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Anyone ever gotten SUPER LUCKY?


MyJ-45

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Like, finding an old Gibby in someone's garage and they just gave it to you in exchange for a favor, or some small amount of cash or something? A situation like that? A friend of mine had a similar situation recently with an older (not like pre-war or anything but like a 60's-70's i think) Martin and this old guy who didn't really know what it was so he bought it off him for 50 bucks...Anyone had something like this happen?

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I had always wondered about that. I used to go to a lot of estate sales and would keep an eye out for instruments. I never found a good guitar. A lot of newer no-name brand acoustics that someone had bought to learn and then never learned. Plus a few warped, cheap relics. Nothing that I would have considered spending even $50 on.

 

I'm sure there have been some good finds out there if you happen to be in the right place at the right time.

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I bought a 1965 LG1 for $260...fellow said it was just his guitar as a kid and he wanted to play a Taylor like an adult. Wack'd, eh? Naturally, I bought it. (Guitar is worth about $1000).

 

I bought a 1965 125TC for $280...fellow said it was sitting under his bed for years unused. (Guitar is worth about $1800).

 

I bought a 1956 NY Epiphone F79 (Texan) for $400 from a dealer at a guitar show. It had strange white powder film all over it and the dealer said it had issues. I bought it, wiped on some McGuiars which instantly removed the white film, and changed the wooden saddle to a bone one. Plays great. I later told the dealer the guitar was a steal from him, but he just said he was happy he could put it in someone's hands who could fix it. (Guitar is worth about $3000).

 

I bought a 1965 B45 12 for $400. The dealer said it was some kind of 70's Gibson. I later traded it outright for 1994 Gospel Reissue at Sam Ash Music. They sold the 12 string for $1800 in their store after 6 months. I'm a 6 string player, and the Gospel was a good addition to my collection.

 

Now, yes I've had some great finds...but, I also regularly search. Its gotten a lot harder lately, though, where everyone thinks no matter what guitar they have is worth tons of money. Part of it is caused by Eric Clapton's guitar auctions fetching tons of money (but, that's cause they were his guitars), plus antique road show finds on TV making everyone think their old guitar is worth mucho bucks.)

 

QM

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A friend of mine was furniture shopping at a car-boot sale a couple of years ago, and spotted an old mahogany wardrobe which he liked the look of-he opened it up, and saw a cricket bat, some tennis rackets, a pair of roller skates and a small guitar case inside. He peeked into the guitar case and found a pre-war Martin 000, so rapidly shut the case and 'drobe, and asked the seller how much the guitar was selling for. He replied "£50 for the wardrobe and everything in it", so my mate Giles grabbed the guitar, gave the seller £100 and told him to keep the change!

 

Best super-lucky story I've ever heard. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, either.

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never gotten super lucky but owned guitars long enough to see some go to crazy dollars that I sold thinking it would never go up higher (sigh) I should have held on to the early 60's LP and SG a little longer then I could have sold them and retired to maui or somewhere tropical oh well guess that's why it's only hindsight thats 20/20 at the time i sold some of them it seemed like the Market would not go any higher

 

so in some ways Ive done the reverse

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Funny you should ask. I was at a customer house last week doing some work. I had notice that they had a Fender P Bass Guitar in a gig bag leaning up against a wall. I had moved it several times because it was always in the way of the work I was doing. After about a week I ask the owner if he played Guitar, he said no. I ask about the bass guitar leaning up against the wall. He said it belonged to his son and he left it here several years ago and had known interest in taking it with him. I asked if I could try it out. Well one thing lead to another. The gentlemen ask if I would be interested in taking it home with me. I replied I don’t play bass guitar and left at that. At the end of the day I asked if he was serious about giving the Guitar away. He said yes, and replied there is also an amplifier that goes with it if I would like. Well I left that day with a Bass guitar and amp. Life is good!

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1) I bought a well-worn and badly-refinished J-50 several years ago (say, mid'90s) for about $50. Sounded great, but a previous owner had taken the original finish off and in the process, thinned the top too much, so that several cracks had occurred in the top. My guitar tech at the time chased cracks all over that guitar -- he'd splice and glue two over here, and then a new one would manifest itself over there. Glue that one up and then another barely visible crack would show up somewhere else. After several months of crack chasing, we got it to a point that it was stable, and it did sound real fine, but it had to be handled with utmost care. Kept that guitar for some time, got to know what early '50s J-50s were like, then eventually sold it.

2) Neighbour was moving, had a garage sale. I found a nice little mandolin that he had and he sold me for like $25. Eight tiny little strings on it, a pickup (even!), and one of those horrible blood-letting tailpieces! I noodled around in that for a couple of years, and eventually sold it to someone who was actually interested in playing a mandolin. (Not it wasn't a Loar L-5.)

 

Fred

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