straightblues

I will have to find a way to get it recorded. It sounds very very good. It is simply amazing in fact. Don Mare is making the finest tele pickups I have ever heard. This guitar truely sounds like a great 50's tele/esquire. The sound is well beyond what I could have hoped for. The pickup is only 6K. It can do traditional country all the way to Led Zepplin. It has only been together since Saturday. The sound of this thing simply has blown me away. In fact, the finish is way out there for a guitar that sounds this vintage. I am sure people will be shocked by it.

Here is the specs for my pine body Esquire: Guitar Mill one piece 3 1/2 pound pine body 1 1/2" thick. Glendale notched bridge Glendale saddles brass and hardened steel Don Mare - 6 k joel foy '51 wrap. These pickups KILL. CTS Pots Orange Drop caps (currently has my old Ibanez neck. New Allparts Fat neck comming.) Pickguardian made Pickguard using Tor-Tis. The paint is clear nitro with an orange tint. It only has about 6 thin coats. I did it all in one afternoon. No grain filler. The grain and holes in the grain still show through. The images were stamped on using a rubber stamp and black ink.

Introducing Ms. Frenchy:

Sorry to break up the fun!!!

Think about it like the difference between a Seth Lover and a Super Distortion pickup. They are both humbuckers but they aren't the same. The Lindy will sound much different. It will sound cleaner at all volumes. At 5 or 6 on the guitar volume it will be almost strat like. At 10 it will get the nice P90 grind instead of the way distorted tones of the high output stock Duncans. It will allow you to turn up your amp a bit more and get more natural overdrive from the amp rather than having the front end of the amp overloaded by a hot pickup. The Fralin will also have a brighter overal tone. All in all, it will sound like a real vintage Gibson P90 rather than the stock hot Duncan that looks like a P90 but doesn't sound like one.

I would say use whatever works for you. I go from lots of effects, to no effects and then back again. I am in the no effects stage right now. But I always have one OD box with me in case I can't crank my amp up enough to make it overdrive on its own. The one good thing about using a clean amp and multiple overdrives is that you don't ever have to worry about being able to crank your amp up enough. Something that takes a lot of energy when using an amp only.

In my younger days I ran guitar into tube screamer, into a Blues Driver, into a DS-1. I would leave the Tube Screamer on all the time. I would then add the other two. I would frrequently use all three at once. If you put mild overdrive distortion on each of them this produces a really nice sound.

DAAAMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!! I just got my second Newport (I put TV Jones TV'Trons in it) and I thought I was all done. I love Newports and this new setup is my dream setup for a Newport. I love the wraptails on my Eclipse, Jr. and Studio. Guess I will have to own 3 Newports instead of just 2. Time to start saving.

Is that Buck Rodgers guy really sweating a bra?????

Check out some of the prices on this web site for vintage Gibson parts. This stuff is all going crazy. According to the Vintage Checkout website, the guy on Ebay isn't charging enough. http://www.vintagecheckout.com/index.htm Also remember before everyone here gets crazy about this that almost everyone on this site buys $1,000 plus guitars when there are plently of guitar out there today for less than $200. My thoughts on this stuff is if you like and want it go for it. Prices wouldn't be this high unless there was lots of interests. Sorry for saying this but the arguments against buying these pickups sound a lot like those my wife makes to me when I want a new Hamer.

Man I hate this trend. I went to a casino and watched a Rod Stewart cover band a few months ago. I was in the front row with my wife and we could carry on a full conversation because there was no stage volume. There wasn't one real amp on the stage. They were all using PODS into the PA. I could almost hear the guitar stings. I was afraid we were going to be told to keep it down. Buy back your tube amps and crank those suckers up.

Most if not all the recording you hear on the radio were made with tube amps. We have grown up listening to tube amps. Therefore, our ears are trained to appreciate tube amps. There are some great solid state amps out there and I have owned a few. But solid state amps don't sound the same as tube amps. I didn't say and don't believe they are better or worse but I can guarantee they aren't the same. BTW, I am a blues player and a couple of the great blues guys are well know for using solid state amps. Those would be BB King with his Gibson Lab series amps and Albert King with Roland Jazz Chorus amps.

At every gig I try to use no effect. However, I have a BJF Honeybee and Clark Gainster for overdrives if my amp is way too loud for the room. I have a Keeley Java boost if the amp is just a little too loud for the room. And if the amp is the right size for the room I just use a cord. With my band I get this right and use no effects about 75% of the time. At a open jam I use effects about 90% of the time because I always bring a bigger amp to make sure I can hang in there with the guys that play too loud. I also occasionally use my 63' Reissue Fender Tube Reverb Tank, and a Arion Chorus for the Lesslie type tones.

Ding Ding Ding we have a winner. Over the past couple of years I haven't worked very much, (only 30 hours a week.) I am driving my co-workers and business partners nuts. But I discovered for myself that it was time to smell the roses and play guitar a little more. What makes guys like Donald Trump and Bill Gates go to work and work hard every day. They each have more money than they can ever spend, so it is clearly not money. What else is it? Whatever that thing IS, is the reason many people go into business. (Fame, power, interested in the subject, don't know what else to do, want to get away from their familiy........)

(sorry for this long post, maybe somebody will find it helpful) Forgive me Luke but this is where you are showing your ignorance. You are looking at it strictly from a economic prospective. I should also state that I know business and I was educated in the operation of small business enterprises (entrepreneurial studies) at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. But what you have failed to acknowledge is that people have many other motivating factors when deciding whether to open their own business. People have dreams, hopes, feeling, psychological issues, love of the product, love of the environment and emotions that all go into this decision. I learned this lesson really well in the 90's. This was a hard economic time in Southern California and commercial real estate prices dropped dramatically. During that period I worked for several large banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Union Bank to name a few) that repossessed shopping centers from developers. When the banks to them back, I would go in an asses each of the tenants and either adjust their rent and save them or evict them and then sale the shopping centers. During this period I evicted about 20 or so companies a months for about 2 1/2 years. At the beginning, I took Luke’s approach and looked only at the tenant’s books and saw that the majority weren't making money. I promptly showed them they weren’t making it and forced them to pay rent or I would evict them. My attitude changed after meeting a used book store owner. As I had done with many other companies, I worked with the owner to calculate the businesses current income and how much he was making personally. We found out that he was making $2.15 an hour owning this book store. He was working 55 hours a week. At the time the minimum wage was $6.00. He literally could have walked across the parking lot and worked in the McDonalds and made 3 times his current wage. But this book store was his life dream. He simply loved books. It was all he wanted to do. He owned a small home and didn’t have any other financial commitments. He couldn't face his family as a failure. As long as he kept the store, he could hold his head up and maintain his dream. He was willing and happy to make less money to live his dream. Out of all of the people I worked with, this guy really stood out. He wasn't worried about making money just keeping his dream and his lifestyle alive. I worked with him on a few business strategies including adjusting his pricing and was able to kept the store alive and make more money. This worked because his store had a big local following. He still runs it today and is very very happy. Is he making much money, no. Is he fine with that, YES. Would it be something I would do or suggest my family do, NO. But it clearly works for him. My friends at business school would probably laugh, but Money really isn't everything. It is a big factor in opening your own business but not the only one and probably not even the most important one from where I sit today. So if you want to open a music store, go for it, but do as much due diligence as possible and realize what you are getting into before you begin. After you have completed your due diligence, if it makes since for you (not for anyone else) then go for it. However, keep in mind, if you want others to invest (including outside investors or a bank) you better show that it will make some money because like myself and Luke, we really aren’t interested in your dream just how much money we can make from it.

I develop for rich people that don't know what they are doing or are too busy. I take the lead development role. I perform financial analysis and feasability, obtain entitelments (rights to build), obtain financing to do the project, hire an architect to draw the building, hire a contractor to build it, hire a broker to lease it and manage the whole process through leaseup and/or sale. A better term for my role would be "fee developer".

I develop large office buildings, mixed use project and large industrial parks in Los Angeles. My average development is about $50 million. My last project was $150 million. I have 20 years experience. It is very nasty work with lots of fighting and political games. My average legal bills are about $20,000 a month. I often think about changing fields. Believe me I don't have a lot of fun doing it these days. It is funny; I still love to trade guitars and get good deals. It is my hobby. It is the thrill of the chase. I hate to pay full price and rarely buy anything new.

Just sent some funds. You should post something on the site that makes it easier for people to contribute. This is a great site and I am happy to finally support it.

BTW. everyone has been assuming that you will be reselling on Ebay. There are lots of other place to sell gear including this forum, Gear Page, Weber Bulletion Boards, Seymour Duncan Site, The Fender Forum, Craigslist, Recycler and many others. Prices vary a lot between places you sell.

Opportunity cost is the cost of other things you could be doing with your time instead of buying guitars. For example, if you could make $10 an hour working at a store and it takes you 20 hours to do the guitar and you only make $100, you have only made $5 per hour working on the guitar. Thus, you could have made twice as much by working at the store as opposed to spend time working on the guitar. This extra cost ($5 an hour in this case) is called the "opportunity cost." Well I am a real estate consultant and I bill $200 per hour. So my opportunity cost is very high. But I love guitars and I love buying and selling them. Could I make more money elsewhere, yes, but I wouldn't have as much fun. I also enjoy having many guitars around. I can do this easily by buying and selling guitars. It is a game for me now. I started doing this on a regular basis when I was 13. I was playing Les Pauls, Explorers and 335 when I was still in my teens. So yes, it was worth it for me and a hell of a lot of fun.

This is where the art and marketing comes in. If you clean it up, make it play right, replace non-original parts. Tell a story, get a better description, find out what year it is, talk about famous players who have played that model. Advertise it as the correct model and year. I can't tell you how many time I have seen a Studio advertised as a Special. (Studios go for more as you know.) I love when I see missadvertised stuff. Also, maybe the seller has issues (no history or bad history; or doesn't want to ship or is charging too much for shipping or won't tell you what the shipping and "Handeling" cost will be until the close of the auction). Here is a great example, last year I bought a Silvertone Aristrocrat (17 1/2 wide big Hollowbody electric from the mid 50's) that was advertised as a 1970's Electric Acoustic Silvertone. If you know about Silvertone, Kay or Harmony guitars they were made in the US until about '67 at which time they where made in Japan. The 50's ones were fairly high quality while the quality wained in the 60's. So by advertising as a 70's guitar, I am sure most people didn't even look at the ad. I paid $150 for it and turned around and sold it a month later for $650. I advertised that it was the same guitar played by Rick Holmstrom and Junior Watson two great West Coast Blues players. I also took great pictures and put 10 pictures on Ebay so people could see what they were getting. I also have a 100% positive feedback rating. I always charge a low flat shipping cost so buyers know exactely what they are going to get.

Yes you can do this. I have been doing for the past 25 years. You just need to be careful on the buy. If you don't buy it right you will never do well. Here is my most recent deal. I bought a Chandler Lectraslide guitar at Guitar Center. The guitar was setup horribly and had the wrong bridge on it. I bought it for $150. I had the right bridge at home from one of my hamer wraptails. I did a little setup work and got it playing great. I went home before I bought it and checked Ebay. These guitars were trading on Ebay between $600 and $700 so I raced back down and bought it. Guitar Center is a great place for doing this. They mark down none big name gear really low prices. The salesmen at Guitar Center actually laughed when I bought the guitar. They said they had it for a long time and nobody wanted it. Anyway, on week later I traded this Lectraslide for a Soild top Martin accoustic with a high end pickup in it. So for $150, I now have a Martin that is arguably worth $800 to $1,000. The guy with a Martin just bought a $2,500 Gibson accocstic and he really wanted to get rid of the Martin. So I got a GREAT DEAL. I bought a 1964 Fender Deluxe about a year ago for $400. The cabinet was destroyed but the chasis was perfect and 100% original. I built a cabinet and now I have a GREAT amp for about $600. All the tone without the price. If I wanted to sell it, I could get at least $1,000. I could go on all day with deals I have done. I have owned around 250 guitars and at least 50 amps. I allways buy them right and trade up. Go for it if you want just make sure you buy them right and make sure you included fees such as Ebay and Paypal fees into the equation.

I am one of those people. I love the Lollars. P-90 tone can't get any better IMHO. Again, everyone has their own taste but for me Lollar wins by a mile. Others including the Fralins are nice but for the raw blues and rock tones I like, the Lollars kill. Yes I like love worship the Lollars.

Man I have been traveling on business the last couple weeks. I totally missed that one. I love my Eclipse. It would have taken everything I had not to bid on that one. Let me know if you decide it isn't for you. Congratulations on a beautiful guitar.

I just got a guitar that came in one of those checkerboard cases. I would love another one!!!! I am talking the special guitars that go into those cases, no the cases themselves!!!!