Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

30s Gibson Roy Smeck Stage Deluxe


rchgck

Recommended Posts

We have a '36 SD and a '36 Jumbo-35 (Trojan). The two have the same body dimensions as each other and as the earlier Jumbos but the Trojan has three tone bars and the Smeck has two. They have similar broadly tone -- pretty raw and in your face. The later J-35s were much less raw. These two do have the older "Jumbo" sound.

 

smeckcandys.jpg

 

1936 Roy Smeck Stage Deluxe

 

'36 Trojan

 

We also have (converted) 00-18H and 00-40H guitars. The necks on these guitars are not super big like the ones you fine on many Smecks -- thus the variation on conversions I think.

 

001230s.jpg

 

'36 00-40H

 

'37 00-18H

 

'41 00-18H

 

Best,

 

-Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tom, you are a connoisseur of converted hawaiians. How would you compare the tone of your two 00-18Hs. I've had my eye on the 40-41 at Jet City. These are some of the coolest looking old Martins, IMO. The only one I've ever played was at Lark Street, and to be honest I wasn't paying attention to the tone at the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tom, you are a connoisseur of converted hawaiians. How would you compare the tone of your two 00-18Hs. I've had my eye on the 40-41 at Jet City. These are some of the coolest looking old Martins, IMO. The only one I've ever played was at Lark Street, and to be honest I wasn't paying attention to the tone at the time.

 

The '41 is not quite as good as the '37, but both are still spectacular.

 

Best,

 

-Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How di you manage this all?

 

 

I do it WITH my wife! She owns the '35 D-28.

 

 

Dennis, the Norman Blake guitar is still available, already converted, and, it was owned by Norman. You'll have more friends if you buy that guitar. We'll be lining up.

 

As a side note, the 00-40H shown above did belong to Norman Blake -- he played it almost exclusively in the late 1990s/early 2000s. We traded him out of it in late 2005. Here is the story if you are interested.

 

A Trip to Norman Blakes

 

Best,

 

-Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tom, thanks for posting that story, and sharing it here. I have never actually seen Norman playing anything other than your 00-40H, or the D-18H. I've certainly never seen him playing a Stage Deluxe, so the "Norman Blake premium" being asked by George seems high, to me.

 

BTW, does the price of the Jet City 00-18H seem fair to you?

http://www.gbase.com/powered/geardetails.aspx?dealer=19dad81d-5875-4e45-850b-ff337fa90ef7&item=2236643

 

Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BTW, does the price of the Jet City 00-18H seem fair to you?

 

Well, because of the ones we have, I do watch the market. For years, they were valued very low -- we never paid more than $1500 for ours. We have been doing this for awhile, and we often acquired stuff that was not hot at the time -- D-18s instead of D-28s, 000s rather than D's, etc. Great guitars all!

 

They did begin to move maybe eight years ago. The big "bump" came with the Geoff Muldaur thing. At the top of the market, they were close to 10K -- a couple years ago. But they have cooled off. I would think Jet City's price is a good estimate for top retail value at this point in time. Not a great deal, but if you want one and it is as good a shape as they say, it is not a ridiculous asking price. They have sold for less on ebay lately.

 

Remember, my advice is free, but it is probably not even worth that much.

 

Best,

 

-Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...