Jumbo guitars

Gibson's J-200 of 1937 was built for the singing cowboys of Hollywood and is still the biggest flat-top in regular production: a seventeen-inch lower bout, maple back and sides on most examples, and a sound that is as much about presence as volume. The small jumbo, from Gibson's own J-185 to Santa Cruz's H13, keeps the curves and trims the size.

Jumbos come through the shop as they do — a 1960 J-200, a 2008 SJ-200, an H13 in The Tree mahogany — and each is described with its originality stated and set up before it leaves.