Gibson Dove

paulth

Always wanted a Dove, but in reality I don't know much about which years are better etc and £s.  I see some price and my eyes water and yet other especially in the US seem better but the prices are allover the place. 

Has anyone got an experience of buy a 2nd hand Dove and which years to look out for or give a miss to?

ICBM

I have a 2008 one which I paid £1250 for three or four years ago. They may be a bit more now, I'm not really sure.

The modern ones are really nice, I doubt there are any specific years to buy or avoid, but like all Gibsons you really do have to play the one you want to buy - they vary a lot even for ones made on the same day. Some time ago I shop I worked for took two new J-45s, with almost consecutive serial numbers - one was great and the other was a dog.

stickyfiddle

I have a from-new 2014 model that I paid a lot more for than @ICBM did..! Bloody marvellous guitar though, up there with the very best acoustics I've tried.

ICBM

I just checked the new price and I feel even luckier to have found mine when, and as cheap, as I did...

Mine is the best-sounding modern acoustic I have ever played. I also have a CJ-165 which is really nice too, but completely different - there's almost no overlap in their tone character at all despite both being all-maple Gibsons.

stickyfiddle

FWIW mine knocked socks off the following in the shop:

3x different J45s (2 normal, one walnut, which sounded and felt lovely but was poo-brown)

2x hummingbirds

1x D18

1x D28

1x HD28

1x HD28V

The HD28 was the only thing that came close and I'm sure I'll end up with one of those at some point too, but my Dove was really head and shoulders above all the others.

ICBM

The really odd thing is that 'conventional wisdom' states that all-maple guitars are very scooped-sounding - boomy and bright - and particularly with a long-scle maple neck are quite hard-sounding, and that a large thick bridge is a tone- and volume-killer.

The Dove is very balanced - more so than any other guitar I know of, it just sounds instantly totally right however I play it, whereas with every other guitar I've owned I've always found I needed to adjust my technique a bit to get it to sound balanced. That's why I knew I had to buy it as soon as I played it.

Even more remarkably the CJ-165 is extremely middy - no bottom or top-end at all, really - and has a very soft, almost flubby attack.

So much for 'conventional wisdom' .

noisepolluter

ICBM;675883" said:

Even more remarkably the CJ-165 is extremely middy - no bottom or top-end at all, really - and has a very soft, almost flubby attack.



So much for 'conventional wisdom' .

My J-45 is like that, rather stereotypically. Thankfully the mid-heaviness suits the style of flat picking and finger picking I like to do!

ICBM

noisepolluter said:

My J-45 is like that, rather stereotypically. Thankfully the mid-heaviness suits the style of flat picking and finger picking I like to do!

I like it for a particular style, although it's not what I would want as a first choice - it is definitely an alternative/luxury guitar for me - but the Dove will not do it, so I had to buy the CJ as well . And they do make such a pretty pair…

http://i.imgur.com/sJUuleC.jpg

Sassafras

I do like the shape of that CJ. Looks lovely.