is the most direct Led Zeppelin tribute The White Stripes ever cut. It’s not just the grind of White’s axe that recalls Pagey’s more brittle tone settings but his voice as well, which emulates Plant’s wailing range.

5. “I’m Finding it Harder to be a Gentleman”
Perhaps one of the most complex love songs in The White Stripes’ cannon, this number appears on White Blood Cells and puzzles through disconnection and mixed perceptions among couples. The riff, which swells and ebbs like a tide, is perfect for White’s uncertain storyline as well as his singing, which is one of the least mannered of his studio vocal performances.

4. “Catch Hell Blues”
White’s country blues influence rides shotgun on this tune from Icky Thump, quivering and sliding in the tune’s intro and leaping off to more experimental ground from there. For a rich taste of White’s slide playing, this is the place to start since his articulation is better than on renditions of the oft-circulated White Stripes’ performances of “Death Letter” and many of the group’s other slide-based tunes. And with only a handful of lyrics, his playing truly comes to the fore.

3. “Steady, As She Goes”
This debut single from the Raconteurs’ first album, 2006’s Broken Boy Soldiers, kicks in with a chiming single note riff and then reels into cawing chords that give way to a flood of guitar. It’s a good example of what White can do when teamed with other formidable musicians.

2. “Hustle and Cuss”
Ultimately, The Dead Weather may prove to be the best proof of White’s potent production abilities since his sonic exploration, arranging talents and nose for riffs seems to blend most seamlessly in this band. The irony, of course, is that White plays drums in The Dead Weather. But he does so extraordinarily well, and this song from the group’s 2010 album, Sea of Cowards, flat-out rocks like an avalanche.

1. “The Big Three Killed My Baby”
A rare protest song in The White Stripes catalog, this 1999 single was included in reissues of the band’s debut album. White’s guitar speaks with locomotive force as he spins a yarn inspired by a series of brutal strikes against the “Big Three” automakers in his native Detroit in the 1950s.

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The Gibson J-45: 20 Essential Facts

 For nearly 70 years, the J-45 has not only proven itself a Gibson classic but also a benchmark of acoustic guitar design. It has remained, mostly, unchanged – proving that the best ideas are often the first ones. The journey of the Gibson J-45 keeps going. Here are some facts you need to know…

1. The J-45 was part of Gibson’s round-shoulder, dreadnought “jumbo” line that began in 1934 with the Gibson Jumbo Flattop.

2. 1942 was hardly a great time to be launching a new guitar. World War II was raging, times were hard and there were government-imposed rations on the commercial use of timber and metal. 90% of Gibson’s workforce was recruited for war-related projects. The remaining Gibson luthiers had to use up to four pieces of (then rare) spruce for the J-45’s top. Spruce was also used, back then, in U.S. airplane manufacturing.

3. The J-45 was originally only available in a sunburst finish. Why? Because a sunburst finish was better-suited to a multi-piece top – the finish would better disguise any join in the timbers. 1940s sunburst J-45s are rare now, and very collectible.

4. The J-45’s “The Workhorse” nickname was coined by Gibson. The idea was to produce a guitar that was unflashy but stylish, a good value and great sounding for any acoustic player.

5. The J-45 boated improvements on Gibson’s 1930s J-35. Top bracing was improved with an X-brace behind the soundhole. The J-45 also had a rounder neck, instead of the J-35’s overtly V-profile.

6. In 1943, Gibson made a few J-45s with a maple neck but no truss rod because metal was still in short supply for guitar makers due to WWII. Other 1943 J-45s were built with mahogany tops, and some were all maple.

7. The J-45 remains Gibson’s best-selling acoustic guitar ever.

8. John Lennon had an epiphany playing a Gibson J-45. When The Beatles went to Rikishesh, India, in 1968, a fellow traveller was Scottish folk-pop singer Donovan Leitch. Intrigued by Donovan’s playing on the Gibson J-45 that the musician had brought along, Lennon asked if Donovan would teach him fingerstyle/claw-hammer techniques. “I explained it would take three days at least to get the basics,” remembered Donovan. “He was a good student. It’s a difficult style that requires perseverance. When John had it down, he was so pleased to find a whole new way of songwriting emerge. That’s what happens to a natural songwriter when you get a new set of performing skills. He immediately wrote ‘Dear Prudence’ and ‘Julia.’ John wrote lots of songs for the ‘White Album’ [proper title, The Beatles] based on this new style.”

9. Donovan bought his cherry sunburst Gibson J-45 guitar in July 1965, during his visit to the Newport Folk Festival, but it was stolen from a U.K. concert hall in the early 1970s. Donovan is still looking for his favorite guitar.

10. Michelle Obama gave Carla Bruni, wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a sunburst Gibson J-45 as a gift in 2009. The U.S.’s First Lady’s gift was given at a NATO summit in Strasbourg. Bruni is not only an actress/model, she’s also a singer and guitarist.

11. In 1968, Gibson made some J-45s with white pickguards that were screwed-down into the body. Gibson never tried that again.

12. Bob Dylan has reverted to playing a sunburst J-45 since the mid-1990s. Dylan first owned a J-45 in 1962 and the sound of a J-45 is all over Dylan’s early albums.

13. Buddy Holly’s favorite acoustic was his Gibson J-45. Like Elvis Presley, Holly had a leather cover made for his guitar: the cover included Holly’s name on the face, the songnames from his debut single “Blue Days, Black Nights” and “Love Me” on opposing sides of the top of the body by the neck, as well as having “Texas” spelled out along the bottom portion of the cover in white lettering. Holly played his Gibson J-45 to record “Everyday,” “Send Me Some Lovin’,” "It’s Too Late” and many more.

14. The J-45 (and natural finish J-50) became a go-to acoustic for numerous blues players from launch. Pink Anderson, “Mississippi” John Hurt, Gabriel Brown, Elizabeth Cotten, Blind Gary Davis, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Skip James all played the instrument at some time.

15. Rush’s Alex Lifeson used a Gibson B-45 (the J-45’s smaller brother) 12-string on the album 2112.

16. Why “45”? The original recommended price was $45. A 1942 Gibson J-45 will now probably cost you at least $5,000.

17. Early J-45s are known to collectors as “banner” models – they sported a silkscreened gold banner on the headstock which proclaimed “Only a Gibson is Good Enough.” These instruments are very rare.

18. The J-50, launched in 1946, was essentially the same guitar, but with a natural blonde finish.

19. James Blunt’s favorite guitar is his 1966 sunburst Gibson J-45, used to write and record his breakthrough Back to Bedlam album.

20. Jefferson Airplane’s Jorma Kaukonen’s first “proper” guitar was a J-45. “I wasn’t interested in being a guitar player,” he told The Jewish Standard. “I just liked singing songs.” To persuade his father to pay for the guitar, Kaukonen had to learn how to play two songs perfectly. One was “Jimmy Brown the Newsboy.” Kaukonen nailed it and got his coveted J-45, bought at a music store on M Street in Washington, D.C.

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