Gibson CJ-165 Rosewood

I love small bodies and this is one of the best I ever played. The short neck, despite the 14 freets, is very easy and cnfortable.

The full specs are taken from the Gibson website:
BODY
Body Style: 15" SJ-200 Body Style (mini jumbo)
Top Species: Premium Sitka Spruce
Back and Sides: Premium Indian rosewood
Body Binding: 4-ply top and single ply back
NECK
Species: Mahogany
Scale: 24-3/4"
Profile: V Shape
FINGERBOARD
Species: Ebony
Binding: single-ply
Inlay: MOP Parallelograms
Nut Width: 1.725
BRIDGE
Bridge: Traditional Gibson Ebony Bridge
Bridge Inlay: MOP Dots
Pins: White
HARDWARE
Tuners: Mini Gold Grover
Pickup: Active electronics with sound hole mounted volume control
Case: Premium Hardshell

I play mostly fingerpicking blues and ragtime and I love acoustic versions of tunes from J.Browne, J. Martyn and J. Jonhson. This guitar is perfect for this purpose. The sound is rich and deep thanks to the deep body and the big sound hole. The tones are full rounded across all the spectrum and the volume similar to the Gibson dreadnoughts. The richness of the sound is the real surprise of this guitar. I did not try any other equal cj-165 models as this was the only one in the shop but I was really impressed when I compared it with the Gibson J-45 and the J-300 taking into account the small size. I also compared it with the Martin 000-28ec that was my target but I ended up to chose this for the outstanding tone and playability (for much less Euros!).
I have tried different strings, from Martin 10 (that the ones I bought with) to Elixirs 12. I think that it gives the best with Elixirs 11.
On youtube you can still find a promo video of this guitar from Gibson. I am not impressed by the video and be sure that the guitar sounds much better than it is shown. I don't feel to give a 10 because there should be around, for sure, guitars even better than this but it is for sure the best guitar I ever played.

The guitar came perfect out of the box. It is extremely light and this gives the impression of a very delicate object. The lacquer finish is delicate and prone to scratches. The action is also quite sensitive to the strings but even with 12 strings the action is very good all across the neck.
Bridges and nuts are plastic and I plan to replace them with bone ones, not because there is something wrong with the plastic ones but just because I think this little pearl deserves more.

I play mostly at home and I take good care of my guitars. If well protected by the case when not used it can last forever.

Warranty with Gibson provided through the shop. No need to contact them so far.

I play 35 years. I own an electric Ibanez As-73, a Crafter TA-035, an Ibanez Concord from 1970 and a classic Yamaha G-100. I also owned an Ovation GSE24. This Gibson cj-165 is the best of all as I love the loud sound wrt to the small size. I am also surprised that this is the first review of this guitar. There are not so many deep body and small size guitars on the market and I think that, considering the sound, it will be difficult to beat this one.