Guitars... what you've got / what you want

Many variables -
- strip or overpaint?
- metallic? burst?
- flat or arch top?
- masking needed?
- kind of paint?
Could range from $150 to $500 I would guess. You could buy a body in the colour you like and sell yours (then you know what you’re getting …)

JagVI

https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--2Y6pR5t3--/t_card-square/v1656001448/rks2sorqktdzcxy5pk6m.jpg

Only $25k!

yeek
this was the living room floor the other day -
https://i.imgur.com/peqZgxs.jpg

Not shown - a 2003 Squier Jazz Bass that I got for $75 at the guitar center in Seattle; it's being stripped because I hate sunburst and is going to get something like a big dumb gibson mudbucker added to the neck spot along with the existing J pickups

My project from 14 months ago got interrupted by minor things like "my wife got cancer" and "I broke two ribs in a bike accident" and "my mother in law also got cancer". But after getting over covid last week I finally put all the pieces together.

Refinishing wood is the least fun thing in the world to me and I suck at it so over the winter I found a deal on a squire bass body in burgundy mist which is one of those colors I never even considered before. I routed everything out (with forstner bits and a dremel), drilled a hole for the side mount jack, sanded the neck pocket so my neck would fit, shielded everything, and then wired it all up. Cutting a clean hole in the pickguard was the worst part by far.

It's got a three-way switch with the stock jazz bass circuit (with a push-pull pot for series/parallel like I had before) as one option and a dimarzio model one as the other option so I can have both or each in isolation. I haven't played it a ton yet but it sounds pretty good and isn't doing anything too weird when all pickups are on together - based some things I read impedance and other electrical voodoo beyond my understanding could cause some weird effects with radically mismatched pickups but it just sounds like a jazz bass with extra loud thud under it all.

https://i.imgur.com/vBlQSMk.jpg

Just rather foolishly ordered a mandola

Do I need a mandola? No I do not. Do I want one? Apparently.

Theoretically the idea is to fill a gap in scale length between mandolin (which is VERY high and plinky) and bouzouki (which is very big and jangly) while still not being a guitar (which is ubiquitous and therefore unnecessary for me to play, as my town already has like ten thousand white suburban dads who play guitar).

good luck w/the mandola. sometimes those weird non-guitar stringed instruments seem stressful to me, like they were meant to hang on walls and not be played by anyone.

joygoat, i love the bass, well done. i never understood why basses don't have pickup switches so i appreciate your work there.

Call all destroyer: that is true of balalaikas in my experience. I know at least two people with decorative wall balalaikas. Neither one had a solid idea about how to tune them.

Me, I play 8-stringed instruments with utmost seriousness, gigging about twice a week. And I'm only the second most beloved mandolin player in my town!

joygoat that's a thing of great beauty and (looks like) killer function! The Burgundy Mist is perfect. Looks like flats too? I've become addicted to them now.

Man, google maps took me on a detour today and just happened to put me right in front of a high end guitar shop I've been to a couple times, which just happened to have opened an entire new acoustic room, which just happened to have this incredible Guild D-55 from 2010 in perfect condition, sounds like no guitar I've played, just pure butter and feels like it too. I want the thing really bad now, thinking about selling other stuff for it. It's like $3300 though. I have some midrange v-drums I don't play, a yamaha keyboard and a 90s american strat that would probably get me a lot of the way there if I sold them all.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0468/6148/4199/products/hj3-10022_2400x2400.jpg?v=1656432299

Looks so tempting. There’s a 90s one on Reverb in Portland, OR, which is only 2 grand. A few small finish dings which a luthier could fix cheaply.

I'm a huge huge fan of guild acoustics. I have a 1976 D25-m that I got for about $500 off Reverb because of its condition. It needed work but for about $200 at a luthier it sounds and plays very nice now, and the aesthetic defects are mostly not visible because they're on the side and back. Not comparable to this one in sound and feel though.

you gotta get that d-55. they are the best. ive got an '02 corona built one that ill never get rid of.

yeah sell that shit and grab it

That price does seem a little steep tho. I bet you could get them to 3k if not lower

I can't stop thinking about the Guild and it's still there, and I had the same thought as Spottie on trying to get them down around 3k. They said I could put a deposit on it to hold it. I think I'm gonna go play it again tomorrow and then do that and work on selling the less wanted gear.

There's some guy near here who posted on a local for sale site saying he has around 150 guitars he needs to "move." Based on the picture they seem to be mostly beginner/budget guitar brands, but it's hard to tell, because it's just a basement full of (mostly acoustic) guitars. We asked him if he had a master list, and he said he'd prefer if people just came out to check out what he has. Precise wording:

"I prefer that you come ... I can send a list but it will not reflect what I have very accurately as conditions vary. They are all set up and play perfectly, but some have scratches or dings and others are mint condition."

Dunno what to think.

hard pass

id demand the list

Can't be bothered to post more photos on imgur or somewhere? = nope!

I can't stop thinking about the Guild and it's still there, and I had the same thought as Spottie on trying to get them down around 3k. They said I could put a deposit on it to hold it. I think I'm gonna go play it again tomorrow and then do that and work on selling the less wanted gear.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, August 16, 2022 2:42 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i think prices on used gear are finally starting to come down a bit. go for it

I bought a crusty old Japanese jaguar for cheap because it's an 86 from the first run, and I have a lot of work to do to strip a terrible airbrush job from the original finish, but to my delight the pickups have been switched out for an AVRI in the neck ... and a 1964 in the bridge!

There's some guy near here who posted on a local for sale site saying he has around 150 guitars he needs to "move." Based on the picture they seem to be mostly beginner/budget guitar brands, but it's hard to tell, because it's just a basement full of (mostly acoustic) guitars. We asked him if he had a master list, and he said he'd prefer if people just came out to check out what he has. Precise wording:

"I prefer that you come ... I can send a list but it will not reflect what I have very accurately as conditions vary. They are all set up and play perfectly, but some have scratches or dings and others are mint condition."

Dunno what to think.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, August 16, 2022 4:59 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I wouldn't waste your time unless it's like 5 mins from you - if they're mostly beginner brands, they're probably all beginner brands. Sounds sketchy too - why would he have 150 of them?

Here in the Bay Area, Guild acoustics area almost always cheaper than equivalent Gibsons & Martins (except low-end Martins)... for some reason they just don't drive the same demand, thought they're wonderful American made guitars.. love the arched backs

I think that's generally true, I think of Guild as being a "value" brand but in the best sense. Guild doesn't have the same obvious celebrity factor, even though lots of greats have played them. There aren't as many iconic Guilds, certainly nothing like the Hendrix or SRV strat, the Jimmy Page Les Paul, BB King's Lucille etc. No one starts guitar wanting a Guild. When I tried the $3300 Guild D-55, I also tried a $7000 Martin for comparison (a 1939 "aged" D-18 whatever the fuck that is) and liked the Guild better, and I say that as a huge Martin fan.

The Martin D-18/D-28 and the Gibson acoustics (Hummingbird, J-45 etc) similarly just seem to be more iconic than the Guild acoustics.

Guild doesn't have the same obvious celebrity factor, even though lots of greats have played them.

O hi there

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ktwAAOSwzUVhgrBg/s-l400.jpg

https://ibb.co/1rdjmyH

My buddy went to the guy's basement (and lived to tell the tale). I guess they're largely cheap parlor guitars from the '50s, a lot of cheap Stellas, some Japanese stuff, some 12-strings in there, a handful of other things, nothing special and nothing he wanted to pay more than $100 or so for (the guy was asking $300 for a lot of them). Apparently there were a bunch of heavy metal basses hanging on the walls (not for sale), Schecters, things with pointy headstocks ...

I know it's pretty obnoxious so I will limit myself to 3 photos, but the Jaguar I mentioned above is now finished. It came out ... pretty good.
https://i.imgur.com/0Snjwnt.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/rhvfBrj.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/JaXLT5K.jpg
Thank god for bulletproof Fender Japan finishes, I had to strip SEVEN LAYERS of paint off the body and then buffed out the sanding scratches. Rewired everything, raided the parts bin, etc.

god bless you sir

My buddy went to the guy's basement (and lived to tell the tale). I guess they're largely cheap parlor guitars from the '50s, a lot of cheap Stellas, some Japanese stuff, some 12-strings in there, a handful of other things, nothing special and nothing he wanted to pay more than $100 or so for (the guy was asking $300 for a lot of them). Apparently there were a bunch of heavy metal basses hanging on the walls (not for sale), Schecters, things with pointy headstocks ...

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, August 18, 2022 7:07 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Great decor for your airbnb, probably not much else

matttkkkk doing the lord's work in resurrection. Looks fantastic!

gorgeous matt!!!

Thank you! I feel richly rewarded, have wanted an 80s Jag for a LONG time and it's a fair bit better than the 90s one I had. The paint is pretty much immaculate under all the futz, and as a bonus I am carefully cleaning up the 1964 pickup which is too rich for my blood, the AVRI from my parts bin has plenty of Jaguar spank for my tastes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqQZYUalivc

Fender simply cannot stop itself from making ugly Joe Strummer signature guitars.

I can't imagine Joe Strummer playing beautiful guitars

That's a sweet Jaguar rebuild.

yeah very cool

i finally got an sg. 08 metallic green standard with the robot tuners replaced with grovers. ebony fretboard. probably going to replace the pick guard with standard black.
https://i.imgur.com/S4lk58M.jpg

nice! omg i forgot about the gibson robot tuners.

my god spottie that is *the shit*
Hilarious that the vaunted robot tuners just happened to have the right drilling for folks to throw them away and go back to the right kind. That guy (Juskewicz?) seemed intent on tanking Gibson as fast as possible, thank goodness the folks making them were still doing it right.

might look good with a cream pickguard too

ooh yeah cream would be nice

hadnt thought of cream! might look really good.

yeah the robot tuners lol what a disaster. its still got some of the wiring in the cavity and the weird robot knob so i gotta figure out what to do with everything cosmetically.

I got a handheld robot tuner thing for Christmas one year. It worked (until I stepped on it) but it felt ridiculous to use.

it’s so funny that people don’t grasp that tuning a guitar is enjoyable

if you're gonna put that on anything it should be on cheap ass instruments for beginners

Agreed; pretty much no one who owns a $3,000 guitar is craving a shitty robot that will tune it badly.

Call all destroyer is right. When I love an instrument, tuning it is part of my relationship with it. And I don't want to own any instruments that I don't love. Life's too short.

Imagine an elite chef who doesn't want to own knives or slice anything. That person does not exist.