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 How much is my guitar worth? Seems like a pretty cut and dry question doesn't it ? Well a lot of factors can contribute to the final answer. How much is it in relationship to the present market is one answer. How much do you expect to get for her is another. How much will a buyer ( dealer) pay is quite another answer. Is she straight and clean? Have any parts ever been changed? Is it refinished? If parts were changed do you still have the original parts? Were the changes done professionally? Hang tags? receipts? case candy? All these items come into play with that one simple question. Can you and will you send pictures of all the appropriate parts and different views if needed? This may require you to take apart to some extent your guitar , are you comfortable doing this? Sure you can look at one of the auction sites to get a general feel for prices ,and if that is all you want then that would be my suggestion. If you do rely on one of these( shudder ) sites for this information then why even bother calling for quotes? Are you selling your guitar or amp or do you want to know if you paid a fair price for it when you made the purchase? If you are selling the item then know that most purveyors of fine fretted instruments will not nor can not pay top dollar for your item. Certain overhead has to be met to remain in the arena here ,so please do not take offense if you are offered less than you saw on that auction site( which we tend to completely ignore).Now as far as the condition is concerned,pictured are nice but never tell the whole story, any changes,let me repeat myself, any changes whatsoever will impact the price of an instrument even if these changes made the guitar or bass or amp a better piece of equipment,especially in the collectors circles. Speaking of circles, there are some basic price structure circles to know about.#1- collectors quality,only the best examples of the most desirable pieces fit into this category and prices are on the steeper side. #2- collector / players grade, The item still retains most of the original parts.#3- players grade ,most parts still there but may have wear or finish issues.#4-players,Some parts changed ,and finish redone or lots of wear.#5- beaters , almost none of the guitar or amp is as it left the factory when new .and within these groups are even further sub groups all with pricing criteria and fluctuations. So if you call someone for that elusive but attainable answer to you question, know that you should know most of the answers to the questions that you will be asked also. Have detailed pictures ready to send via email and be honest, Let the guy on the other end of the phone know why you are interested in knowing the price, let us know if your selling,shopping, or need an evaluation rather than a quick answer. If you do want an in depth evaluation you may be asked to pay for one, Yes time is money and nothing worthwhile is ever free, so be prepared to pony up, so to speak.I Recommend that you purchase a price guide on line or at a book store , these are helpful but not the rule in establishing a fundamental price , but again if your guitar is worth 1000.00 dollars , no one will pay that ,because they in turn have to sell it to make a profit ,so they can not pay what they have to sell for.Like everything , their are fluctuations,standards and exceptions to every rule. Like always this is just my news and view. I hope it has been somewhat helpful.So until next month, may all your days be memorable, all your friends stay true and all your riffs be killer, Greg at Greg's guitar. 6:29 AM | Permalink | click to add a comment November 30, 2008
Keeping your guitars clean,yule be glad you did.For this months edition of Vintage guitar news and views we turn our attention to the maintenance and upkeep of our guitars ,both our playing guitars and our investments , which in my opinion they all are . Winter time is upon us ,dreary days and cloudy skies ,all but most of our outdoor jam sessions have ceased to exist, the perfect time for tuning up our guitars as well as general upkeep and cleaning, the following is standard but sometime items we either forget or put off to do, so get a space cleared out and enjoy a day with all your guitars, yule be glad ya did.The first thing I do is oil all my latches on my guitar cases and inspect the handles for signs of weakness or need of repair, I take my guitar out and place her on a nice padded work station while I clean the outside of each case with a 20 per cent mix of warm water and mean green cleaner , I use a stiff brush and dip it into my cleaner and give the outside of my cases a good cleaning , followed by a good wipe dry with a clean towel. Now while I sit my case open to dry either in my heated guitar room or place them in the sun if it shining to air dry while I move on to my guitars.I loosen and remove the strings from my personnel players guitars and usually have no string on my guitars I offer to clients until I ship them. I inspect the frets and dress them as needed, as well as polish my frets. I clean and lubricate the Brazilian rosewood as well as other rosewood fretboards using a damp lint free cloth and buff the dry with another lntfree cloth.I will then follow with a small amount of unboiled linseed oil to lubricate my fretboard or if you prefer some other oil , then feel free to use that, I just like the linseed oil myself. I allow a little time for this to dry before I buff the fretboard dry being sure not to leave any oil or residue on my fret boards. This step does not need to be taken with maple fret boards as that are usually sealed .Next I remove the truss rod cover if applicable and drop a little 3 in 1 oil on the threads of the rod and wipe up any excess, I then check the neck for any adjustments I may want to make and restring my guitars to tune. As for the electronics I will add a lubricant pot cleaner to the inside of each pot very sparingly as well as the selector switch insuring to turn them back and forth to spread the cleaner around and again wipe up any excess that may be there. I then button them back up and go onto general body cleaning and polishing. For this step I use a silicon free cleaner formulated for guitars ,available at places like Stew-mac and other websites that specialize in guitar parts and luther supplies. gently wiping the cleaners off I then follow up with swirl and scratch remover , followed by a good silicon free guitar wax , I buff to a good gloss the entire guitar as well as the back of the necks , followed by a product such as fast fret on the strings . I then go back to the case and either use a shop vac or a carpet cleaner and follow with a shop vac to clean the interiors of my cases. Insuring that the case interior is completely dry I detune and place my electric guitar back inside, I should note that I do each step on each electric guitar or bass guitar before moving to the next step ,that way I do not have to be going back and forth through each step ,but rather have a assembly line system in which each guitar or bass gets the same treatment before moving on. This is pretty much the same steps I do for my acoustic guitars as well, with the addition to checking the tops ,bottoms and sides for any evidence of lack of humidity , I will place a homemade humidity device in each acoustic at the beginning of the heating season and recheck every 2 or so months until the weather permits I no longer have to use the heater ,Heaters rob moisture out of our acoustic guitars and can cause significant damage if left unchecked for to long a period. My humidifier is basically a household sponge that I have soaked and wrung out all the excess water that it absorbed, place it in a small baggie that I have perforated and place that inside a larger baggie that is perforated also, drape it between the strings and let it suspend inside the sound hole of my acoustic guitar. It works great and costs a lot less than store bought humidifiers. Now as for amps, I variac them up every now and then to keep them loose and in working order, I keep them covered and condition the outside tolex with your basic armor all, I might add that I do not hurry in any of these steps, I look forward to spending the quality time with my girls and they to benefit from the time well spent. I hope the holidays are enjoyed by all and as us all this is just my news and views ,so until next month may all your days be memorable, may all your friends stay true and may all your riffs be killer  , Greg.November 2, 2008
November Edition of Vintage Guitar News and Views. Giving thanks for groovy guitars This article explores Vintage Ibanez guitars,Well one in particular anyway and what she boasts as far as appointments and playability ,plus a little interesting vintage guitar history. Ibanez got her humble starts by a company going by the name of " Hoshino" ,in the early 40's producing a spanish styled acoustic guitar that was named Ibanez. By the 1970's Ibanez ( which Hoshino had purchased the rights to)was known (good or bad) as the lawsuit guitars, for their blatant copies of more renowned guitars being produced ,Although most were cheaper imitations and copies ,the fact does remain that many Ibanez "lawsuit" era guitars were of comparable if not superior quality to the guitars the were produced to mimic. I will let you be the judge of that point. Now what we have here is a wonderful example of what Ibanez was creating in the early to mid 1960's. I have found an older picture of this very guitar on a German Ibanez website , and also a picture of the one and only Jimi Hendrix playing a very similar model ( upside down of course) in a sunburst color scheme as opposed to the white beauty we see pictured here.Knowing that every guitarist must start somewhere on the guitar food chain , and by no way implying that this guitar was ever owned or played by Jimi, the body shape and era that it was built is reasonable enough to inject that this was the type or at least close enough to the type that Sir Jimi cranked many a tune to the amazement of both audience and fellow band members alike. After playing her for quite a while now and coming to the conclusion that even though she is never going to be worth what the same era ,Fender or Martin, or Gibson guitar is worth ,I have decided that she is unique enough,plays good enough and has many nicely though out features that she is a keeper, and I can fully understand why Jimi played one similar to this mode. She just has such wonderful dynamic harmonic explosions tucked away in her, the neck is to die for and well since she is a little on the small body size , she is light enough to play for days. Her is the run down on some of her features..1 piece ash body with the pickups mounted directly on top of the body ( directly coupling for superior resonance) , the pickups themselves are unique in the fact that under the metal covers are 5,yes 5 huge round alnico I magnets that are so large as to only 1/3 of each magnet couples between each individual adjustable pole screw,that alone accounts for ( in my book anyway) for her tremendous tonal qualities. She is routed for the pots and wiring only beneath her 1 piece plastic pick guard located below the pickups. Another interesting and in my opinion superior design is the way her controls are laid out, no 3 or 5 way selector switch to bump and fiddle with while playing ,no sir ,this girl boasts one master volume control for both the front (neck) and rear (bridge ) pickup, this enables the player to dial in an indefinite array of tonal possibilities. As for a tone / treble control she has just the one master control for this ,which I like as it certainly adds to ease in playability and control of my sound.I do not see as to why the electric guitar manufacturers today don't do this as a standard feature.,The neck as I have stated is to die for, 1 solid piece of Mahogany ,perfectly sculpted for a fir like a glove to your fretting hand, and smooth as oriental silk, non bound (thank goodness) with a zero fret ( lord does she stay in tune) and a beautiful 3/8 of an inch thick slab of Brazilian Rosewood for a fretboard with a 10 radius, I love it and am seriously considering making an exact copy to place on a Tele.The only weakness and the only thing I have ever considered changing ( i wrestle with ) is the bridge setup. Now I am no fan of the cheap thumbscrew rosewood adjustable bridge on ANY guitar . let alone an electric, but, this one does stay where it is supposed to and does have compensation for proper intonation, but I would like to try a bigsy or Gibson style bridge and tailpiece but shudder at changing her from her original state, ah decisions decisions...She is one of the most in tune guitars I have and many friends alike agree all the way up and down the fretboard ,which makes my even happier that I acquired her.The headstock has an arrowhead shape with a single all encompassing string tree bar, metal Ibanez logo and ,(ugh) open back tuners, another point I have considered replacing, but hey like they say,"if it ain't broke ,don't fix it" Dynamically harmonic,sweetly sustaining,and extremely light in weight,yes this old girl ia as unique as it gets in the world of guitars. Who knows ,maybe the exact features that Jimi liked about his own 60 era Ibanez, before his change to an easier accessible American guitar? I hope you enjoy looking and remember to take the time to enjoy the obscure guitar for what they are and you as I may be delightfully surprised in what we find. As always this is just my News and Views. So may all your days be memorable, all your friends stay true and all your riffs be killer.Greg's Guitars. September 30, 2008
The October edition of Vintage Guitar News and Views.
After settling on a budget, here are a few tricks to help you when treating yourself to your guitar. I really can not stress enough the importance of this first tip, play with your hands and ears, not your eyes. A pretty guitar that does not sound good or does not feel comfortable will not be played as much as a guitar that say may not look as great but has the tonal qualities and feel you really desire, so take the time necessary to choose your guitar,you will be glad you did . In purchasing a guitar there are specific questions one should ask the seller to insure that the guitar you are hoping to purchase is free from any defects and is in proper working condition if it is an electric guitar. Also you should be asking questions as an inspection process for the seller, who may not have working knowledge of guitars. This is both helpful to the seller of an item and to you as a purchaser. The first question as a buyer that you should ask in purchasing an acoustic guitar is the neck straight; this can be determined by the seller by placing the body of the guitar on the floor and holding the headstock and sighting down the neck. This will show any bows or twists in the neck. A bow if not to pronounced is acceptable as to you or a luither adjusting the truss rod to compensate for either a back bow or a front bow. An additional picture could be requested to determine how severe the bow is. The second question should be ,is there any damage to the guitar. Then if no damage is inspected ask if ANY repairs have ever been made to the guitar, repairs can be a neck set, a refret,a new bridge, new nut or a new saddle, some of these repairs are not harmful to the guitar, but some can detract from the value especially if it is a vintage guitar, In which you want almost no work at all in the way of either repairs or work done to the instrument. A visual inspection for repairs can be accomplished on an acoustic guitar by the seller by loosening the strings and taking a small extendable mirror and a small flashlight and looking inside the cavity of the guitar for ANY extra bracing, any extra small cleats of wood along seams, broken braces, extra wood around the underside of the soundhole,and any cracks that may not show through the top of the finish on the outer side of the guitar. Always ask for extra pictures on any thing you want to see or on any questionable repair work. A good seller will; be happy to do this , if your questions are not answered or if you cant get the answers you want then the guitar in question might not be the one you want. I hope you find these guitar buying tips helpful while on your quest for tone. See all my articles at www.gregsguitars.net May all your days be memorable, all your friends stay true and all your riffs be killer, Greg. Great guitars at Greg's 1:33 PM | Permalink | click to add a comment August 1, 2008
The August edition of Greg’s guitars “Vintage guitar news and views”
Thinking Out of the box
With the fall of yet another American iconic company being bought up by a worldwide multinational giant, is anything ever going to be the same? How can I relate this to the past, present and future of the guitar industry? Well let me see. Company “A” starts production, builds some great guitars, innovates the industry and sells out 7 or 8 years down the road to a larger corporation “company B”. Company B makes some changes to the product, most which are almost irreversible , then bleeds the original company for all they are worth until they too finally succumb and are forced to sell . For all realistic purposes company “A” is gone and so is the original product, never to be again except in a nostalgic nod and wink to the past in a somewhat pale attempt to recapture the glory of days long gone by. This scenario is for the most part repeated over and over through the years until only 2 to 3 large corporations now control the manufacture, marketing, sales and distribution ,as well as hype of almost all the guitars sold today. Sound far fetched? Look again. With this scenario in place , the bottom line becomes …. Well, the bottom line. Their will be a few aha moments and a select few great products come back out to market, and even some “niche” builders will fill the void where once a great product once stood.
As the large conglomerates prey upon our nostalgia and production overrides innovations everyone and everything slows to a simmering suffrage. So where does it all lead and Greg what is your point? Certainly the big boys will continue to crank out and reap the lions share of rewards due mainly to the brainwashing of us as consumers, think about it, we play certain styled guitars because that is our perceived “norm”, you could build the most fantastic guitar ever and if it doesn’t “fit” well, it will not sell. Period. Which is where I now lead us, I have been lucky enough to play and get turned onto some really cool guitars. These are not made by any of the big boys, not expensive, but rather inexpensive (cost only) Very well built attention to every detail and yes they all share the same mold that we have been taught are the right shape. Yet they feel different, they feel…. Better, they seem to be even made better with better attention to detail and finished product that once graced the land in the beginning, yet they cost a fraction of the comparable models that should be the best.
I believe in change, change they say is good, certainly manufacturing has changed ,yet the big boys, the heavy hitters rely on making us think inside the box of constraint, where the unattainable past is the present and the present isn’t anywhere near as good as the past that they want us to buy into……. The bottom line is still the bottom line. Now don’t get me wrong, there are some and will continue to be great products being pumped out for all to be had of that I am sure. But, well, I just wish we as a group would look outside the box, the small builders the lesser known guys and maybe just maybe some change could do us good, maybe ,like our micro brewery buddies they to have learned something from the past and are just waiting for the rest of us to catch on….. But hey like always is just my news and views. May all your days be memorable, all your friends stay true and all your riffs be killer, till next month Thanks for reading Greg’s guitars “Vintage guitar news and views.” http://www.gregsguitars.net 1:57 PM | Permalink | click to add a comment |  Tag: vintage guitars,vintage electric guitars,vintage fJuly 2, 2008
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The July issue of Greg's Guitars" Vintage guitar news and views." |
SUN 15 JUN2008 | June edition of greg's guitars "vintage guitar news and views"By greg |
The 1960’s – An Era of Change
Ah, the 1960’s…the rise of surf music, the loss of 1950’s rock icons and across the Big Pond an interest in and resurgence of American blues music will soon give rise to the British Invasion and some of our future guitar legends.
The guitar manufacturers were also undergoing some changes themselves and as research and development plodded forward, These changes were reflected in the guitars themselves. Over at Fender, Leo and the gang brought us the Telecaster, and although not its replacement, but by Leo’s standards an improvement in design, he then brought us the Stratocaster in the early 1960’s. The pre-CBS Stratocasters (1959 to 1964)underwent some significant changes within its own design. Essentially, the Stratocaster was still the same guitar as always, with some (as enthusiasts contend) cosmetic changes, some of which were esthetically pleasing, minute at the time, but all eventually changed the 50’s ‘Strat. Some say it changed for the better, some argue it changed for the worse, but we will let that dog chase its tail on its own.
So what were some of the changes? Well, first to come to mind was the fretboard – Fender went from a maple fretboard to a rosewood fretboard ,with the maple as an option, the Rosewood which throughout the 1960’s got progressively thinner, and in late 1962 even had a bottom radius to match the arch of the neck’s top radius. The black fret position markers were also changed to clay dot markers on the fretboard face. Also, the trussrod which was placed through the backside of the neck, and gave us the skunk stripe inlay was placed via under of the rosewood fretboard, thus eliminating the skunk stripe itself and doing away with the pegheads plug inlay. As a result, I am probably correct to assume that it also facilitated speed in production and less articulation on the builder’s part – remember, Leo was a “bottom line” kind of guy. But being cost conscious why go from an 8 screw to an 11 screw pickguard cover that was now introduced ? ( obviously for better coupling) and Fender replaced the thinner one-ply pickguard with a triple-laminated (the mint green coloration, according to Fender, was a mistake) and often a shielded one. Yes Leo was known to shave a dollar here and spend a dime there all the while listening to his field of test players in the trenches, the raves and the complaints were all a grand part in Leo’s quest for perfecting his “girl” the Stratocaster.
The 3 color “bursts” were phased in over the standard 2 color s( although some 3 color one do appear as early as the later half of 1958) Some of the production models in the earlier 60’s had a strange combo of older and newer parts (again Leo saving a dime) until all the old inventory was used up and production was ramping up. Also we see on dealers charts of the day an array of colors appearing and disappearing, choices such as Lake Placid Blue , Sonic Blue, Sherwood Green , Foam Green, Shoreline Gold Metalic , Olympic White , Surf Green , Burgandy mist , Black,Blonde , and The Sunburst were some of the custom color choices as a customer you would have had. Interestingly enough Shell Pink was one that was discontinued and Candy Apple Red was introduced.
Because of undercoat “primer” changes from silver to gold in 1965 / 1965 we can also see a wide array of coloration discrepancies all within the same known colors of a particular guitar.(especially within the reds) At times due to a lack of guitar for a customers color order, a desert sand or sunburst that didn’t quite take well was over sprayed the custom color , again to save inventory and probably speed thing up a notch ,we will never really know. So by 1964 Leo and the gang was kicking out some mighty fine guitars, progress was being made, expansion was constant and changes were taking place. Then another turn in the house of cards was to take place. In 1965 the sale of Fender to CBS, making what some argue the most highly desirable (PRE CBS) and prized guitars in the market as we know it today. But , That is just another piece to the puzzle and another story for another day and as always this is just my opinion here at "Vintage Guitar News and Views", all brought to you courtesy of Greg at www.Gregsguitars.net. So may all your days be fair all your friends stay true and all your riffs be killer, Thanks and I will see ya next month .Greg.
MON 12 MAY2008 | Vintage guitar "news and views" by www.gregsguitars.netBy greg |
for all your guitar ,bass and band promo items,amps,vintage guitars,quality fine gear reasonable prices."Vintage Guiatar News and Views a monthly article to inform and entertain the guitar collector community.http://www.blog/gregsguitars.net| Copyright © 2009 greg. All rights reserved.  Subscribe to this Site | ||
