Guitars

[Dave Woody]

..." the kids don't care about vintage..." My 10 yr old sees guitar as old fashioned.
He's been to loads of my gigs, sat and watched countless rehearsals, rolled with
numerous campfire sing-alongs, hears me playing on a daily basis.....but....
...he has no interest in learning.

 

[musket]

Wait til he gets older and figures out that red-blooded straight teenage girls still dig guys who play guitar (they never learn). That hasn't changed since I was a teenager. Sure as hell worked for me. The only diff between then and now is that you gotta be seriously good; it isn't enough to just play anymore.

The decline of the vintage thang doesn't bother me at all. I'm glad to see it. Anybody who pays $2500 for a blackface Deluxe Reverb, not to mention $2,500,000 for a PAF burst, has a screw loose. I bought a TS-9 Tube Screamer in 73 for $35. I sold it twenty years later for $350. I liked it, but not that much!

 

[Dave Woody]

I recall a friend called me in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
and said....( some of you won't like this, possibly )
"Your 1962 Stratocaster just went up in value. "

 

[Dave Woody]

A year ago, I emailed a friend, a gear junkie, asking if he wanted to trade one of his
Les Paul's for my Blonde ES 335. He said 'No', but I know someone who might!

It happened....a friend of his was delighted to swap his Black 1990 Les Paul Custom for
my Blonde 1997 335.

Wow, I have a most tasty LP. It truly is one of the best sounding guitars I have ever owned.
It was made with love, for sure.

I have had it refretted and this beauty now has another 20 years of gigs ahead of it.

 

[Artyczar]

Congrats! Sounds like a good deal.

 

[Dave Woody]

Congrats! Sounds like a good deal.

Yep......just need this Corona Virus to exit stage left, so we can get gigging again.

 

[Dave Woody]

For what it is worth, I sold that Les Paul and bought a brand new Gibson SG.

 

[musket]

I always liked SGs. A 66 Special was my first good electric (P90s). But they're so, so fragile. I don't know how many busted headstocks I repaired on SGs. They also have an inclination to break at the neck-body joint because the tenon is so shallow and the body so thin. So make sure to treat her right.

 

[Artyczar]

We just got a Telecaster style guitar kit and put it together. We left it unfinished because it looks pretty cool that way.

 

[Dave Woody]

Only included the pic of me to show the maple neck.
I have never before bought a brand new guitar.....
....it is all unrounded corners, sharp edges, dingless, sweatless
shiny scratchplate stuff.
it is going to take years to rub this in!

 

[Dave Woody]

Best box I have ever received.....

 

[Dave Woody]

We just got a Telecaster style guitar kit and put it together. We left it unfinished because it looks pretty cool that way.

View attachment 10246

Oh yeah....

 

[musket]

Never seen an SG with a maple neck before. Breakage shouldn't be a prob with maple instead of mahogany.

 

[Enyaw]

Seeing as it's show and tell: here are my babies. I love the Marin more. GPC4PA .. just like acoustic sound more than electric.

and of course my hand painted case for the acoustic ..

 

[musket]

Martin now has more models than you can shake a stick at. When I was working there in 69, only these...

0-16NY. 5-18, 0-18, 00-18, 000-18, D-18. 000-28, D-28, 00-28C, 00-28G. D-35. D-41. D-45.

That was it for guitars (there were also a couple of mandolins, a bunch of ukes, and a couple of tiples).

And of course, no cutaways. No factory-installed pickups either.

 

[Enyaw]

things change. Rosewood, ebony, and I replaced the nut, saddle, and pins with bone. I also replaced the frets after a few years with the harder metal as I sometimes have the grip of a drowning man.

Question for you. Have you ever heard of Saga Deluxe acoustic. I know it's not class but I was wondering. My wife has one from 35 to 40 years ago.

 

[P. Barrie]

Saga guitars today make Blueridge acoustics. https://www.sagamusic.com/products/guitars/
Supposed to be high end at reasonable cost. Might be tough to find info on an older Saga. Could be a different company altogether.

 

[P. Barrie]

Martin now has more models than you can shake a stick at. When I was working there in 69, only these...

0-16NY. 5-18, 0-18, 00-18, 000-18, D-18. 000-28, D-28, 00-28C, 00-28G. D-35. D-41. D-45.

That was it for guitars (there were also a couple of mandolins, a bunch of ukes, and a couple of tiples).

And of course, no cutaways. No factory-installed pickups either.

I had a 1973 D18 that I bought used in 1980 for $250. Also, had an 80s Alvarez Yari that sounded just as good to me and was made better.
After getting the D18 bridge fixed for intonation and action, I played it for around 20+ years. Then the pick guard started curving and coming loose, so I had that replaced. Evidently, in the seventies, Martin used a plastic pick guard that contracted and expanded at a different rate than the spruce top and because Martin glues the pick guard down prior to any finish, often it came loose or sometimes caused cracks in the top. The luthier that did that work also said the bridge plate was badly worn (bridge plate on this one was made out of rosewood instead of maple). He also said it could use a neck reset, but I disagreed. A couple years later, around 2013, I sold the D18 through a vintage guitar dealer ( and I disclosed all that the Luthier told me) for $2150.00. My check was for $1750.00 after their fees. No regrets at all.

I do have regret over getting a Martin model 000-17 SM that I paid $1100.00 for in 2015. You need to use light gauge strings on these, there lightweight. IMO, good but nothing outstanding in playability or tone for my level playing. I see them going for over $1600.00 now. I’ll probably see what I can for it get someday.

 

[Enyaw]

That's all I could get. It was a nice small guitar. No darks only lights in sound quality to my ear.

 

[musket]

Saga is probably the same Saga. The Blueridge acoustics were a good deal when they first appeared in the early 80s and if anything should be better now, with better QC happening across the board in guitar land. But the first Blueridge guitars were inexpensive entry level Dreadnaughts with laminated back and sides, solid tops and a satin finish. I don't know anything about the more expensive models. Saga is better known for their Kentucky line of mandolins in the Gibson style.

Martin did indeed glue their pickguards directly on to the wood with an acetate cement, before the advent of super strong adhesive films that allow pickguards to adhere to the finish. The old pickguards do have a tendency to work loose and curl (especially in early-mid 70s guitars--Martin's QC was not so hot at the time; too few people making too many guitars). I imagine Martin is now using the film-over-finish method, like everybody else. The "pickguard crack" between the inner edge of the pickguard and the sound hole is of cosmetic concern only; it doesn't affect structural integrity and I've never seen a case of it lengthening or widening. Too many braces under it.

Alvarez-Yairi guitars are excellent instruments. I sold many of them. But they were pretty much blown out of the water when Taylor introduced the 400 series, an all-solid wood American-made guitar at a competitive price point to the higher model Yairis. Yairis have laminated back and sides. This really makes little difference; it's the top that counts. But as with most things, perception is all.

I've never heard of a 000-17 SM. Formerly, Style-15 and -17 guitars had mahogany tops and were available only as Size 2, 2 1/2, and 1 in twelve fret, 0 and 00 in fourteen. I had a 1-17 from the 20s for awhile that was very nice. As a rule, old mahogany top Martins are never bad, but never outstanding either. About the new ones I don't know. Most Martins work well with light gauge, the recommended gauge for fingerstyle, though bluegrass flatpickers like mediums on their Dreadnaughts. Mediums put a good deal more stress on the top and neck.

Btw, in genuine Martin parlance the correct pronunciation of "0" is actually "ought," not "oh." When I was there in 69, the real old timers would call an 0-18 (for example) an ought-18, a 00 as two ought, a 000 as three ought. Relative new comers might say single ought (or just ought), double ought, and triple ought. But to say oh instead of ought marked you as an outsider and a rube.