PrairieDog

Cool. I’m glad to hear they work at least to a point. Our drain field pipe is buried too shallow and often freezes so the main drain backs up. We try to keep an eye on it and have the tank pumped to keep that from happening, but we occasionally don’t catch it in time, or something happens, or the truck can’t get down the road to pump the tank. What a mess. I was intrigued by the check valves when I saw them, but it hasn’t been an issue the past couple of winters, so it fell off the chore list. I think I’ll go track one down.

If it says it’s a Hummer and sized like a Hummer, then I think it may be quacking like a Hummer… fwiw, this is probably not a bad thing. I’ve found alot of times those tags are just to make a shortcut variant sound “cooler,” but may in fact be “less.” Like the Studio series: not quite the tone and size of the full line guitar, but calling it a Studio makes you okay with buying a thinner/different wood version. Or the way Norlin Added “Deluxe” to some names all while dumbing down the build but maybe adding fancier inlay so it looks “upmarket.” I found a thread here that said “pros” were built exclusively for GC, and compared the Pro Hummingbird as being more like the Songwriter. Not a bad guitar, just different. Check the specs on a 2012 hummer and see if they match. I bet they will. Hummers are wonderful guitars. You are actually kinda lucky. It could have been worse the other way around, if you found out they sold you a Pro and you thought you had bought a real ‘bird.

Hey, just mentioning, maybe you already know about this, but a few years back on some home improvement show, might have been “this old house” they were demo-ing a main drain back-flow preventer device you drop in your floor drain that automatically closes the drain when pressure builds from underneath.

I was thinking this too… Even if the OP doesn’t expect to ever want to sell it, stuff happens or his heirs might. Hate to lose out if in the future it comes off a bit whiffy as authentic.

Is it just in the areas where you are playing, or all over the body? Play wear is unavoidable and expected on a guitar that is used. You can only avoid by really changing how you attack the strings. If it’s all over the body, what are you polishing with? Is your cloth absolutely clean? Don't use terry cloth, or other heavy textured cloths, especially ones with plastic fibers. They can catch dust and bits of grit that grind into the guitar. Are you using an appropriate polish? There are products that can buff out some surface scratches. The other folks will have recommendations. I’ve never used one. Finally, Where is it stored? Are you keeping the humidity and temps constant. The exact numbers aren’t as important as consistency. Big sudden swings in ambient conditions can cause finish checking. These are micro cracks that happen from the wood expanding and contracting more than the brittle finish can tolerate. Checking could only be fixed by refinishing.

Well, not exactly. Insurance is always tied to the cost to replace a covered item in the market, not an untethered value. Underwriters don’t care what an owner says it is worth, outside of 3rd party proof. The laws governing the insurance industry are clear they have to go by what the market says the value is, whether found through comp sales or a licensed appraisal, which is always required for high value, or hard to value items. Otherwise, insurance companies would obviously just low ball every claim. And, it protects them from fraudulent claims based on fictional, inflated values. This is because when they pay a claim, the insurance company owns the item. If it was stolen and recovered, the police hand it to the insurance company. Some firms might ask if you want to buy it back and some will settle for the payout. Others will charge the market rate (even if that’s more than what they paid you, think gold coins.) Or they will just sell it through one of their services. It’s theirs to do with to protect the finances of the company. This is why they have to have proof something like a standard guitar is really worth more than market value in order to write the policy. Still even if one were paying on a higher value policy, they aren’t going to pay out more than the item is worth at the time of the loss, no matter what the appraised value may have been years ago. For some volatile items, the company can make you update the appraisal periodically to be sure the coverage still reasonable for the worth of the item. In the case of markedly appreciating assets, it is in the owners interest to do this, and ask for higher coverage based on the new appraisal, rather than wait for the insurance company to ask, for obvious reasons. This is particularly true with volatile markets, like art or collectibles, like guitars. Tastes change, or items break, things lose value all the time. The company will reduce the policy themselves if they believe the value is underwater, unless again, one can provide acceptable proof. Think about it, people were insuring their Beanie Baby collections for thousands back in the 90s. Even if somebody had been paying on the high policy all this time, a payout now wouldn’t even take a bite out of the deductible.

Oh, hey forgot to say, you go into your images under your profile on imgur get your thumbnails. Then click the thumbnail you want to open it, then the list should appear. On a phone it might be a drop down menu.

Always a reliable font of knowledge, Sparky 😄

Of course, I even said that. It just needs to be a professional appraisal from an appraisal company the insurance company accepts (i.e., not just some dude down the street you handed a 20, chuckle). Maybe I misread your original comment. I understood you were implying someone could just decide to insure a Squire for 5k “if they wanted to” even if it wasn’t really worth that. Truly sorry for the misunderstanding if that wasn’t your intent.

Terrific looking guitar! Congrats!!! Oh, and if you want to get the pics here. Just open your images full size and there will be a list of link options. Click the “direct link” to copy, then paste the photos in your post here.

The 2017 Flying Vs came in two tiers, T and HP. T was the standard model, and the HP was a bit of an upgrade. Quick way to tell the diff is T had pearloid inlay and the HP had real mother of pearl or abalone inlay (can’t remember they called it, just think real shell vs. plastic). Some of the components in either tier were not entirely successful so lots of swap outs of pick ups, bridges, and tuners. I can’t tell from the photo, somebody else here might be able to. I’d start by calling Gibson with the serial number (bonus you have the model. I am wondering if the H points to HP. They should be able tell you exactly what you have, and what specs it shipped with.

The insurance bit is not exactly accurate. Insurance will not pay out more than the market value at the time of the loss. If someone wants to inflate the value and pay higher premiums than what the guitar is worth, it could be done, but that would only happen with “minimus” value items, below the value threshold that would trigger an appraisal before writing the policy. However, still even then, when it comes to a claim they will pay no more than the current retail value or sometimes the original cost, if it’s in the policy and one can produce proof. Otherwise the claimant would have to show proof that the going rate was 5k for the same run of the mill Squire, or provide proof why that one was exceptional.

Thank you!

Great imagery, a real “song.”… nicely done!

This cut is not unusual. Insurance value is based what it would cost to replace something walking into a shop and paying the full MSRP or common retail price. Insurance can’t figure in periodic sales prices or haggling. The value to a store, or on consignment at a shop, has to leave room for the cost of re-selling it, plus a profit. And yeah, while you can dicker to a point, it is usually around 50% of the retail price. Best case private party sales values will fall somewhere 10 to 20% below retail.

Question: are you all ordering these brands on-line? I never see anything other than the typical names in my local shops. I have to have coated strings, and I’m happy with the D’darrio XS’s, but my wife might be interested in some of these others.

Do you possibly have a typo either in the header or the body? Header says 2.747… and the body quote is talking about 2.737…. they are not the same number? Beyond that I’m no help.

Hi there, and welcome. this is just a fan forum, you’ll be better off calling Gibson customer service. Since they make a left hand 335 there might be an M2M option.

Nod, but I gotta admit, I felt a little called out when I saw she was throwing around a hundred Gs. We only managed to squeak out 5K bonuses to our employees last year. She’s setting the bar kinda high

I thought we were talking about the cost, not the quality…

10k seems pretty econo-tour compared to ah, some: It was estimated it took 9M to put on a single Taylor Swift Eras show. And that doesn’t include the tips to the truck drivers:

You’re amazing, KS. The info here “tucked away” around here always blows my mind.

I’ve done a some googling around on this, and couldn’t find any refs to 1990 j200s with pickups with tone controls. Not saying they didn't’ happen, just apparently not common? Fwiw, during that time Gibson was installing Fishman units, including the Aura, but it doesn’t sound like that went in yours, since you mentioned just knobs, but maybe there was a variation, less traumatic version they used. Aura’s were those chunky boxes installed in a hole in the bass side of the guitar, they had tone and eq. I briefly had a Songbird from 2001 that had one, but I pitched it back. A lot of folks ended up swapping out their factory pickups. There are a lot of guitars with aftermarket pickup mods. You definite yours is OEM? In any case, if it is, back then, it likely was some Fishman product. If you can post some pic, maybe someone with more knowledge can recognize it from there.

Peter Sellers in Being There. “I like to watch.” Still cracks me up.

Oops sorry, that is the larger Grand Symphony sized body, so it may be a bit more voiced than the 212 or 712, which are both Grand concert size. The woods are still the same. The numbers generally break down following a low to high pattern: first number is the tone wood/appointment level. (100s and 200s are the entries, and usually come from the Mexico factory) Second number is the top: 1 for soft wood, 2 for hard wood, (or 5 for 12 string.) Last number is the size in their main guitar range, again small to large. There are things like the American Dream series which are various entry levels with special features, the Mini’s and Baby’s, their special projects like the GT (grand Theater, special woods like Urban ash) and then super high end Ks and presentations. Those are all kinda their own things.