Think I found my new guitbox :)

G/L that's a pretty big investment.

I'd play a LOT, 10's and 10's and 10's of guitars before I spend that amount. :)

Thanks guys, but I do have a clone of this model but with out the electronic pickup.
A clone is just that - a clone. The one thing that you can almost guarantee, is that the neck will not be the same as on your clone. In fact, you'll often find that the neck on different examples of the same model differ in the neck. It may be slight, but some will feel fantastic and others will feel totally alien.

I recently picked up an early 1960s Gibson ES345. The neck was absolutely fantastic - for my hand. If I'd had the necessary £1400, I'd have bought it, even though it needed a lot of restoration, to return it to its original glory - one owner had refinished it with a poorly done sunburst, poly lacquer, non-original tuners and some odd pickups. These things are, for the most part, cosmetic and all are easily rectified. The one thing that made it a real gem was the neck.

Don't set your heart on one thing and ignore a guitar that suits you better, just because it wasn't the one that you'd set your heart on.

Do Crafter actually say that it is a clone of the Gibson? There are dozens of guitars that look "similar" to the Gibson, but none of them are clones.
Are the Crafter's dimensions exactly the same as those of the Gibson? Does it have the same type of finish? Does the fretboard have the radius? Does the neck have the same profile? Is it made of the same woods/materials? If you can say "No" to any one of those, it isn't a clone and may disappoint you when you get the real thing in your hands.

Take, for instance, a Squier Strat. It is superficially a Strat clone, but get a Squier and an MIA Strat in your hands and you'll notice how much they both differ from one another - and they're made by the same company.

Don't forget that acoustic guitars, from one company, tend to have an identifiable sound. This is the reason that some people will only play Martin or Taylor or whoever. The chances of the Crafter sounding like a Gibson are very slim.

In which case, my previous post still stands - Crafter give the specifications of their guitars on their website, as does Gibson (if I remember correctly), you'd need to compare the two to see just how close the Crafter is to a Gibson.

the guy at the store who I trust says its a good reputation of the J-45 that's why he recommended the j-45

You made two mistakes here. Mistake one is trusting the guy at the store. Mistake two is letting him recommend you a guitar (especially a Gibson). If he gets paid commission he will definately be giving you a biased answer (he's trying to get you to spend more money so he gets a fatter paycheck!) It's no different if he's the owner of the store either. I realise that there are the occasional people who work at these stores who are truely trying to help, but a vast majority (especially those who work at big chain stores) will be looking at the inexperienced player/buyer as a means to make some good money.

Now for the price of that Gibson, you could get a Takamine, Martin, Taylor, or Guild. All of which I find to be nicer guitars and generally don't have the "OMG it's made in AMERICA 200% markup" of a lot of Gibson models. Granted Gibson does make some nice guitars, but there are nicer quality instruments available for cheaper if you search around.

If you do settle on the J-45 as your guitar of choice, try to play as many of them as you can. As has been mentioned necks tend to differ not only model to model, but between individual guitars as well. Also it seems like a lot of Gibson guitars are hit or miss. They either play incredibly well and smooth or are so awful you feel like the guitar is covered in molasses and made from a dried prune.

Follow your heart, man! :D The Gibson J-45 is a fantastic guitar, the best guitar I've ever owned. I wouldn't feel any hesitation about picking one up. Though it is always wise to play a guitar before buying, sometimes that's not possible--I took a chance and bought mine as a scratch and dent special from Musician's Friend, and I never regretted it. (Nor have I ever found the scratch or dent!)

IMO Gibson acoustics are like a fine wine--they don't always hit you over the head with feel and tone when you first pick them up, but man do they grow on you once you get them home and start playing them regularly! I have a Hummingbird, too, which is also amazing. And here is the heresy: I have a Martin HD28 that rarely leaves its case. :oops: Sorry, don't hit me, don't throw things at me. That's just the way things are in my world.

That said, I'm not arguing that Gibsons are fairly priced--they're not. But price is determined more by the market than by the cost of making the guitar. Gibson could not charge so much for their guitars if there were not many, many guitar players who want them. In any case, there are many Martins and Taylors that are more expensive than the J-45. What's missing from the Gibson line is a lower-end guitar. Gibson is simply not in that market--there are no $1,000 Gibsons.

Gibson is also guilty of some questionable business practices, practices I find just plain wrong. But neither cost nor bullying dealers can detract from the beauty of the guitars. The J-45 is one of the best! :P