whitefang Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 There's a show on TRU TV called "Hardcore Pawn" which takes place in Detroit's American Jewelry and Loan on the city's East side. On one show recently, some gink walks in and goes up to owner LES GOLD with a cardboard box that has a large GIBSON printed on the front along with a graphic of a Les Paul with it. Inside the box is a small hardshell case that contains a cherryburst LP with some scribbling on the pickguard. The gink claims he's been in the "guitar business" for 40 years, and I didn't hear clearly, but thought I heard him say the guitar was a '59 RE-ISSUE! And that the scribbling was supposedly the autograph of KISS member ACE FREHLEY. And BECAUSE of that, he wanted $40,000! Now, as the guitar DIDN'T look that old, and he had NO documentation to prove it may have once been OWNED by Ace, and Ace's signature MIGHT fetch only about $50, it's needless to say Les passed on the deal! Pretty guitar, but even an ACTUAL '59 looking like new shouldn't run ya $40,000, don't you think? or.... DON'T you? Whitefang I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertbluesman Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 550 bucks is my limit on buying solid body guitars, I don't give a rip on who owned it, or how old it is. To me a guitar is just a tool, exactly like my trowel was when I had to slave as a mason for a living. The only thing that matters to me in a guitar is if it is clean, if it plays easy, and if it has decent tone. All three of my electric guitars have less than $550 (with hardshell cases costs) in them. I would match them up for ease of playing, and tone with any guitar I have ever heard with the same scale length. dbm If it sounds good, it is good !! http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=143231&content=music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Those shows are all fake. Would you pay a crew to sit around for a month or two for the one time someone brings something interesting in? When you have to crank out 15 - 30 episodes for a season within a couple of weeks or lose your job producing the show? They set the stories up. They find people with items and pay them to go on the show so they have something to show. So, that guy probably was trying to sell the guitar somewhere and they contacted him. There's people who are paid to hunt down interesting stories for them, which is how Mary Ford's guitar ended up on Pawn Stars that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Pawnsylvania is totally real, though... [video:youtube] [video:youtube] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Snowy White (Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, Thin Lizzy, Peter Green band, solo hits in England) just auctioned his beat to hell '55 Les Paul gold top for $95,000+ People thought it wouldn't go for that much because he isn't "that famous," and George Harrison's SG only sold for $65,000, I think... But Snowy's guitar sounded fantastic... I think he just sold it (after 45 years of only playing it, pretty much) because he couldn't really travel with it anymore. [video:youtube] [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb12pSvz9zc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 I mean, judging by the people I know who are older Pink Floyd fanatics (and wealthy, now) someone probably just bought the guitar because it was used on the Animals and The Wall tours, and all Waters' Wall shows up 'til now. They put the fanatical in fan... but the thing sounds phenomenal. [video:youtube] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 550 bucks is my limit on buying solid body guitars, I don't give a rip on who owned it, or how old it is. To me a guitar is just a tool, exactly like my trowel was when I had to slave as a mason for a living. The only thing that matters to me in a guitar is if it is clean, if it plays easy, and if it has decent tone. All three of my electric guitars have less than $550 (with hardshell cases costs) in them. I would match them up for ease of playing, and tone with any guitar I have ever heard with the same scale length. I'm with you... but for some people (pro players) guitars become a tax write-off as a "necessary business expense," and for others they are investments that they expect to appreciate or at least retain their value, being a tax-free place to park money. I'm sure it isn't bad to be in the position of having to amass expensive vintage guitars so you can deduct them and pay less taxes on your fortune. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 I mean all of my guitars are battle-scarred (I try to buy them pre-battle-scarred these days to save $ and not be upset when something happens) but I gig a lot with them. I know people who pay thousand$ for guitars, but the things never leave the comfort and safety of their houses. I think that factors into things, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertbluesman Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 550 bucks is my limit on buying solid body guitars, I don't give a rip on who owned it, or how old it is. To me a guitar is just a tool, exactly like my trowel was when I had to slave as a mason for a living. The only thing that matters to me in a guitar is if it is clean, if it plays easy, and if it has decent tone. All three of my electric guitars have less than $550 (with hardshell cases costs) in them. I would match them up for ease of playing, and tone with any guitar I have ever heard with the same scale length. I'm with you... but for some people (pro players) guitars become a tax write-off as a "necessary business expense," and for others they are investments that they expect to appreciate or at least retain their value, being a tax-free place to park money. I'm sure it isn't bad to be in the position of having to amass expensive vintage guitars so you can deduct them and pay less taxes on your fortune. I have been a business man in my last years of employment. Estimating masonry taught me costing, and contract negotiation taught me about how to do business on a professional level. So I do understand the idea of an instrument appreciating in value if it is rare and has that vintage mojo. However if I was wealthy I would not invest in anything like that. Nor would I want to own an instrument that was worth a lot of money. My reason is; I can get anything out of a cheap instrument tonewise with a pickup change, or playability with some fret filing. If the thing gets lost, or stolen, it is no big deal. Just get another one and do the same stuff to it. Plus if it has no real monetary value, it ain't wort stealing. If you drop a cheap guitar and it gets broken, no big deal, just replace it with a few hundred dollars. All that said I do understand why people make those vintage or famous person guitar purchases. I don't judge them truthfully. I just am not interested in doing that stuff for myself. (If a person has treasures around the house he/she is fettered to the house to protect the treasures). I prefer freedom to move about without any worries. If they steal my stuff when I am out it is all insured and easily replacable....... dbm If it sounds good, it is good !! http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=143231&content=music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Well... we have to remember the people buying $100,000 celebrity-owned guitars live in mansions in patrolled or gated neighborhoods or secured apartment buildings, and they also have the instruments insured to the hilt. They don't have the same worries you and I do... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertbluesman Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Well... we have to remember the people buying $100,000 celebrity-owned guitars live in mansions in patrolled or gated neighborhoods or secured apartment buildings, and they also have the instruments insured to the hilt. They don't have the same worries you and I do... I live in a gated 24 hour 7 days a week security protected community. It is not completely secure nothing is completely secure, but I am confident I could leave my house unlocked and go away for the summer, and come back in October and it would be just as I left it. Of course growing up in the city of Philadelphia, I am security conscious, I actually lock my house doors while I am in my shed office/studio room (climate controlled shed that is about 12 feet from my back door yet attached to the house on one wall) The only problems we ever have here is on the perimeter of the community, I live near the center. Back in the late 80's I did very well financially, and I could afford anything I wanted regardless of cost. But I never wanted to buy expensive instruments for some reason. I did have 2 Les Paul Customs back then, one I got for $300 and another my kiddo gave me for some other instrument. But still growing up working as class, all I did was worry about some thief stealing them, or dropping them and damaging them. Nowadays I could give a rip what happens to my cheapo instruments. I just enjoy them as expendable things. But I do lock my doors when we leave the house.......;~) dbm If it sounds good, it is good !! http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=143231&content=music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 Cool... I was thinking of people like the late Scott Chinery, who owned a fleet of $100,000+ cars, including the original Batmobile, a couple of planes and helicopters, spent a fortune gathering and hoarding vintage, pre-Castro Cuban cigars, and owned over 1000 priceless vintage guitars. Those are the folks who drop $40,000-up on a vintage instrument just because they can. I saw him on some TV show, once, in a room with tons of his collection... and he had Steve Howe there to demonstrate the ones he talked about, so I have no idea if he could actually play the things. Chinery seemed like a good guy, and I believe he was very charitable, but I still can imagine him lighting a $30,000 cigar with a thousand dollar bill for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p90jr Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 My parents were musicians/music teachers... the kids I went to school with in the neighborhood were the sons of doctors and lawyers and contractors... their starter guitars were real Les Pauls and Strats... mine was a cheap Les Paul copy. They all went to the local guitar teacher that everybody took lessons from... my parents gave me a couple of books and told me good luck. Because of those things other kids regarded them as better players... and one or two of them were good, but coming from an accomplished musical family should've counted for something, I thought, and as I realized I was getting better it became a point of pride to sound better than they did with my cheap guitar and amp. And of course in a couple f years they'd mostly traded their stuff for jet skis or whatever... so that "post-materialism" kind of carried over, for me. Though now that people over-value anything old, like those old Kays and Silvertones, which are cool but not $500+ cool... it's just strange. I have a '91 MIM Strat I bought for $200 that is as good as almost any strat I've ever played. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertbluesman Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 Cool story, It ain't in the instrument, it is in the skill (in my case) and natural talent in the gifted. I was a construction craftsman before I took up guitar, and I used the same techniques that I learned in the trades to master the guitar. And one of the things I learned, was to never give up, keep on trying, and trying, and trying. Tenacity is my talent/gift, and I am still at it at 72 years of age, still trying to improve, still learning techniques. I also started in music singing in an A-Capella group in the late 50's and that started me on the road to musicianship. One of these days I may just get the idea....;~) dbm If it sounds good, it is good !! http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=143231&content=music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitefang Posted April 18, 2015 Author Share Posted April 18, 2015 Well, I don't know about THAT. But Les is a pretty down to Earth guy, and there WAS word going around that producers pay people $100 just to go into his shop and act stupid, but living in Detroit as long as I have, you learn you really DON'T have to pay people there to go ANYwhere and "act" stupid! As far as those people you mentioned P90, perhaps they have MORE of the same worries we do? Unless YOU don't worry about anyone breaking into your dwelling. Or losing something valuable through fire, flooding or theft. Or coming to serious or fatal harm through home invasion. Just that THEY can afford the hieghtened security and insurance premiums! AND they have, as far as personal property goes, MORE to lose than you and I. Whitefang I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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