Guitars, basses and other noisemakers (1 Viewer)

I think I got six slabs for $700, maybe less. I had to sell three of them and I got $500 each. They sold quickly. I have three left and hopefully some day I'll get around to making the Explorers and Vees. The wood for the neck is easy to source, as is the Brazilian rosewood for the fretboard. I'm thinking of making two with the hockey stick headstock and one with the split headstock.

Hockey stick

explorer.jpg

8-4548Explorer-Skinnera.jpg


Split headstock

split haedstock.jpg
 
I think they made the original 40 Explorers as a novelty to give away to their biggest retailers across the country. I don't think anyone thought this would become a coveted iconic guitar. They had no faith in the Burst but they made around 1700 of those. These -- they made 40 total. I did hear that there was one laying around the Gibson factory for many years. It belonged to an employee who left it behind. Eventually someone realized how valuable they had become and snapped it up. Just rumor and mythology but I've heard that story many times. These guitars are the most faked of them all. Be very wary if someone tries to sell you one. People with originals used to sell a fake guitar with a real case. The case is very very rare so people thought if the case was correct then the guitar is good. Now a real case is almost a dead giveaway of a fake guitar.
 
Speaking of "old blanks," the Fender custom shop will now make you a Telecaster with a body that used to be a Hollywood bowl bench...

fender-HB.jpg


And it's only $12,000!

A couple of the articles I've read claim the bench wood is 100 years old, but the bench seats they tore out in 2014 (which I assume these are) were installed in 1981, so the wood is really 36 (or so) years old. The original 1922 seats were replaced in 1958. I doubt anyone has been storing the 1922 benches for 59 years, but who knows...
 
Anyone who would take that Boys town tag off an old deluxe is a damn fool. I bet it's still on there.

I love that Hollywood bowl guitar, but it looks like that seam could become a problem. How many did they make? Is it laminate or solid?
 
Otto jr said:
it looks like that seam could become a problem.
Click to expand...
Seems like the whole thing could become a problem because it's cedar. But aside from that, they didn't resurface the wood, so I think if you played it you'd have to keep a tweezers in the case to pull all the splinters out of your forearm. Seems like it's more for show than playing.

They didn't say how many, and I think I read that it's solid, but I can't find that article now. Once I saw $12,000 I stopped looking for more details. That's a lot of money for something rubbed by a thousand asses.
 
That's almost as bad as the Clapton "Beano" Burst custom shop aged re-issue of Clapton's sunburst that he owned for less than a year in 1966, was stolen, never recovered and he didn't even remember what it looked like or what year it was (58/59/60). The only thing he could remember was it had a thin neck, so people assumed it was a 1960 Sunburst. 1960's often have a slim neck compared to 58s and 59s. They made it like those other aged re-issues that have every ding and mark of other people's famous guitars that they actually had in hand to copy. So it's a mark for mark copy of a guitar that they didn't have in hand and nobody on earth remembers what it looked like. They sold for $6-10k new.
http://www.gibson.com/Products/Elec...Gibson-Custom/Eric-Clapton-1960-Les-Paul.aspx
 
I don't know why Gibson insists on doing those replicas of famous people's guitars. They did one for Bob Marley and it didn't even look like his Special. The color was so far off -- everything just felt "off." They missed the mark everywhere.

Well, I guess I know why they make those things: because people buy them. Collectors I guess. They keep them in their wine cellars. I don't think any working musicians are buying those things.
 
a 2 year old news piece but hey, a very cool shop. I can't afford a DiPinto guitar but have gotten a cool old Epiphone electric guitar and a Gibson 12-string acoustic there and traded in some old stuff.

 
Didn't a Rosewood raid shut down Gibson Nashville for a long time?

Not to get you started or anything...

;)
 
Purple Stickpin said:
I may try some 12s to replace my 13s. It's time for an en masse string change anyway...
Click to expand...
When I buy strings I always buy a lot (and I don't change them very often), so I was disappointed to find out my favorite set (Fender 150TR) was discontinued several years ago when I tried to buy some today. Ha.

No one makes a 10-38 set now, and I was surprised to learn that people think it's an odd set. I've been using them for, oh, 40 years, so I guess I've just been out of step. I had to go to juststrings.com and order the individual strings (.010 .013 .015 .026 .032 .038).

But no wound G. I still can't go there.
 
I don't know much about guitars, technically but I know a little. So uh, why no wound G?

and I love leaving strings on as long as possible. Brand new ones need to be broken in and just sound off to my ear, too clean...something.
 
The wound G discussion was earlier in the thread.

I don't think most common string sets that your "typical" guitarist buys use a wound G. The top three strings are usually plain steel. I mean, I've never bought a generic set that had a wound G, not that I can recall. I leave those to the bass players. ;)

This my last set of the extinct strings. Look how sad and forlorn they are...

last-fender.jpg


It's enough to make a man weep.
 
This Marissa Paternoster Premiere Guitar "Rig Rundown" fills my heart with gladfulness.

"Tell us about your guitar."
"I don't know that much about it."

 
A few notes on the Fender viddy for those who might be wondering:

0:51: this looks to be the initial body formation of what might have ended up as a slab Precision bass. These were originally made for the UK market in the '50s, but I don't know if they were still in production in '59. In about '66 they made another run for the US market. They lack the body contours that you can see being added from 2:33-2:41. I suppose that made the bodies of higher mass, which might have added some thump to the low end, but those beasts can be very heavy.

5:10: this Stratocaster body is lovely. I've nothing to add to that.

5:33-6:00: the women appear to be doing pickup winding and other electronics-related prep, but I can't be sure.

6:23: What appears to be a tobacco sunburst Strat being held by the shirtless man would likely fetch $50,000 or more in that condition today.

6:36-6:42: Installing strap buttons (sure looks that way to me). What's odd is that, in this era, Fender had the "upper" strap button on the back of the headstock, but may also have offered the upper bout of the body option, which is what looks to be going on here.

6:44-7:10: final touches to that tobacco sunburst Strat. Shirtless dude is a jazz guy based on his voicings.
 
Some of those guitars are not considered vintage either way. Old does not equal vintage. A 1973
Strat is old but should not be considered vintage. To me vintage is 1964 and earlier. After the Beatles appearance on Sullivan every kid suddenly wanted to be a guitar player and all the mass production began. The Guitars made before this event are the vintage guitars.
 

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