Hey Joe! It's Economics 101 - supply and demand, that sorta jazz. Collectors with big bucks (Yen, perhaps) price everybody else out. From a standpoint of materials and labor, there ain't $500 - $600 worth of either in any of these things!"It Shouldn't Cost 100,000s of Dollars': Joe Bonamassa on How Les Pauls Went From 'Just a Guitar' to Coveted Relics
Hello, my name is "Rusty" and I'm a guitar junky. Always looking around and shopping for something GOOD and AFFORDABLE. It's a strange marketplace. If you put too much trust in what you read and converse about you arrive at the notion that the only decent instruments were either made before 1965 or last month sometime. Coincidentally (?) These are the guitars with the highest prices.
"Vintage" guitars (those built before 1965) were built with good woods and craftsmanship, but as with automobiles and houses - old guitars are apt to require some serious work. A neck reset and refretting can set you back well over $500. You can probably get it done cheaper, but this is one of those areas where you get what you pay for. You can generally pick up a 10 - 15 year old instrument for several hundreds of dollars cheaper than a brand new identical model. A professional setup will usually correct any issues. There might not even be issues - some folks get bored and want a new guitar.
Sorry for the ramble! But bottom line - Joe and his billionaire collector buddies are the main reason that old Les Pauls go for "hundred of thousands of dollars".
@rusty well said mate but in Joe's defense he did say it was supply and demand and at least he does make music with and play some of the vintage gear he buys and shares it with us fans in his videos unlike some wealthy purchases who don' t do anything with it other than use it for bragging rights.
It would be cool to own some of that vintage gear but it would be wasted on me so I just wish less wealthy struggling musicians had access to it to make music with.
And I agree with you in that non vintage used gear is the best value but then again it always has been IMHO.
I got my 2000 barely played Les Paul natural finish standard for about 2/3 the price of new back 15 years ago. Same with my 1975 Fender Deluxe Reverb when silver face Fenders were a good deal compared to older Black face versions. Silverface Fenders are still less expensive than Blackface versions but the gap has been closing IMHO.
If I ever buy more guitars, when I finally retire and have time to play I would no doubt buy used.
@bill_graham My own 000-28EC. Sounds like gold - plays like butter! Awesome guitar!
That is a beauty Rusty, if I ever buy an acoustic I would love to get a Martin.
Just curious how is the work on your tag sale acoustic going? You get it back yet?
@bill_graham The Guild Re-Build is complete and a success! Neck reset (no visible traces or scars) and the removal of the buckling faceplate (laminate) and refinishing the faceplate with a third party Guild logo that is 98% similar to the original. Guild geeks (and there ARE some!) could spot it.
I agonized over refinishing it. I only did because the shrinking faceplace material (the laminate) was binding against the tuners. Luthier (Randy Wood - Pooler, GA - J. Cash, E. Presley, E. Clapton et al) says that the work could be removed with furniture stripper and a putty knife if I ever wanted to restore to original. I still have the shrunken (still shrinking) faceplate.
It is certainly a "players" guitar. Really in better shape and condition that I describe. Drippin' with another man's mojo, though! I wish it could speak! The way that it fell into my hands ... like it was supposed to be. Honestly, the Martin has been in its case since I got the Guild. This thing has projection! LOUD! Great for finger-picking whilst singing (howling).
I'll post some picks asap!
Norman's Rare Guitars-Gibson Custom Shop 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue Murphy Lab | Guitar of the Day - Kirk Fletcher
Guild Re-Build Pictures
- I think I posted "before" several pages back? Only old picture is the original head stock condition. The Guild purists screamed for it to be left alone. I wanted to repair it but couldn't find real, honest to gosh GUILD logo/inlay - whatever. I found the dark world of on-line suppliers of bogus guitar bodies, parts and even decals. Then, I decided that the headstock should be left as it was. Previous owner mojo, or whatever. Then it became obvious that the faceplate had shrunk to the point where it seemed to be binding the tuners. Taking the facade plate off helped to the point that the original tuners did not have to be replaced The guitar stays in tune forever!
State of the headstock when I got the guitar:
Headstock with new overlay and counterfeit Guild logo (nice build/install by the luthier!):
Removed faceplate, bogus decal and receipt reflecting luthier and charges:
Complete resto':
Whole package - zoom in to see the original asking price of $125.00.
Never really been a Guild guy. Never really even PLAYED Guild before. Lesson learned: as stated earlier, OLD cars, houses and guitars are really cool! All of these things are going to eventually require some serious love. Like that song says, "how do you spell love? M-O-N-E-Y!" That I got it for $50.00 - and invested $500.00 into it means that I have a genuine, built before 1965, American-made Guild for less that $600.00. I had considered "flippin'" it for a profit, but then I fell in love with it. I never bitch anymore when the wife makes me go to yard sales!
Guild Re-Build Pictures
- I think I posted "before" several pages back? Only old picture is the original head stock condition. The Guild purists screamed for it to be left alone. I wanted to repair it but couldn't find real, honest to gosh GUILD logo/inlay - whatever. I found the dark world of on-line suppliers of bogus guitar bodies, parts and even decals. Then, I decided that the headstock should be left as it was. Previous owner mojo, or whatever. Then it became obvious that the faceplate had shrunk to the point where it seemed to be binding the tuners. Taking the facade plate off helped to the point that the original tuners did not have to be replaced The guitar stays in tune forever!
State of the headstock when I got the guitar:
Headstock with new overlay and counterfeit Guild logo (nice build/install by the luthier!):
Removed faceplate, bogus decal and receipt reflecting luthier and charges:
Complete resto':
Whole package - zoom in to see the original asking price of $125.00.
Never really been a Guild guy. Never really even PLAYED Guild before. Lesson learned: as stated earlier, OLD cars, houses and guitars are really cool! All of these things are going to eventually require some serious love. Like that song says, "how do you spell love? M-O-N-E-Y!" That I got it for $50.00 - and invested $500.00 into it means that I have a genuine, built before 1965, American-made Guild for less that $600.00. I had considered "flippin'" it for a profit, but then I fell in love with it. I never bitch anymore when the wife makes me go to yard sales!
Beautiful guitar Rusty. Well worth the investment IMHO
"If we lose the amp-making business, we lose everything. We’ve got to go back and show the guitarist community that Marshall truly cares about them”: From digital amps to modelers and mods – Marshall’s new CEO has big plans to win back guitar players
https://www.guitarworld.com/features/marshall-amps-ceo-jeremy-de-maillard-interview-2024
Norman's Rare Guitars, 1958 Gretsch White Penguin | Guitar of the Day - RARE GUITAR
Best Gretsch guitars: Nail that Gretsch sound at any price point
https://www.musicradar.com/news/best-gretsch-guitars
Normans Rare Guitars, 1951 Stromberg Master 400 | Guitar of the Day - Jonathan Stout
Joe Bonamassa Explains How Slash 'Single-Handedly Reinvigorated the Les Paul When 'Formulaic' Hair Bands With 'Pointy' Guitars Were All the Rage
Norman's Rars Guitars-1941 Gibson J-55 | Guitar of the Day - Carl Verheyen
5 of the Most Iconic Martin Acoustic Guitars in Music History
The Story of Sex Pistols Guitarist Steve Jones' 1974 Les Paul Custom
Recently Resurfaced Sex Pistols Gibson Les Paul Surpasses Estimated Price at Auction, Here's How Much It Sold For
Eddie Van Halen didn't like the Allman Brothers Band. Music too cluttered. Thought Duane Allman was an excellent slide player but didn't care for Dickey Betts and Fillmore East.
Oh well. I saw Van Halen and the stupid clothes they wore and all the jumping around and too much tapping Eddie.
@robertdee Different strokes, I guess. EVH was never MY thing, but I respect his talent and approach. Never spent a nickel on anything Van Halen related, but I know he was a talented player. Regarding the article - I kinda hate it when a journalist quotes a deceased artist - who can't speak in his/her own defense. I'm sure if you peeled another layer or two you'd have found that Eddie had more respect for the Allman Brothers.
@rusty They posted another interview with Eddie Van Halen and he had some respect for Led Zeppelin and they were a favorite band of Eddie's when he was young. But he said " Jimmy Page is too sloppy to be in a major band. He plays like a man with a broken hand".
Eddie was indeed a very accomplished guitar player who was very influencial and innovative. I remember going to clubs in the 1970's and more often than not the guitar player was trying to play like Jimi Hendrix. In the 1980's like Eddie Van Halen. 70 percent of them were tapping and like the 70's heavy on the whammy bar.
No question Eddie replaced Jimi as the most copied guitar player with rock bands famous or not.
@rusty They posted another interview with Eddie Van Halen and he had some respect for Led Zeppelin and they were a favorite band of Eddie's when he was young. But he said " Jimmy Page is too sloppy to be in a major band. He plays like a man with a broken hand".
Eddie was indeed a very accomplished guitar player who was very influencial and innovative. I remember going to clubs in the 1970's and more often than not the guitar player was trying to play like Jimi Hendrix. In the 1980's like Eddie Van Halen. 70 percent of them were tapping and like the 70's heavy on the whammy bar.
No question Eddie replaced Jimi as the most copied guitar player with rock bands famous or not.
EVH was certainly innovative. Les Paul, Hendrix and Eddie - probably the three players who revolutionized playing more than most others? That might be a fair statement. Look around - it's a world of EVH clones out there! At least he (and Slash, Joe Bonermassa et al) keep younguns interested in guitar! As far as the tapping goes - I saw Frank Zappa doing that stuff before I knew who Eddie Van Halen was!
Interestingly - as the article points out - Eddie was a huge Clapton fan. Probably no bigger fan of the ABB/Duane than Eric Clapton.
Speaking of Slash - here's an article where (among other things) he praises the Allman Brothers - especially, Dickey!
@rusty EVH must of come up with something unique with his playing and the guitars he modified. Eddie said in several interviews I read that before they got their first album released he would turn his back to the audience so any guitar players there couldn't steal the licks he created.
And on his modified Strat ( Frankenstrat) the only thing Fender on it was the whammy and he layer replaced it with Floyd Rose. Eddie got a router and put a pickup from a Gibson ES-335 in the Strat and if I remember correctly it was the only one that worked.
The other pickups and some switches Eddie added were dummies not wired to the electronics of the parts guitar.
This was to confuse other guitar players and guitar manufacturers so it would be difficult to copy and get Eddie's exact tone.
I read the Slash interview and I enjoyed it. I'm glad he had some Dickey rub off onto his playing and I appreciate the nice thngs he said about Dickey.
Sometimes I think Dickey was the best guitar player ever in the Allman Brothers Band when you consider his tone, sence of melody, his melodic unique style on guitar and the great songs Dickey wrote for the band. He just stands out for more things than the others plus his vocals. Duane had the energy, drive, determination and how to put a group of musicians together that works so well together.
https://youtube.com/shorts/yFd4t21cdrg?si=9nV4XgoHNuCqCmWc
@robertdee Like Eddie Van Halen - Duane's genius and fervor cannot be denied! If there was a single drawback to Duane's playing it would probably come in his willingness to improvise and to just go to a different new place each time he played the same song. As exciting as this was, he would occasionally "go outside the lines". I read recently where Derek Trucks compared Eric Clapton's slide against Duane's (on the Layla album, I think). Clapton tended to play with a certain amount of restraint. He said that Duane "... was often off the rails". Improvisation can be risky! Duane's playing was amazing, but to my ears he could cross the centerline every now and then! 😉
Well, I've digressed from Eddie to Dickey and onto Duane. Now, we're back on topic!
@rusty The tracks Tom Dowd selected for At Fillmore East and the live tracks on Eat A Peach show Duane more constrained and careful than some of the audience tapes I have. Lead and slide.
Dowd I've read was ready to shut down if the horns were not nixed and he asked the guys not to go too far afield so a trainwreck was more likely.
Butch Trucks boasted the original band would take chances and go way out there until for several bars they weren't playing the same song with no regard or fear of a trainwreck. Butch made those comments not long after the band retired in 2014 when he complained that Derek and Warren had gotten too predictable, afraid to take chances and make a mistake. That for the last years of the band he knew exactly what they were going to do before every solo before they played it. ( Butch may have been eating sour grapes as he was irritated the band wouldn't continue another five years as a favor to him as they did when they wanted to quit in 2009)
When they finally released most of the Fillmore tracks, you can hear the horns ( Dowd said the horn players were out of tune) on some including this one and the solos aren't as careful to stay on the tracks.
"Yes, it did make my guitar look cooler – but it took a bit of getting used to…” I’d always wanted to try a Bigsby, so I put one on my Les Paul. It changed the way my guitar sounded – and the way I played
https://www.guitarworld.com/features/i-put-a-bigsby-on-my-les-paul
This is one of the best examples of the most collectable guitar ever made": Gibson Custom unveils recreations of Jason Isbell 'Red Eye' 1959 Les Paul Standard
@bill_graham Personally, I think those big, clunky-lookin' Bigsbys just ugly-up a Les Paul. My opinion - but to me,, the guitar just doesn't look like it was built to receive one - and all clunkied-up, ugly. LP players (the ones that I love) just bend those strings on that "fretless" neck. If somebody GAVE me a Les Paul with a Bigsby on it - first thing I'd reach for would be a screw driver! Again - my opinion.
@porkchopbob I have a cheap (<$400.00) Epiphone lap steel that I have been thinking about trying to put a Bigsby on. In my fantasy, this would be like a (very) poor man's PEDAL steel. Not sure that it would fit - but the first video that Bill posted shows a shorter version of the Bigsby ... bringing out the mad scientist in me!
Norm's Personal Collection - Vintage Gibson Les Pauls
Evidently Norm loves P90's
Jeff Beck Les Paul? interesting read - especially of Rick Nielsen's (Cheap Trick) involvement.
https://www.musicradar.com/news/gibson-honours-jeff-beck-with-yardburst-1959-les-paul-standard
Maybe not all that interesting - just wanted to bump the Guitar Porn thread. 😉
