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#31
10-07-2014, 09:08 AM
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I was travelling across Texas and had my old Yamaha acoustic-electric with me. At the time, it was my only guitar. I had some nice gear when I got married, but we hit hard times and there you go.
Times were better when I stopped by the music store in Dallas (can't recall the name), but when you've been down, you never really quit worrying about money. I've always been a Tele guy, and they had this old Telecaster that changed what I think about Teles forever. I always liked maple fingerboards. This was rosewood. Bright, primary colors. This was an ash body, stripped down and refinished medium brown. Same with the neck. No decal. I liked chrome hardware. This was gold. Pickguards? Who cares? This had a tortoise guard. The back had a belly cut carved out. Nice work. The overall look of the guitar was striking -- almost like a rosewood Tele. It was rugged, rustic and absolutely beautiful. Previous owner had put Duncans and a four-way switch in. The neck was unbelievably comfortable. Nice and chunky, excellent fretwork. The place wasn't crowded and the salesguy was very tolerant and helpful as I played this thing for more than an hour, unplugged and plugged into a nice Fender Twin. The tone was just unreal. You could almost get a Stratty quack, plus a nice, full series tone. I had never heard a better Tele neck pickup. Just outrageously great sounding. The lead tone had that signature Tele twang but with a slightly darker, meatier edge. For a blues player, this was Nirvana. The salesman said he wasn't totally sure it was a Fender neck or body, though he believed they were genuine. When the hardware was changed to gold (with Grover minis), the neckplate was changed, so no serial number. There were screw holes left behind by a Bigsby. No idea how old it was. The asking price was $300. Now, this was in 1989, but still. I thought about trading my Yamaha in, but I was a choir director in a church at the time and was pretty sure they weren't ready for an electric guitarist only. And I would need an amp. In the end, it was too much of a reach, and I drove off and left that guitar for some really, really lucky future owner. Someday, I'm going to make or have made a guitar like that one. I've had chances to buy guitars, but I never really regretted another missed electric purchase like this one. (I do still miss my old Guild Starfire XII, the first good guitar I ever bought. But that's another story . . .) 
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#32
10-07-2014, 10:16 AM
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I haven't been playing long enough to have these kind of experiences yet, but one of my bandmates has. He sold an original Marshall JTM45 for $300 about forty years ago. He says it was just too loud for anywhere he might have played, ever. The one time he turned it up far enough to sound good, he got threatened with eviction if he ever did it again. He's working on a kit build of one now, now that he lives way out in the sticks.
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"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." -Zig Ziglar Acoustics 2013 Guild F30 Standard 2012 Yamaha LL16 2007 Seagull S12 1991 Yairi DY 50 Electrics Epiphone Les Paul Standard Fender Am. Standard Telecaster Gibson ES-335 Gibson Firebird
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#33
10-16-2014, 04:01 PM
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Quote:
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#34
10-16-2014, 09:29 PM
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Well, it's pretty easy to see how I missed this one. Until recently my electric playing has been next to zero for many years and I didn't visit this section. But with the recent revamping of that side of my life...
So the story: Back around 1980 or so, my early years out from Kentucky up in far Northern California, I decided I wanted to play at learning Dobro. I decided to go to the weekly flea market in Arcata, figuring to pick up a $5 POS warped/bowed neck Stella or something. Since I was going to play bluegrass style with raised nut it wouldn't matter. Long story short, I found a beatup, ugly 1962 Stratocaster for $50. Bought it, made a 3 way trade with two music stores and by that evening had a brand new squareneck D60 Dobro. My friend up in Humboldt county (who worked at one of the stores) still has the '62 Strat, last time I saw him. I think it's worth a bit more than the Dobro now. 
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#35
10-16-2014, 09:40 PM
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The other - FIRST - one that got away...
Forgot about this one...
Back in the late '60s I'd gotten an aged lemon yellow Gibson Les Paul SG prototype at a fine music store in my hometown of Louisville. While having some routine work done at the store where I bought it, some yay-hoo yanked the cable out hard, taking a split of wood on either side of the jack plug with it. The main salesman was a fellow musician and friend and felt terrible about it. He said the repair was no problem, but the finish fix... yikes! He offered whatever I wanted to do - send it to the best local guy or back to Gibson. I figured Gibson could match the finish best, so we sent it back there. After a few weeks the guitar came back but looked funny - different. There was no trace of the nice vintage patina on the yellow finish, but even worse the contours looked different. We looked at the invoice & to our horror saw that someone at Gibson had taken the prototype body, pulled a new slightly different current production body off the line and put the neck and hardware on the new body. They probably heard my scream all the way up to Cincinnati. They kept the guitar and I got something else from them, I was so disgusted with the entire episode...
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#36
10-17-2014, 08:59 AM
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As far as your '62 strat ... ouch! It was easy to get rid of those guitars back then because your Strat was only 18 years old (or so). Hardly vintage at all. Do you still have the dobro?
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#37
10-17-2014, 09:18 AM
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I have a Dobro just like it now, only it's a 1987 instead of 1980. The original one ended up with my ex, then with my best friend who bought it from her, then trashed it in a car accident.
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#38
10-19-2014, 03:58 PM
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The 2014 Gibson SGJ guitars are being sold at discounts now. You can pick them up at a few places online at under $500 ($469). That includes here in Canada. I'm thinking about getting one and I don't think they'll be around in 2015 ... I wonder if this will be the one that got away.
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#39
10-22-2014, 05:51 AM
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A magic early 2000's MIM strat. Agave blue, rosewood board, I let it go to fund something else thta wasn't as good. I went looking for a Tele and found that used and cheap too- just a special one. I keep looking over my shoulder for that one.
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3 Yamahas, a Taylor, a Martin, a Guild and a tele It is futile to do with more that which can be done with fewer. Hmmm.
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#40
10-22-2014, 07:28 AM
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Too many amps to count. Been playing since the late '70s. Before Jack White things like Silvertones, ampegs, heck, old gretsch and gibsons were dirt cheap.
On the selling front the only thing really was a pair of Gibson Nighthawks when they were first introduced. Not a huge deal money wise. I could easily replace them today so it's not like "I owned a '63 Les Paul in '65" story. But they were fun guitars, they were distinctive, and they represent a period that was great for me band wise. I was happy to see them reintroduced.
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I only play technologically cutting edge instruments. Parker Flys and National Resonators
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