J45 v's D18

£1000 in CDN bucks would be around 1600 dollars.  Wow, for that, I could get a top of the line Alvarez or a very nice 200, maybe even 300 series Taylor.

I've played a couple of Alvarezes lately that would easily go head to head or even beat a Gibson.  Would never pay that kind of money for a used Gibson that I'm pretty sure doesn't even have a pick up in it.

LOL, sorry, but I don't think there's any situation where I'd pay for a Gibson.  I'd take one for free though.  ha ha!   

Derick , if it had Mahogany back and sides, it will be a Hummingbird. If its a maple backed guitar, its a Dove.

The Dove is typically louder and brighter than the Hummingbird.

Hummingbird has huuuuuge bass, but is quite warm.

SJ200 is a jumbo, that is loud but quite balanced - A great strummer.

J45 is also balanced, even more focused, with strong note seperation, and a very thumpy bass - Less sweet than the Hummingbird, with lots of growl.

Those are the 4 iconic Gibson acoustics. There are others like the Songwriter, LG02 Amercian Eagle, J15, and J35 - All of them have their flavours.

The thing I like most about Gibson, is that they make guitars with distinct personalities. There seems to be an individual formula for each model, and not a "cookie cutter" approach to guitar building. I like that very much. I'm not saying cookie cutter approaches are bad - They produce very consistent guitars. Some of them are great. But I like the Gibson approach.

Beware though - The dud ratio is large!  I would never ever buy one blind. And if you're TonyKgull , you would never buy one period!!!