Gibson Southern Jumbo Original Review

Worth The Money

This guitar has a slimmer neck than I'd prefer but the action is low all the way up the fret board. Light as a feather and killer sound. The only complaint is some uneven lumps around the sound hole. Like either the Lacquer bubbled up or they shot over a bad crunched piece of wood. Not a deal breaker but for the price, would have liked it to be perfect.

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A beautiful guitar

This is my first Gibson acoustic and I bought it so that I could retire a '79 Martin HD-28 that I bought as NOS in '84. It's impossible to not compare them to each other. First off, the SJ is beautiful and the workmanship is top notch. The factory set up made the guitar hard to play, but after having the nut, bridge and truss rod tweaked, it played like a dream with nice low action.… read more I just used it at a show for the first time and it held tune really well and the built in mic / preamp did a really good job of making it sound natural. The neck has a little more heft than my HD-28 and that was a welcome change. It also has less of a boomy low end which I can really appreciate. I had my eyes on a J-45 initially, but I'm happy I went with the SJ. The inlays on the fretboard and the open back tuners look fantastic. I know this is a guitar that I will use a lot. I'm very happy with it and the good people at Sweetwater were professional and kind as always. Thank you!

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Southern Jumbo

Love It! I already owned a J45 Custom I've had for 9 years and a J45 Studio I've had for about 3 years, so Gibson and specifically J45s are my favorite without a doubt. This guitar plays great and the tone is amazing. I'm considering changing the standard pickup to to get "that tone" when plugged in, but I'm going to give it some time and let the guitar get broke in a little, before… read more I make any change like that. Will Crisp at Sweetwater was awesome as usual, and went above and beyond!! I definitely recommend Sweetwater and Will!! FedEx left much to be desired in their delivery schedule and keeping customers updated and their customer service, they're basically a joke. Fortunately, that has nothing to do with the quality of this guitar or Sweetwater.

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Amazing Guitar

The guitar sounds amazing. Great volume and tone. Nitrocellulose finish smell right out off the case is great!! Overall playability is good. The action is a little higher than I like, but not bad. I'll adjust it later. My Sales Engineer, Jay was great and the experience purchasing from Sweetwater was outstanding! I placed my order for the Gibson Southern Jumbo on Friday morning… read more knowing that it wouldn't be in stock for a few weeks. Jay called me That same afternoon saying that they had one in stock and could ship it ASAP. I said that's great. It shipped out on Monday and I got it on Thursday. I had looked into ordering one of these from a big chain so I could pick up in person, but after asking two stores when it would arrive if I ordered that day and both said October of 2023, which would have been an 18 month delivery time. That's when I checked with Sweetwater and wow Im glad I did. They sent high quality photos of the guitar for me to review and for me to give the ok to ship. As I said before I got it in less than a week and my sales engineer followed up to make sure I was happy with the purchase. Happy is an understatement to the tenth degree!!

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Surprised in the best way possible by the Southern Jumbo

I recently bought my first new guitar ever – a Gibson Southern Jumbo and also the first time I've purchased a guitar sight unseen from an online retailer. I own two vintage Martins – a '47 000-18 and a '49 00-17 – plus an '02 James Goodall Grand Concert and while I've been playing casually for forty years I've been more serious in the last dozen years living with a professional… read more musician. I've always loved the sound of a Gibson J45, which is really what a Southern Jumbo is and it was the mahogany back and sides combined with bone nut and saddle (although the saddle really should be compensated and isn't) thin nitrocellulose lacquer and tapered bracing that pulled me to this specific model. And it was hard to sift through all the different models and features. When I got the guitar, and it came a day earlier than expected, I unpacked it and it was already in tune. Well, very close after traveling across the country. What really impressed me is that right out of box it already sounded great. So after about five weeks of playing it now, it's only gotten better. It seems to get better every day. The first thing I did after four days was to swap from whatever strings Gibson uses at the factory to my favorite string – D'Darrio Nickel Bronze 12-53's. Simply the best and longest lasting string (and non coated) I've found that bring out the mid tone sweetness of all of my acoustics. The action seems just about perfect. It's possible there might be tick too much neck relief but that's easily adjusted. The guitar plays easily and in tune and sounds great anywhere on the neck. The nut is slightly narrower than my other instruments but feels perfect after after a few days of playing. My only nit is with the Grover 18:1 open back tuners. They're relatively smooth and 18:1 is a good ratio but they simply aren't in the same league as Waverly's, but that's fifty dollar set vs. a hundred bucks more for the Waverly's. Every time I pick up this instrument I'm blown away at the tone of this guitar. It's every bit as good as any of my others including those 1940's Martin classics. And it's just beginning to start the process of opening up. It's only gong to get better. So, the bottom line is that I took a chance buying a guitar online and could not be happier with the build, the appearance, but most importantly, the tone. Peter Figen Peter Figen Photography Los Angeles, Ca.

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