Epiphone Dot

Here's another recent one that got away with a good story. Over the last nearly 20 years I have had the good fortune to play music with a really talented drummer whom we'll call Rob. Why? Because that's his name. So Rob is seriously an amazing drummer and his brother Dave (also his real name) is an amazing guitarist...music just seems to run in their family. A few years ago Rob decided he wanted to learn to play guitar and within about a year he was already better than me. That's enough to really piss you off. The good thing about this is that he finally understood my obsession with guitars and buying them and looking at them and wanting new ones and selling something in order to get something else. Along the way he picked up a really nice, dark tobacco sunburst Epiphone Dot hollowbody. You've probably seen these...they are actually really nice copies of the Gibson 335 at a fraction of the cost. Rob really liked this guitar a lot, but hit a stretch where he needed to sell a guitar or two.

I have a buddy named Jesse (again, that's really his name) and at the time he was in a band that was getting some notoriety. They were recording their second album and for one particular guitar part needed that 335 sound. I told him that Rob was selling his Dot and, long story short, Jesse bought Rob's guitar. At least it was sort of in the family.

So, a couple of years go by and Rob mentions that he'd love to have that Dot back. Jesse came into my office not long after that and I asked him how the Dot was doing and wondered if he'd be interested in selling it. He kind of gave it a big "hmmmm" and said maybe, just maybe, he'd consider selling it. So he thought about it for a few days and came back in and said he'd sell it if I bought it right then on the spot. I didn't hesitate...I got out my checkbook and paid him exactly what he'd originally paid Rob for it back then.

The next thing I did was get out my phone, snap a photo of it and sent it to Rob with the message, "Look what I just bought."

Rob couldn't believe it and said he was coming over the next day to check it out. But then something came up and a couple of weeks went by. During those couple of weeks I played the Dot quite a bit and really ended up liking it quite a bit. I was now having thoughts of keeping it for myself, even if Rob wanted it. Of course I knew what I was going to have to do. Sure enough, two weeks later Rob finally makes it to my house and we plug the Dot into my amp and he gives it a strum. "You HAVE to sell this back to me!" Of course! He gets out his checkbook and it's now finally back in his possession.

Now you'd think that was the end of the story, but no. The following weekend Rob's brother Dave comes to visit and brings his Epiphone Les Paul for a little jam session. He picks up Rob's newly reacquired Dot and falls in love. He offers to trade Rob the Dot for the Les Paul. For some reason, Rob makes the trade and now the Dot is in the very capable hands of brother Dave. Still all in the family, but definitely not what we all thought was going to happen. The end.
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Black Fender Stratocaster MIM

Hey, it's time to catch up on some new stories. I think I'll start off with the one that is least flattering to my skills as a trader...might as well get it off my chest. Every year, on the day before New Years, I walk into a pawn shop near my house and see what guitars they might be looking to clear off the books before the end of the year. The last couple of years I've found some great guitars to make a little extra cash on, including a Tom Delonge Strat I chronicled here previously. This time I walked in and asked if they had the big "half off" sale going on and they let me know they weren't doing that this year...they were just selling everything for great prices. They didn't have any of my beloved Telecasters this year, but they did have a few Strats and they were all marked down to $199. I figured I could make a few bucks on that and so I started checking out which was the best of the bunch.

I finally settled in on a pretty decent black Made in Mexico model Stratocaster that had a white pickguard and enough smudges and dirt and crap to make it not that appealing on first inspection. I even asked the guy working there why they don't at least wipe down the guitars before they put them up for sale. If you were a store and got in used merchandise, wouldn't you at the very least clean all the grimy hand prints off of it and make it look presentable? I'll never understand the lazy mentality sometimes. But I suppose that's beside the point. I figured it couldn't hurt to ask if they'd come down on the price a little more, but no such luck. I figured that it probably wouldn't have a case either.

For some reason guitars at pawn shops mysteriously never seem to have a case. I mention this to the guy and he says, "hey, you're in luck...this one has a nice Fender hard shell case!"

Shocking to say the least. I got ready to pay for the guitar and the guy asked if I'd ever been a customer there before. I told him it was the third year in a row I'd bought something on December 31st. He thought that was funny, so he didn't charge me tax. So to sum things up so far, I've now purchased a black, Made in Mexico Fender Stratocaster from 1991 with a nice Fender hard shell case for $199 out the door. Sweet. I figured there was money to be made.

I headed to Guitar Center and bought a brand new black pickguard and black pickup covers and back plate and knobs and switch tip for the guitar. The white pickguard just looked cheap-ass and was in crappy condition. This cost me right around $46 total. So now I've got $245 into the guitar. I figured I could sell it with the case for $350 and make an extra hundred. Not a huge profit by any means, but a fun little project. I changed out all the new parts while I watched the football games on New Years and when it was all done it looked sweet. I don't care for Strats all that much, but I thought maybe I should keep this one. A couple of days later I found out my son got picked to play on an expensive competitive league soccer team, so the idea of keeping the guitar went right out the window. I listed it on Craigslist and sat back to see how quickly someone would jump on it.

And I waited. And waited. And no one ever emailed. I lowered the price. Nothing. Lowered it again. Nothing. Relisted again with a different description just to switch things up. Finally got an email with an offer that was embarrassingly low. Then I figured maybe someone would want to trade for a Tele and I could then sell the Tele. Nothing. Relisted it for sale and got an email from a guy asking if I wanted to trade for a 1994 MIM Fender Telecaster. Huh? Uh, I mean, yes, that would be great.

If you've read any of my other rants about Craigslist idiots you know where I stand. Rude, forgetful, insulting...the list goes on. But it does serve it's purpose and I've had pretty good luck for the most part when it comes right down to it. I made an arrangement to meet the guy near my work at lunch time. He would bring his Tele, I would bring my Strat. I asked quite a few questions and discovered that they Tele had a Roland Synth pickup installed on it in addition to the regular Tele stuff. The synth pickup is a little sort of thin blade that fits under the strings behind the bridge pickup and then has a wire that comes out to an external unit that attaches to the guitar. I was unfamiliar with these things to be honest, so I asked how it attached and would it come off easily? I'm not going to want to leave it on there. They guy said it had one small pressure screw that didn't affect the guitar. Cool. Sounds easy.

I should mention at this point that I got lucky and found a brand new padded Gibson gig bag for $10 at Guitar Center and decided to include that with the Strat instead of the hard shell case, which I now am using with another guitar. Okay. So the guy shows up and the appointed time and we begin inspecting guitars. He complains about the pickguard on the Strat not being on quite right...something I had not noticed but was about a two second fix. He seemed to inspect the guitar very thoroughly, so I realized I should be doing the same. I start checking out the Tele and notice a scraped area on the headstock, down at the end. I ask if maybe that was a small Squier decal that had been removed. "Oh no, definitely not." Okay. I look at the synth pickup and I see more than one screw and they don't look harmless. He says, "No those come right off and don't leave any mark." He then says everything else works perfectly. It's got the right kind of serial number and stuff and I do know a little about that, so the rest looks fine. Kind of dirty and the strings looked to be about as old as the guitar, but that stuff is easy. So we make the trade.

I get home and start to immediately remove the synth pickup and lo and behold, this now leaves three permanent holes in the guitar. Yep, even after asking point blank, the guy swore there would be no screw holes. There is one down on the body by the bottom and another up by the bridge and another that actually required screwing a hole through the metal of the bridge and down into the body! No...that won't leave a mark at all! God I'm an idiot sometimes. Whatever, the neck felt great and I figured maybe I could relic the guitar a bit or just take a little less for it when I sell it. Next I head in and list the Roland Synth pickup on eBay for $90 and it sells right away. Cool. Now I'm starting to get my money back at least a little bit. Of course now I'm stuck with the guitar too. Can't ask the guy for a trade-back without the synth pickup.

Next day I finally have a little more time and go plug the guitar into my sweet little Vox AC15 amp and holy crap the scratchiness of the knobs and pickup selector switch is so loud it sounded like nails on a chalkboard. The jack was fine at least. Then I realize the neck pickup is super microphonic and the bridge pickup is really weak. This just keeps getting better, doesn't it?

I got curious at this point about the headstock and why it was scraped up a little. I did a few Google searches and find a forum over at the Telecaster forum (which is fantastic by the way...not just for Teles...really knowledgeable guys) that basically informs me that my guitar used to have a little bitty decal on the end that said "Squier Series." What is interesting, but hard to explain when you are trying to sell something, is that this guitar is basically a regular Fender that was made in the Mexico factory back 1994...the first year of Tele production there. From what I understand, and feel free to correct me as you always do, Fender wasn't completely sure how the quality was going to turn out and they didn't want to go ahead and put just the Fender name on these guitars in case they sucked. So they added a little "Squier Series" decal on the end of the headstock. Once they figured out that the quality was great, they changed it for the following year and made them straight up Fenders. So my guitar is basically a Made in Mexico Fender guitar...but technically...and really only technically...it's a Squier. Ah crap. Try explaining that to a potential buyer...he's going to shake his head and say "oh sure, it's a Fender...wink, wink."

Okay, so I should wrap this story up. The truth is that the guitar is a great guitar. Neck feels fantastic and it plays really well. It's set up perfectly. So I think I'm just going to keep it and upgrade the pickups and clean out the pots and switches and get everything working perfectly. And it's going to be a great guitar. Heck, maybe I'll put a Bigsby on it! I didn't mention that these mid-'90s Telecasters from Mexico have a toploader bridge on them...some people are not fans and others are big fans. I like them just fine, but since there are no string holes through the body, I think that makes this a great candidate for a Bigsby. Genius! I'll keep you posted on the progress of this guitar. I think all in all it's a keeper!
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Pawn Shop Find of the Month

As always, I am on the lookout for cool stuff at pawn shops, thrift stores, swap meets and anywhere else I happen to be poking around. I am not a diehard, every day junk picker, but if I see a good spot and I have time I will definitely pull in the parking lot and see what's lurking in the corner somewhere. Quite awhile back I posted a story about finding a seriously beat up vintage Yamaha FG-160 at a local thrift store for $25. After cleaning it up and fixing a few things, it turned out to be an amazing sounding guitar.

Well, fast forward to this past weekend and, after walking into a local pawn shop, the first thing I spied was an old Yamaha looking right at me...calling my name. I walked over and picked it up and, sure enough, it was another one from the early '70s. A very rare and very high quality Yamaha FG-450. I didn't really realize just how nice it was at first...I was too busy finding an employee to get a price. The lady informed me that it also came with it's very nice original hard case. We did a little haggling and eventually I walked out the door with my new baby. Maybe the best $130 I've spent on any musical item. Yep, that's right...only $130. A true bargain.

My original intention was to get it home, put some new strings on it, and sell it on Craigslist for a decent profit. However, after restringing and sitting around playing it for awhile, it became more and more obvious that this guitar wasn't going anywhere. What a beauty! The sound rivals any of the finer acoustics I own or have owned in the past. This just might be, dollar for dollar, the best guitar I've come across. I say dollar for dollar because I am lucky enough to own a really nice, expensive handmade acoustic that just can't be beat. But I paid dearly for that guitar and it will be with me 'til I'm a goner. But for the money, this FG-450 is one heck of a guitar.

I should add a few details here: this guitar features a spruce top with jacaranda back and sides with a mahogany neck, and has an ebony fretboard and bridge...all this according to the Japanese Yamaha instrument website. The site is mostly in Japanese but you can figure it out and find what you are looking for.

The great thing about these old Yamahas is that they really did a great job with the serial numbers and records. It was super easy to find out that this guitar was made on June 20th, 1972 at the famous Nippon Gakki factory in Japan and was the 350th guitar that the factory built that day. Love it. Try getting that accurate on most any other vintage guitar and you'll be out of luck.

Prior to finding that old FG-160, I had no idea that these old FG's have quite the cult following in the guitar world. I was at home with this FG-450 and thinking that there was no way I was going to sell, but making myself list it on Craigslist anyway just to gauge the interest. The first email I got about it was from an FG collector who let me know how rare this model is and how badly he wanted it...if only he had the extra cash. I'm glad he didn't because I probably would have ended up selling it for a little extra Christmas money and regretted it later. After a couple of other emails from interested folks I took the ad down, wrote back to them and told them I had changed my mind. This one is staying with me...at least for now. I have learned to never say never when it comes to guitars, but I have a feeling this one will be with me for awhile.
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Vox AC15 CC1 Amplifier

Haven't written in awhile, but I've got a few things to add lately. This first one is a little amp that sounds so good, I've saved the guy's email and phone number that I sold it to so I can maybe buy it back some day. It's a Vox AC15 amp, which is commonly known as the little brother to the legendary Vox AC30. This is the CC1 model, which stands for Custom Classic. It's a reissue that was made sometime in the double oughts...otherwise known as the 2000s. I found this amp listed on Craigslist for $400 and that's what I paid for it. Worth every dime. It was owned by an officer in the military. I live very near Camp Pendleton in Southern California, and many times guys in the military will get shipped out or get out of the military and move back home and they don't want to take extra gear with them. You can find some good deals without taking advantage of our brothers in the service.

This guy was extremely nice and was bummed that he was moving. He had raised his family...wife and two kids...right here in the area while stationed at Camp Pendleton, and was very unexpectedly reassigned to somewhere in Texas. He didn't want to have to move the amp, so Craigslist was the answer. The price was very fair and I was happy to get such a great little amp. These things put out only 15 watts of tube power, but it was nice and loud for only 15 watts. I had the opportunity to use it when I opened up for Chris Shifflett of the Foo Fighters when he was on tour with his band the Dead Peasants, and it really filled the room. The sound was fantastic and I had a few people actually ask me what I was playing through.

One thing I will mention about this amp is that, when I first got it, I was pretty disappointed with the reverb.

I'm a Fender geek and this was not up to standards. I found the correct Accutronics brand replacement for the reverb tank and made the switch...super easy to do. And boy howdy did it improve the sound. All the difference in the world. Plus, I put the Vox reverb tank on eBay and got most of my money back. Sweet. I don't have a great photo of this amp, but you get the idea. I would really recommend this amp to anyone looking for a smaller size amp, with one 12" speaker and not so much volume that it alerts the neighbors.
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UPDATE: Well, here is a happy update to this story. A few months have gone by since I sold this amp and I have regretted it ever since. I started putting a few pennies away to get another one at some point and started keeping an eye on Craigslist. Lo and behold, I happen across an ad that has a Vox AC15 for sale. I clicked on the ad and it was MY old amp. The guy that had bought it was in the military (ironic, since I originally bought it from a military guy) and he found out he is about to get discharged. He decided to sell the amp rather than take it home with him. I recognized his name and shot him a quick email. I would have the money in three days if he could just hold onto it for me. He agreed and the rest is history. I have my own amp back and it still sounds extra fine. Pretty pleased about this one.
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Unknown Vintage Lap Steel

This is a really cool vintage lap steel guitar that looks to be home made...in every single aspect. Not only is every part of the body hand made, but even the pickup and pickup cover were probably put together from scratch in someone's garage a long time ago. Oh, and the case is also home made with some really nice hand painted flower motifs. Yep, this is one very cool instrument.

Much like the pedal steel guitar I most recently wrote about, I found this instrument in a pawn shop while I was driving across the country on vacation. My goal was to find a few instruments along the way that I could bring home and sell for a profit. I really thought this one was going to be more profitable than it turned out to be, but you can't win them all. I did turn a profit, but not a huge one.

I found this lap steel as I was driving down Main Street in Henryetta, Oklahoma...which also happens to be my parents' old hometown.

I was headed to the home of an old friend of my father's and missed the turn. Glad I did. As I was craning my neck, trying to read the street signs I passed the pawn shop. Looked almost empty to be honest. But right there in the window was this lap steel. Seven string lap steel to be exact. I went inside and inquired about the $175 price tag and the haggling began. We ended up at $120 and were both happy with that. I pulled out my credit card and was told "cash only." Luckily I had a few bucks on me and the deal was done. As we chatted about how unique this lap steel was we discovered that the owner of the shop knew my parents from way back when. How cool is that? He showed me another lap steel that was still in pawn that was really cool as well but just not for sale yet. Wish I could go back for that one.

So as far as I can tell, this lap steel is made of solid mahogany, has seven strings, all the parts are hand carved or cut, and the designs on the lap steel itself are old water decals. There is a 1/4" jack on the very end and no volume or tone knobs. I guess you just have to use a volume pedal. The case was also hand made and the artwork on the case was all hand painted. Very nice slice of Americana really. The old Stevens slide bar and metal fingerpicks were also included.

I put it up for sale on eBay and it sold for only $175. I have to admit I was a little disappointed...almost wish for that price I had kept it. But that's not why I bought it in the first place...I have learned my lesson about lap steels. I always think I want one and then, once I buy one, I realize I have no business trying to play it. I'm glad someone got such a cool instrument for their collection. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did in the short time I had it.
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Beck Musical Instruments Pedal Steel Guitar

Hey, it's been awhile but I've got some new stuff to write about. This first one is actually still in my possession (but it's for sale...let me know if you are interested). I decided awhile back that I would love to just hop in the car and go on vacation and stop where I pleased, sleep wherever I ended up, and of course, look for stray guitars that need a new home. Somehow I talked my employer into letting me take two weeks off all together and I made arrangements for the kids with the ex and all that stuff. Finally the day came and off I headed in my mini-van...headed towards the midwest to meet up with old friends and have some fun along the way. I live in the San Diego area, so anywhere is a long drive. I played a breast cancer benefit show on Sunday afternoon and then hit the road on Sunday evening, driving until 3:00 AM. I pulled into a truck stop and climbed into the back of my van with a pillow and sleeping bag and got some sleep.

When I woke up it was around 8:00 AM and quickly got it together and hit the road again. The first town I came to was Las Cruces, NM. I drove around looking for a pawn shop or music store and finally came across a pawn shop on the corner. I went in and there wasn't much to look at. I asked the guy if there was another pawn shop in town and he pointed me in the right direction, saying that they owned the other too. I kind of figured that meant they wouldn't have much there either, but I was mistaken. As I walked through the door in pawn shop number two, the very first thing I spied was a dirty, dusty pedal steel guitar. They didn't have it put together correctly, but it appeared to all be there. I looked at the price sticker and it said, "Mexican Fender Telecaster $999."

Hmmmm. They didn't even really know what they had. I played dumb too.

"Hey, what's this thing with 10 strings?" The guy said it was a pedal steel and I sort of pretended to maybe kind of know what that was. I told him it looked interesting to mess around with but not for a thousand bucks. He asked how much I'd be interested in paying. "Oh, maybe more like $300." I figured he'd say no way and I'd be on my way. I only had about $500 to spend on fun stuff on this trip and $300 would take up a big chunk on day one. He hollered back, "Okay, we can do $300."

Oh shit. I asked if that could include tax and everything. $300 out the door? "Sure." Well, now I better figure out if this thing is worth it. I told him I needed to go outside and call my wife and see if I could spend that much. I don't have a wife by the way. I started frantically looking on my phone internet for Beck Musical Instruments. I'd never heard of that brand before. I found their website and sure enough, the cheapest instrument they make sells for $2875 and another $350 for the case. I'd say this thing is a bargain and although it's the first day of the trip, I should go ahead and get it.

I walked back in and said, "Well, the wife won't really go for $300 but I talked her into $250. Any chance we could do it for that?" Nope. He won't go that low. As I'm negotiating I look over and on the pawn shop TV is that show, American Pickers. Guys literally doing exactly what I'm doing right at that moment. I was inspired and I said I guess I'd just have to pass at $300. He told me to come back if I changed my mind. I told him I was on the road and wasn't planning to be back in Las Cruces in my lifetime. To my surprise he said, "Awww, okay. We'll do it for $250 plus tax." Sweet. We basically met in the middle once the tax was added up. I took the thing apart and put it in the case before he had time to actually look the thing up and figure out how much it's worth.

I headed out the door and struggled to get it in the back of the van. Damn, those things are heavy. If you play pedal steel I admire you my friend. Carrying a pedal steel AND an amp and whatever else you need to a gig has got to be puttin' muscles on you. After my trip was over I headed on over to the world famous Buffalo Brothers Guitars and had my friends take a look at it. We got it all put together and their resident pedal steel guru Rick put it through it's paces. Very nice! So these things are heavy and incredibly complicated to play. He gave me the scoop on it, telling me I had found a really nice single neck, 10-string pedal steel made by Beck Musical Instruments, which was originally founded by pedal steel Hall of Famer Zane Beck. Zane was the first to incorporate knee levers into his instruments and now they are pretty standard issue. This particular steel has 3 pedals and 4 knee levers. What we couldn't decide was whether it had started life as a double neck or a single neck. It has the padded arm rest where a second neck might be, but I believe this came from the factory this way. The pickup sounded great and was clean...no scratchiness...especially for how dusty it was when I found it.

So, it's currently sitting in my living room and I suppose I could hang on to it just to mess around with. But I think I am going to sell it for a fraction of what it's worth, but still a profit to me. Someone is going to want this nice pedal steel at a great price. It just might not be right away. San Diego isn't exactly a pedal steel capital. If you are interested let me know.
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1964 Epiphone Frontier Rope & Cactus FT110

It is with GREAT sadness that I report the departure of this guitar. A lot of guitars are pretty or cool or have expensive features or parts. This guitar had SOUL. It had MOJO. I got it through eBay a couple of years ago and loved it the minute I came across it up for auction. It wasn't mint condition...nope, far from it. You could say it was beat to hell. But functionally it was perfection. It just had that certain something that you can't put a price on. It is a 1964 (or possibly '63) Epiphone Frontier dreadnought acoustic guitar. It's the one that's got the coolest pickguard in history: the rope and cactus tortoise shell pickguard. This was Graham Parson's guitar of choice and a lot of Graham disciples have to have one. That wasn't my case, but certainly is true for many. This thing has scrapes and dings and nicks and the finish is checked and then checked some more. There is play wear in places I didn't know you could play.

If it were a Fender Relic you'd be paying an extra $2000 for this kind of a relic job. But this one is real. This one is earned.

It had that sound. Magic. And as a songwriter, this guitar just seemed to have songs in it. I'd say that 9 times out of 10 when I picked up this guitar I was inspired to come up with something new or the spark of an idea for a song. From speaking to the original owner, I don't believe it was previously owned by a songwriter. I believe it did it's time playing covers in the bars and around the house. When I got it, the first thing I did was write about 4 new songs. They were just busting out of this guitar. Maybe it's the folk art portrait of Hank Williams in the soundhole...maybe it was channeling Hank. I don't know. All I can say is that I have never finally made up my mind to sell a guitar and then nearly reneged on the deal more than once.

The guy who bought it turned out to be a great owner of this guitar...very respectful of the magic it contains. He owns quite a few gems already and was looking for something not like anything else out there. Yes, he came across it because he was looking for a Frontier, but he bought it because it was different...imperfect...soulful. He came by my office today and took it out of it's case and strummed a few tasteful chords. He smiled and knew it was what he was looking for. He immediately took the money out of his pocket and handed it to me, as though maybe in this last second, this one last chance to bail out, I would change my mind if he didn't get it over with. And he was right. It's a good thing the wad of hundreds was thick and my need for new transportation outweighed logic. Because if you've read everything I just wrote, there is no logic in selling this guitar.

It makes no sense. But it's done and the Frontier has a new home. A good one I think. And my faith was restored when the new owner looked at me as he was leaving and said, "If you ever change your mind and want it back, let me know. I have a lot of guitars and I understand. We'll work it out."

Man...that's too good to be true. I hope he meant it because there will come day when I will be calling him. As the guy in the Men's Warehouse commercial says, "I guarantee it."
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