The Gibson J200 VS, for Vintage Sunburst, is one of the largest production acoustics and continues the reign of “The King of the Flat-Tops”. First appearing in 1938, the J-200 was immediately adopted by major country players. The original selling price was $200, with a $50 upcharge to have your name inlaid in the fingerboard. The J-200 has sometimes been named the SJ-200 (Super Jumbo), and outside of the war years 1944 to 1946, has been in regular production since its introduction.
Instruments
Here’s a piece of Canadiana – a Deering Jens Kruger Tenbrooks banjo with Kavanjo pickup head, used in Whiskey Jack, the band that backed up Stompin’ Tom Connors. The Deering Jens Kruger models are the top of the Deering Tenbrooks line. As the name suggests, Jens Kruger was closely involved in the design of this banjo, in particular the tone ring which emulates prized pre-war Gibson models.
The Boucher SG21S comes from Boucher Guitars, who make very high quality hand crafted guitars in the heart of Quebec and their calling card is their use of locally harvested Adirondack Red Spruce. Simple elegance and outstanding quality control are on display when you first observe these fine instruments.
This Fender Purple Sparkle Telecaster was built during 2003 at Corona California Custom Shop and aside from the spectacular finish features a 50’s profile Birds-Eye Maple neck! Drawing from the popularity of wild automotive finishes in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Fender has offered many custom finishes, some based on the ‘Candy’ concept of using a metal-flake base layer with a translucent colour over top.
This lovely Thompson 00 Redwood and Rosewood guitar was built around 1996 by Ted Thompson in his one-person shop in beautiful Vernon, located in British Columbia’s Okanagan region. Ted Thompson has been building since 1979 in the Vernon area. His guitars are exceptionally well and cleanly built and have clear, crisp and well articulated sounds with plenty of harmonic content. These are wonderful instruments for fingerstyle.
The Martin 000-28EC signature model is based on the guitar Eric Clapton used for an historic performance. On 16 January 1992, Eric Clapton performed for a small audience at Bray Film Studios in Windsor England. This iconic performance for the MTV Unplugged TV series would spawn an accompanying album that would become his best selling with 26 million copies worldwide. His guitar of choice was the Martin 000-28.