Several cool guitars, amp, etc, for sale

[polara]

My auctions

So last week my wife and I are BOTH laid off. With a baby on the way and a condo we're fixing up. I actually got a nibble on a cool new job the day I was on the streets, but it's out of state and no matter what we are going to be scrambling for a while. So I'm selling a lot of stuff. Check the auction... I might pull early for a fellow HFCer. Highlights (I'm cutting and pasting from eBay here):

1994 Hamer USA Studio Custom Goldtop

Crowned and bound, rare color

Up for sale is an unusual 1994 Hamer USA. Compare it with a Les Paul and you'll find superior workmanship and sound, plus a cool added element of playing something different from the crowd. This one is pretty unusual, in that it is the only Hamer I've seen with the goldtop finish, crown inlays and bound neck, and humbucker pickups. When outfitted with P90s it was known as the Archtop GT Custom, and with a transparent or sunburst finish it would have been an Archtop, or later, Studio Custom. Blame Hamer for a weird naming policy! This may have been a custom order. It's a 24.75" scale set-neck guitar, three-piece mahogany neck, mahogany body with carved maple top and classic gold sparkle finish. It has Seymour Duncan JB (bridge) and 59 (neck) pickups, a new Switchcraft three-way selector, Schaller tuners, bound top and neck, mother-of-pearl crown inlays, and the original case, which is banged up but functional. Condition is "player" or better. There is one nick in the top and some chips in the clearcoat on the back of the headstock. The binding on the body is aged to a cream-amber color and it has typical Hameritis (a cloudiness under the lacquer) at the neck joint. Absolutely no cracks and little if any fret wear. This is a very good deal on an unusual, great-playing guitar that will only appreciate in value. Check my Ebay feedback and bid with confidence. This auction is for the continental US only, and shipping is to the lower 48 only. For other bidders, please contact me first to reach an agreement. Thanks for looking! $650 plus shipping

1994 Hamer USA Special FM, emerald green

Outstanding condition, unusual color

Up for sale is a 1994 Hamer USA Special FM. Compare it with a Les Paul and you'll find superior workmanship and sound, plus a cool added element of playing something different from the crowd. The FM is basically their workhorse Special model with the addition of a 3/8-inch thick flame maple top. It's a 24.75" scale set-neck guitar, three-piece mahogany neck, mahogany body with the aforementioned maple top and very cool transparent green finish that shows the flame maple to its best advantage. The finish covers the back and neck too,where it looks very dark green over the mahogany. It has Seymour Duncan JB (bridge) and 59 (neck) pickups and Schaller tuners. Condition is excellent, with no tarnish, one small ding in the top, and several micro-dings that are weird... was the previous owner bouncing marbles on his guitar? The back has some light scratching from jeans, but it's not "buckle rash". Absolutely no cracks and little if any fret wear. No case, comes packed well in a gig bag and sturdy shipping carton. This is a very good deal on an beautiful, great-playing guitar that will only appreciate in value. Check my Ebay feedback and bid with confidence. This auction is for the continental US only, and shipping is to the lower 48 only. For other bidders, please contact me first to reach an agreement. Thanks for looking! $650 plus shipping

UNIQUE Ed Giller - Ear Candy custom amp, matchless tone

12ax7 EL84 15-watt hand-wired powerhouse

This is a truly unique custom-built amp and cabinet designed to get a huge British tone from a compact rig that's perfect for club and even basement volumes.

Ed Giller, a custom amp builder from New York, creates one amp at a time, usually based on classic designs but with a twist. You can read some reviews here:

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews...mp/brand/Giller

Tim, at Ear Candy Cabs, makes custom speaker cabinets out of solid woods (not particle board), configured to each customers' specifications

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews...12+Cabinet/10/1

This amp is based on the Matchless Lightning circuit and uses three 12ax7s in the preamp and two EL84s in the power amp, with a tube rectifier. You can email Ed to ask more technical questions or look over the reviews on H-C. It's all hand-wired on an aluminum chassis using quality parts. I'm running JJ tubes. Controls are gain, bass, treble, and master volume. I bought it after trying an Aiken Tomcat and falling in love with that sound. This has that same classic compressed dirty overdrive. A very cool feature is the pentode/triode switch, which effectively drops it from 14 or 15 watts to about 8 watts output for little rooms. There is also a switch for speaker impedence: 8 or 4 ohm.

The amp is housed in a custom cabinet made by Ear Candy. Tim and I agreed on a big box in orange naugahyde (not Tolex) made of hard pine with metal corners. The tubes are protected by a powder-coated orange metal grill and Tim picked some flame maple for the front and rubbed it to a smooth oiled finish. The logo is off a '58 Pontiac Strato-Chief for that touch of elegance.

The cabinet is their Sovereign closed-back 1-12, with a Eminence Red Fang 30W speaker. This was chosen for efficiency without too much speaker distortion, and the closed back and deep ported cab give a lot of bottom-end thump. This this is very loud for 15 watts. I played it with a normal power trio and was often asked to turn down. The best way to run it is so that the preamp is just at the edge of breaking up, and then get a bit of grit with either your guitar's controls or your picking. I used a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 to push it into "roar" territory but in the studio simply ran straight in and turned it up. You can hear clips of me playing a '69 Les Paul, a '74 Hagstrom Swede, and an EMG-equipped G&L through this amp here: http://homepage.mac.com/estelladesign/FileSharing45.html

Condition is excellent. Tubes are fresh, pots are clean. There are two small cuts in the naugahyde, as you can see in the photos: one on the head and one on the cab. Sold as a pair only unless you really want to pay a premium. Ed's selling his head alone now on Ebay in a plain pine box for $600. A Matchless head is a fortune and isn't as unusual. I think the buy it now price is pretty fair for a totally handmade boo-teek rig.

It'll be expensive to ship, so if you want to meet in the midwest for delivery, that's a possibility. Please email me for more photos or sound clips. Check my Ebay feedback and bid with confidence. This auction is for the continental US only, and shipping is to the lower 48 only. For other bidders, please contact me first to reach an agreement. Thanks for looking! $650 plus shipping

More to come.... an iPod, a G&L, a dreadnought acoustic, some pedals, and a rare Flaming Lips picture book....

EDITED TO ADD:

1983 G&L F-100 Series II guitar

Hot-rodded and bastardized but a great player

Here's an odd one. This was bought new by a bandmate in the 80s and over the years he totally...well, punk-rawked it out. It was candy apple red, then sanded and painted green with a brush, then stripped again and sealed, the strap buttons broken off, the G&L pickups yanked and the body rerouted for EMGs, a pickguard added... wow. BUT it's a great player! EMG SA pickup in front, an EMG 60 in back, one volume, one tone, a three-way switch. Pickups are mounted directly to the wood, a la Eddie Van Halen. Great G&L tremolo with later, 90s arm and socket. Jumbo frets with some wear, straight neck, nearly bulletproof. Give it paint and it'd actually be beautiful. Comes with a generic rectangular case that is brand new. Check my Ebay rating and bid with confidence. Outside the lower 48, call me first to talk shipping. Thanks for looking!

Johnson Summit Series dreadnaught acoustic guitar

This is an unusual guitar. Johnson makes cheapo Chinese guitars. A few years ago they made (allegedly) jsut 500 really nice Chinese guitars. I mean REALLY nice. This is one. Solid Engleman spruce top, solid mahogany sides, back, and neck. Gold Grover tuners, mother-of-pearl logo and snowflake inlays, and real abalone rosette abound the soundhole. Plays great, and in fact I can send soundclips from a CD I just finished. Excellent condition with a Gator ABS case that is actually ATA approved but a little beat. Check my feedback and bid with confidence. Shipping to lower 48 only, so outside the lower 48, contact me first! Thanks, and happy bidding.

[Zipper Neck]

I hope you get a lot of dough for all that cool stuff. Best of luck to you and your wife.

[Submariner85]

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles.

I'm glad the gold top went so quick because I was about ready to hit the BIN and I DON'T need another guitar right now even if it is that sweet.

Good luck with everything.

[Mindseyes]

How did i miss that Studio Custom Goldtop???

I would have so given ya $700 for it!

If that deal falls i call dibs!

[cordroad]

Sorry to hear about your recent misfortune. Hang in there. Things always work out, just not always the way we thought they would.

[DavidE]

$650 was a steal for the goldtop custom.

[BCR Greg]

I propose that we all send Polara a little "help", to get him and the family through this time.

Post the address, buddy, and we will all chip in for an HFC Pay It Forward.

[Guest Buck Dharma]

I wish you luck bro. I had the same thing happen to me and I am better off now but it wasn't easy.

[polara]

Thanks guys. This week may be just what we needed in a weird way. I was making more money than I'd ever thought I would but had no interest at all in my job, while I missed the South desperately. My family are all in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and east Tennessee and with a baby coming I was feeling as if I'd made a wrong choice in following money up north. We had talked about moving south but didn't really have the intestinal fortitude to quit our jobs and take chances.

So yeah, Thursday was BAM! Linda's cancer research loses its funding and Friday WOW! I'm out on the street after some weird stuff goes down at work. Not even severance as we'd been at our jobs only a few months. I get home and send a few emails, and THAT NIGHT get an interested response from a company in ATLANTA! We correspond some more and it seems I'll be interviewing next week down there for marginal pay but doing exactly the work I wanted, in a small company about two blocks from my brother's house. Then I talk to my Realtor friend today and oddly he has a client coming from California looking for a condo this week, and with all the work we've put into ours he thinks she'd be interested and we could walk way with $30,000 profit after living in it for three months.

A lot can still go wrong but we live like monks: no cable, no paper, no credit cards, no car payment, not even a land line telephone and we use free neighborhood 'net access. We have enough in the bank to go five or six months with zero income, and in that time I think we can be headed back home to my family, to the sweet tea, sweet people, and hills I grew up in, and probably be at jobs we like better though I may never hit big (ha!) bucks again. So send good wishes our way 'cos they are appreciated, and if anyone in Atlanta knows of either creative director or geneticist jobs... send 'em our way!

Can't say that I think someone's looking out for us, as there are billions in far greater need. But sometimes if you keep fighting the current... maybe it's you that's wrong and not the current. Thanks for all of your support and know we're there for you should misfortune strike...

[Mindseyes]

Good luck to ya!

And best wishes!!!!!!

[BLuesBuster]

Hey bro, you're a good man, let me know of we can do anything for you.