If you’ve been reading this column regularly, you’ll know that my kids are getting older and gearing up for life after high school. Cars, insurance, tuition, and independence are really giving me agita these days! As a result, I’ve been slowly selling off my large collection of guitars, amps, and effects. When I’m looking for things to sell, I often find stuff I forgot I had—it’s crazy town! Finding rare gear was such a passion of mine for so many years. I braved snowstorms, sketchy situations, shady characters, slimy shop owners, and even hurricane Sandy! If you think about it, it’s sort of easy to buy gear. All you have to do is be patient and search. Even payments nowadays are simple. I mean, when I got my first credit card…. Forget about it!
Now, selling, which is what I mainly do now, is a different story. Packing, shipping, and taking photos is time consuming. And man, potential buyers can be really exhausting. I’ve learned that shipping costs are way higher, but buyers are still the same. You have the happy buyer, the tire kicker, the endless questioner, the ghoster, and the grump. Sometimes there are even combinations of the above. It’s an interesting lesson in human psychology, if you’re so inclined. For me, vintage guitars are like vintage cars and have some quirks that a modern player might not appreciate. Like, can you play around buzzing or dead frets? How about really tiny frets? Or humps and bumps on a fretboard? What about controlling high feedback and squealing pickups by keeping your fingers on the metal parts of the guitar? Not everyone can be like Jack White, fighting his old, red, Valco-made fiberglass Airline. It had one working pickup and original frets! I guess my point is: Buyer beware!
“They all sound great—all made from the same type of wood and all wired similarly—but since real quality control didn’t really exist at that time, the fate of guitars was left up to chance.”
Take, for instance, the crazy-cool guitar presented here. It’s a total unknown as far as the maker goes, but it is Japanese and from the 1960s. I’ve had a few similar models and they all feature metal pickguards and interesting designs. I’ve also seen this same guitar with four pickups, which is a rare find. But here’s the rub: Every one of the guitars I’ve had from the unknown maker were all a bit different as far as playability. They all sound great—all made from the same type of wood and all wired similarly—but since real quality control didn’t exist at that time, the final state of guitars was left up to chance. Like, what if the person carving necks had a hangover that day? Or had a fight that morning? Seriously, each one of these guitars is like a fingerprint. It’s not like today where almost every guitar has a similar feel. It’s like the rare Teisco T-60, one of Glen Campbell’s favorite guitars. I have three, and one has a deep V-shaped neck, and the other two are more rounded and slim. Same guitars, all built in 1960 by just a few Teisco employees that worked there at the time.
When I got this guitar, I expected all the usual things, like a neck shim (to get a better break-over string angle), rewire, possible refret, neck planing, and other usual stuff that I or my great tech Dave D’Amelio have to deal with. Sometimes Dave dreads seeing me show up with problems I can’t handle, but just like a good mechanic, a good tech is hard to come by when it comes to vintage gear. Recently, I sold a guitar that I set up and Dave spent a few more hours getting it playable. When it arrived at the buyer’s home, he sent me an email saying the guitar wasn’t playable and the pickups kept cutting out. He took the guitar to his tech who also said the guitar was unplayable. So what can you do? Every sale has different circumstances.
Anyway, I still have this guitar and still enjoy playing it, but it does fight me a little, and that’s fine with me. The pickup switches get finicky and the volume and tone knobs have to be rolled back and forth to work out the dust, but it simply sounds great! It’s as unique as a snowflake—kinda like the ones I often braved back when I was searching for old gear!
