1970s Global (Japan-made) J-200-Copy Jumbo Guitar




This guitar has been hanging-out in my racks for years now, but was low-priority in and among a consignor's other instruments. He asked me to get it going for him, though, and I'm not one to deny a customer the thrill of the chase.

I'm not sure which company built these Global-branded jumbos, but it's definitely not the same company that built the Alvarez, Aria, and Ibanez copies that're more regularly seen around the net. This one differs in many ways -- it has a tenon neck joint, bigger D-shaped neck profile, longer scale length, deeper body which tapers less on the upper bout, and a big old rumbly sound to it. I like it a lot for chordal backing but I'm not as huge a fan of it for fancy flatpicking.

Now that it's done-up and back in good health, it sounds nice and plays well. It's definitely got some wear and tear throughout and is a little quirky, but it's a good, practical guitar and ready to go.

Repairs included: a neck reset (w/double-bolt reinforcement internally), fret level/dress, custom replacement bridge install (original was split, but I made one the same shape), pickguard reglue, cleaning, and setup.

Setup notes: action is spot-on low at 3/32" bass and 1/16" treble at the 12th fret. It's wearing 54w-12 gauges and the neck is straight from frets 1-12 but the fretboard starts dropping-off from there on (so the action is a little artificially higher than normal beyond the 12th fret). This is a slight drop-off so you don't really feel it unless you're playing way up the extension. The truss rod works.

Scale length: 25 3/4"
Nut width: 1 3/4"
String spacing at nut: 1 1/2"
String spacing at bridge: 2 1/4"
Body length: 21"
Lower bout width: 16 7/8"
Waist width: 10 1/4"
Upper bout width: 12 3/8"
Side depth at endpin: 5" (4 5/8" upper bout -- deep!)
Top wood: ply spruce
Back/sides wood: ply maple
Bracing type: x
Fretboard: rosewood
Bridge: custom rosewood w/bone saddle
Neck feel: medium/bigger-feeling D-shape, ~12" board radius

Condition notes: replacement bridge and saddle, finish nicks and dings here and there, some scuffs and discoloration to areas of the side finish, some minor finish cracking here and there, some scratching to the reverse side of the pickguard (it's reverse-painted so can be seen on the front a bit),  and the tuners were replaced with better sealed units sometime back. There are two little filled holes on the back of the heel from where I predrilled to install screw-reinforcement internally. There's also some finish chip-out/discoloration at the sides of the heel from when the neck had been separated a bit before. There's an odd nail(?) in the bottom of the heel which would not budge.














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