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Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 171
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma | I'd like to know if you've acquired a favorite guitar in a wierd or interesting way... examples... "found in trash".. "stole from street person".. "got drunk, stuck foot in it at party and woke up with it on my foot, got it fixed and love it!" type stories... there have to be some interesting ones! ...
For me: I got asked by another employee at Hideaway Pizza in Stillwater Ok. in 1980 if I wanted to buy his Alvarez Yairi guitar with HSC...I asked how much and he said $250.. I figured something was up so I learned he owed somebody $120.00 for a gram of coke.... I was a broke junior in college and I knew I could barely if only pay about $120.00 for the guitar so what the hell... I told him I'd pay him $120 and no more... He said hell no!... One night later he knocks on the door says "I'll take the $120"... We walk to the ATM on campus, get the money, he hands the guitar case to me, I give him the money and I'm the proud owner of a Alvarez Yairi, DY55, dated 10/1978. I was dead broke for the rest of that month but I got a great guitar and still love to play it today... I'm aging myself now but I acquired it 24 years ago!.... I better sit down and catch my breath...
Look forward to some other different stories...
Gerald |
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March 2002
Posts: 15664
Location: SoCal | I'd talk about it but the statue of limitations hasn't run yet. |
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May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Gerald
Good topic, but I have always been on the other side of the equation giving away good guitars to nephews (a cutaway acoustic/electric flattop with a brass plate calling it a custom made guitar from my friend at Poway Music) , friends (a broken Gibson SJ), my grandson (a keyboard), my nephew (a good fiddle in need of repair that I got from my brother for a mandolin he liked). But, as I said on a recent post, my grandson who just returned from a Kuwait bought me a new mandolin that has been fun to play. My son, Bailey Jr., still has the flat top I bought him in the 70's and it sounds great.
Scoring instruments goes both ways if you hang around with broke musicians.
Bailey |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | We all like "finding" something. Last year I came across an old National on ebay. In looking at the pictures it looked like a style 4 (their D-45) but the engraving was slightly different. Upon closer inspection I realized it was a completely different pattern and there was one other like this pictured and described in the National book. I have since learned that there is another square neck so this is one of three that has surfaced. It wasn't cheap but it was worth it. |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 648
Location: Florida | I was working in a woodmill at night labor, and one guy who worked there was currently going "all acoustic" as he put it. Wanted to sell me his Strat. Ok... I got the Strat, unblemished, for $300 (this is back in 83 for a 78 Stratocaster). Not a bad price. I went to his house to make the deal and he not only handed over the Strat for $300, but a blackface Super Reverb ('65). Hey it was missing two speakers, but what the heck, the Strat AND the Super for $300, can't complain. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10582
Location: NJ | I have a bunch of these stories.
some of the most notable are.
Went to a local flea market found a RCA 77 D ribbon mic that the guy thought was a hand warmer for $15
Same flea market about 10 years earlier, a man about 10 years older than god slowly put things out on a blanket in front of his car. He had a pair of Neumann km 84 mics a sennheiser 421 and a akg d 1000 I asked how much for the the mics and he said a dollar each. I handed him a $5 he said he did not have change, I told him forget about it.
After almost 10 years of not playing the guitar, ( I still sold them and was in the biz so to speak, I just was frustrated at playing) my drummer called me he met up with a new bimbo and she had musician friends and invited Sue and I over to jam. Well I reluctantly went. The jam went well and we would have them every couple of weeks.
After one week the keyboard players says to me, Al maybe you can help me sell my girlfriend's guitar. I replied sure what is it. He said a D'Angelico. I was stunned. I asked him again making sure it was not a D'agostino, D'mere Deanmartin etc and he repeated a John D'Angelico. I asked what she wanted for the guitar. He told me it needed a lot of work and she was offeres $XXXX I offered $500 more and said, I WANT IT. He told me he would talk to her and see what was up. Well a few months went by and he said I was going to get the guitar but it never materialized. Over a year later, he calls me out of the blue, and told me he had the guitar. It had no case but was wrapped in a blanket in his trunk for the past few days. He hates driving over to Jersey so I had to meet him under the bridge in philadelphia like we were doing some sort of strange mafia hit.
We met up I handed him the cash and took the guitar, He wanted me to check it out but I refuesed it was 18 degrees outside. He insisted I unwrap it. I unwrapped the headstock and quickly wrapped it up again and put it in my truck.
His girlfriend forgot to include the pickup and pickguard with the guitar so I had to wait for those pieces. After she got my money for the guitar she decided she wanted an oz of pot for the remaining parts to the guitar. I wound up getting a different musician friend the cash to get the pot to the keyboard player so I could get my parts. Currently Hamer is restoring this guitar for me.
Back in 76 I was reading the newspaper and there was a d 35 listed for about $287.59 cents. I called the guy and went over to his apartment. He lived in the typical hippie crash pad with American flags as curtains in an old victorian house. I don't think the heat worked and his girlfriend was sitting there in lotus position on some pillows on the floor. He needed exactly that amount to pay rent and get the heat turned back on. The guitar was in poor shape cigarette burns on it sand on the inside, etc but I wanted the guitar. I feel I rescued it.
Fast forward to about 20 years later. I was at a local jam and a guy walks in. As soon as he opened the door he spotted me and said I know you , Your the guy that bought my martin d 35. I had NO CLUE who this guy was and I buy and sell instruments literally every day. Well finally the story came back to me and he had an unusual first name so I did finally remember him. He was a recovering alcoholic and for some reason decided to fall off the wagon that night. Well the more he drank the angrier he got. He was never a good guitarist but he kept cranking the vol that night. Well after I escaped, I later found out he was strung out on a bender for a few weeks and nearly lost his job...where you might ask AT THE US POST OFFICE>
I went to a local junk shop and there was an amp it was covered in blue naugahyde. I recognized it immediately as a tweed fender twin. They wanted $125 I bought it took it home peeled off the blue stuff to find a PERFECT tweed twin underneath.
Hooked up with an old guy that was into tube repair, He had a ton of stuff for sale and I just kept buying it week after week. He would call me and I would come over and buy a truck load of stuff. One day I go over and notice an old amp chassis under his bench. I asked about it. He said it was an old supro chassis. I told him it was not, He insisted it was and started getting a little nasty about it. I dropped the subject. We made a deal on a pile of parts and as I was loading them up in my truck he threw on the amp chassis since I took an interest in it. It was the chassis to a 58 tweed Fender bassman. All it needed was tubes. |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1300
Location: Madison, Wisconsin | A few years ago, I helped secure a $2.5 million job and became the inside contact for the account. When the project was finished, the account manager gave me a 1769 Custom Legend as a thank you gift. I'm working on securing another project and have let the guy know that I really need a matching 12 string. |
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April 2003
Posts: 2503
Location: Fayetteville, NC | Any Chance this guy needs extra help??? I'll buy a T-shirt that reads..
"Will Work for Ovation Guitar"
Sounds so much better than "Will Work For Food"
Doesn't it? :D |
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February 2003
Posts: 2177
Location: the BIG Metropolis of TR | Hey Steve,
He'd come out cheaper buying you an Ovation.....I've seen you eat!!! :D
****
Mike :cool: |
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April 2003
Posts: 2503
Location: Fayetteville, NC | Thanks Mike,
I knew I could Count On You to Bring Me Back To reality! :D :D |
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February 2003
Posts: 2177
Location: the BIG Metropolis of TR | I'm here for ya bud!!! :D :D :D |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Bill;
Is that National the one that came with a photo of the original owner playing it after he got it? |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Found a Neuman U87 in a junk shop & paid £20 because the guy didn't know it needed phantom power & thought it didn't work. I sold it for almost a grand. Found an Ovation Ultra GP locally just over a year ago & paid £160, traded it to another dealer for a Martin D18 & a Gibson J45. |
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May 2002
Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Having been beating the bushes for hidden treasures for about twelve years now, I have made a number of great finds but one of the best was an all original '63 Fender Stratocaster in 1995 for $1200 CDN which was about $800 USD at the time. I played it for about five years and then sold it for $6000 USD ($9000 CDN).
Wayne |
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February 2004
Posts: 2487
| Got one that goes along this line somewhat.
Hanging around bands early on and learning everything I could (15-16yrs) I bought a real nice Flying Wedge Style Gibson! I am not sure now if it was a custom job or what? It had a Gibson neck and the Name? and a pair of Humbuckers! I made a brass pick guard for it and engraved a dragon on it! The guy I got it from had a shitty night on stage ( too much booze and drugs) took it out on the guitar One of those "I am done with this shit band and this piece of Shit Guitar" Deals on his way out the door I asked him if he wanted to sell that guitar! He sold it to me right there on the spot for $100! Man I was on the road to electrified Music now! Well I played it for a while and did some fixing on it got it sounding and looking great ! Sold it to a guy about a year later. He played it bought it and right in front of me (after he had paid me) he took it off and held it by the strap! bent over to open the case and!!!!! Yep NO STRAP LOCKS! twang, snap, burst, strings ,wood, head, body, and strap all in a pile! Most expensive case anyone ever bought! He paid me $550 for it? I felt bad and bought the pieces back for $50 ! Sold the pickups and case and the brass pick guard I made for it seperatly for another $125 ! Kept the strap!
LESSON; A pile of junk is not always a pile of junk, and Strap locks are a musicians best friend. And if the guy who just broke your guitar, after paying for it, was a real jerk anyway; there ain't no downside! |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Cliff, that's the one. I forgot to mention that I'm the 4th owner and I have a picture of the 2nd owner. He bought it in '29 from his teacher after taking lessons for two years on it. Paul Welsh was his name. After him it went to his nephew and it was his wife that was selling the guitar.
Another one; back in 79 or 80 one of the guys in the Moosup guitar plant mentioned to me that there was a guitar player guy who worked there and wanted an Ovation but didn't have any money (I've only heard that one 10000 times!) He did have a guitar and was wondering if we could trade. I said bring it in and we'll look. He was wanting a Preecher delux and we had one in the sound room and he was in love! It had TWO pickups! He brought in his and apologized that it only had one pickup but that it was in pretty good condition, bla, bla... I thought about it and decided to help him out and let him have the Preecheur. He left behind his blond 57 Esquire in original case. Both parties were happy with the transaction. |
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New topic!... Most interesting guitar acquistion!