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NGD: Gibson J185-12 left-handed

Axelorox

New member
Joined
Sep 12, 2018
Messages
83
Last week I acquired this left-handed Gibson J185-12. There's a great story behind this one. Photos are at the bottom of the post.


The origin story:


I am a huge Paul McCartney fan. Mull of Kintyre was the song that got me to pick up guitar as a teenager. The instruments Paul uses inspire my own purchases, especially since we are both lefty players. I'd been playing for some years, but still not gotten a 12 string guitar. I live near Southpaw Guitars in Houston, TX, so actually have been able to try out a fair number of lefty 12 strings, but never found one I really liked. I noticed that in recent years Paul has had a sunburst Gibson J185-12. It sounds great in the live performances and album tracks he uses it on, and has the Paul connection, so I turned my sights to this model.


However, left handed J185 12 strings are not in production, and quite rare. When they do come up they are always in natural finish instead of sunburst like Paul's. So I figured I would need to order one via Gibson's Made to Measure (M2M) program, for which Southpaw Guitars is an authorized dealer. In late November, I let the owner know that I was wanting to order a lefty J185-12 through M2M. After finding if this was possible and getting a quote, he asked me what I wanted for details like finish. I said I wanted one in sunburst, showing a photo of Paul McCartney with his J185-12 as reference.


The owner gave me a knowing smile and asked, "Do you know where Paul McCartney got his? It turns out that Paul McCartney's staff had ordered his J185 through M2M and Southpaw Guitars back in 2013 in preparation for his big world tour. The store still had on hand the original specs of that order. They thought my idea was a good one so ordered a second guitar for the store, both built to the same specs as Paul's. They would be the only three of their kind in the world!




Choosing my guitar:


Being a lefty player, getting to try out and pick between multiple guitars of the same model is a rare and appreciated experience. When I got the email that the guitars were in I rushed over to the store within the next hour. The first guitar I picked up seemed nice enough during a few minutes of playing it, if a bit thin and rattly. But these had been delivered just that day after coming from Bozeman in the winter, and were not set up yet, so this was understandable. Then I got to the second one. I didn't realize until some time had passed that I just did not want to put this one down. I noted the serial numbers and left my final decision until they were professionally set up later in the week.


A couple days went by, and both guitars had been set up (by the same tech who set up Paul's guitar, nonetheless). One had a serial number ending in 21, the second guitar's serial number ending in 22. I spent over an hour evaluating and comparing them based on qualities such as resonance, volume, and aesthetics. In the end, you could say it was a real... catch 22.


I'm very happy with this guitar. It has a beautiful finish and evenly dark fretboard. The resonance, volume, and tone are incredible. There's a good amount of bass and low end which have been lacking in the 12 string guitars I've played in the past. I played it at a show recently and it held its tuning well and sounded angelic. I can sense that many great songs are going to come out of this one.




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