Your best gear-find story?

Eric Philippsen · From: Central Florida USA

I was reading Vintage Guitar magazine the other day and they had stories from dealers of their best gear finds. It was fun to read. In fact, I even think there are a couple of books out with the same subject although I haven't read them.

Anyway, I enjoyed the stories just for what they were and got to wondering. What's your best gear-find story? Here are my two best and, what the heck, although it might be considered tacky by some, I included the dollar-figures, too:

- Did a search of Guitar Center's used gear on-line. Plugged in "steel guitar" and got one result: "Emmons lap steel." Turned out it was a black S10, 3x4. It was pretty dirty............but I bought it for the $600 they were asking anyway.

- A friend called and said he was in a nearby Guitar Center and an Emmons had just been sold to the store a few minutes ago. It had been put on the showroom floor with its pak-a-seat and volume pedal for $1250. I called. Yes, they had a steel guitar for sale and said it was an Emmons "LeeGranday double-i". Ok, I can do that.....and did. I then sold the seat and volume pedal for $250. I told a friend about it and he said, "Hey, you got a LeGrande for a grand!"

Stephen R. Feldman · From: Takoma Park, MD

A '68 SG, that was in a cardboard
shipping barrel with five other guitars
in a pawn shop. It looked as if it had
been there for months, with very old strings
and an un-adjusted neck, and various nicks
and scratches (and P90's). But once the neck was put to rights, it was perfect.

$200.00

"Sorry, there's no case..."

Henry Matthews · From: Texarkana, Ark USA

1966 Emmons D 10 with 8 & 1. For $750
That was about ten years ago. Sold it on EBay later

Also bought a pristine MSA Classic SS D-10 for $400
I traded it later at Norris Music in Dallas for an MCI D-10

Before the Internet days, you could really find or run across some great deals on about anything. Now most pawn shops and people also look things up to see what they sold for.
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Henry Matthews

D-10 Magnum, 8 &5, dark rose color
D-10 1974 Emmons cut tail, fat back,rosewood, 8&5
Nashville 112 amp, Fishman Loudbox Performer amp, Hilton pedal, Goodrich pedal,BJS bar, Kyser picks, Live steel Strings. No effects, doodads or stomp boxes.

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

a little over 10 years ago i did this deal. a friend of mine worked at a pawn shop and said there was a steel there i could have for $500. it was a black mica cut tail emmons p/p..10+6. i sold it here on the forum for $1700 shipped. oh...it came with a session 500! i sold that for $300...all within a couple of days.
i should have kept it all, in retrospect.

if you're lucky enough to have a little money in the bank when the deals turn up it pays off. i made $1500 that day for very little hassle. i'm broke now!

i also had a'57 tele custom..like a '59 but he swore it was a '57..sunburst, binding, rosewood fingerboard.. that i borrowed for years back in the '70s. i finally gave it back cause i didn't have the $300 he wanted for it!!!
it would be worth $30,000 now.

did i mention i'm broke now?

Stephen R. Feldman · From: Takoma Park, MD

I've been there myself!

The problem is, when it's the best
time to sell, nobody wants to sell!

We're our own best customers.

Ray Montee · From: Portland, Oregon (deceased)

My best friend Michael Misetich found my first seven string Ric in a junk barrel in the back of a little skid row music store..........

They were asking $375,00.......and my wife at that time intimidated them down to $350 because it was so old. Also had a great hard shell fully functioning case.

George Macdonald · From: Vancouver Island BC Canada

In the early 70's I bought a pre-war Rick B6 in a pawn shop in California for $10.00. It had one non-matching tuner. Came with a basic case.

Also about 1972 I bought a 64 Brazilian rosewood Martin D-28 from someone trying to sell it for $100.00. The music store manager knew the guy and assured me it was his guitar. I didn't have any money on me so the music store ran it through their system for 10% commission. So it cost me $116.00 including tax. Sold it 10 years ago for $4000.00.

On the other side of the equation, I had a Gibson gold top Less Paul that would have been about a 1958 that I was happy to sell in 1963 for the $100.00 I had in it. Guess what they are worth today?

Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

Not quite the same thing, but I thought this amusing...

About thirty years ago I was on my first trip to the USA and I was wondering through a scruffy-looking pawn shop on Sunset in LA. There were the usual vast arrays of guns and guitars and I pretended to be ignorant about the latter. I'd spotted - hanging up in amongst dozens of rubbishy cheap acoustics - an early-1960s Gibson Everly Brothers. It didn't have pride-of-place, it was just banging up against all the 'firewood' on display on either side of it.

Continuing to feign ignorance I'd ask the man what the prices were as I pointed at various guitars:

"$150, $250, $75, $50, $6,500, $125...." and so it went on. The guy knew exactly what he had!

PS: Lovers of really good acoustics might question whether or not a Gibson Everly Brothers model is, in fact, a good guitar. It is, at least, valuable if a touch dead-sounding - looks cool, anyway!

Anyway, I didn't find a bargain that day... Sad

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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Jeremy Steele · From: Princeton, NJ USA

Just last week I was in the 14th street Guitar center in NYC...bought a wonderful Gold Star banjo for $65. The headstock was snapped off but the veneerwas holding it in place...a little Titebond and a C clamp got me a $1500 banjo

Rich Gardner · From: Columbus, Ohio, USA

I had a double 8 Rickenbacker steel since I was in 4th grade. I got caught up in the '60's garage band era and rarely played the steel anymore. I foolishly sold it to an acquaintance who played it for a couple of years. Fast forward several years...my wife knew of my regret at selling the Rick. She discovered that buyer had cancer and was willing to sell the Rick steel. She bought it and gave it to me for Christmas that year. That was the best find for me.

Jeremy Steele · From: Princeton, NJ USA

Sorry...double post

Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

Rich:

I love that story!
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

Even though this was posted in the pedal steel section, it seems to be veering all over the map, instrument-wise. So, here's my $200.00 Duolian. Had to replace the tuners. This puppy will bark, I'll tell 'ya!

Okay, Paris. Let's hear the story about how you acquired your P-Bass.

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

my best find has to be the white Millennium U-12 I found on E-bay. I not only got it for half of what it would cost new, it was delivered just 10 days after I bought it.
Here is how it looked when I bought it

Here it is now, after I decorated it.

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Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin

Russ Tkac · Posted 26 Dec 2013 4:58 pm

1960 Telecaster for $75.00 w/case. He wanted me to buy the bar-bells too but they were too expensive.

Jerry Jones · From: Franklin, Tenn.

I bought a '59 rosewood fingerboard Strat and a Les Paul amp (sometime in the 70's) from a grave digger for $125

One of Dylan's guitar players purchased a burgundy mist 60's Strat from some lady selling for her son.... for peanuts. He could not make his way out the door fast enough when the woman yelled back at him "Hey, you forgot the amp!" Some Fender blackface marvel as I recall.

I bought a '64 Strat in the early 70's and soon after traded to one of my band mates to get my old Epiphone Cornet back. Just a few years ago, we made contact again and he asked if I would be interested in the old Strat. I tried offering him a fair price, but he insisted on giving it to me. Now that is better than a rare find. Smile

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Jerry Jones

Bill L. Wilson · From: Oklahoma, USA

I found a '52 Fender P-Bass in So. Cal. for 50bucks, with a serial#0020. A good friend in Dallas, gave me a Gibson "335" for my B'Day in 2003. Another good friend in Tulsa, gave me a '56 Les Paul Custom. And Guitar Player Magazine, gave me a Fender Tele, and a Twin Reverb in 1970, after I had entered and won a contest in their mag. Of course I've given away guitars, amps, and had stuff stolen, but I still have the Tele, and the "335". I'm always of the opinion, you just can't beat FREE.

Jim Kennedy · From: Brentwood California, USA

Bought my early 80's ShoBud Pro 1 for $450 about 7 years ago. The gentleman was an older player in poor health. I didn't want to take advantage of him and told his guitar was worth $1000 to $1200. He told me he wanted it to go to someone who would play it, so I bought it for $450. I didn't have the money to buy the Webb amp that he wanted $600 for.

Scored a Webb extension cabinet just a couple months ago for $125, with the 15 inch JBL speaker. It was on consignment so I just paid for it. Sounds great with my Twin Reverb.
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ShoBud Pro 1, 75 Tele, 85 Yamaha SA 2000, Fender Cybertwin,

Bob Blair · From: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

In the late 70's I was in Victoria, BC visiting my brother. I had just started playing pedal steel and all I had was an MSA Sidekick. My brother told me that there was an Emmons pedal steel in one of the stores there so we went down and I played it. It was an S-10, and although the pedal action left a bit to be desired it sounded so good. They wanted something like 850 for it, and it might as well have been 850,000 because I was about to move east to go to school and I just could not afford it. It really bugged me not to be able to buy it though. Over the years I thought about it as the one that got away. A few years ago forumite Marc Jenkins told me of an S-10 p/p that had turned up in Victoria, and that it had essentially been in the case for thirty years. I told him about the one I had seen back then, and it turned out it was the same guitar. I bought it.

Chris Lucker · From: Los Angeles, California USA

Minutes after he was done performing with it, I got a 1930 Style O from Son House for $100, if that counts.
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Chris Lucker
Red Bellies, Bigsbys and a lot of other guitars.

Alan Berdoulay · Posted 28 Dec 2013 5:40 am

When I went shopping for my first electric guitar in 1978 I asked the salesman if they had any gretsches ( neil young played one).... He said "maybe down in the basement"....strats were hot then.......up comes a 67 Tennesseean with case.......$175.....shoulda asked for a white falcon.

Around 1985 a coworkers kid brother in law was selling off his uncles guitars that he had just inherited.....they were all gone but the 67 SG in its case......$120.

A few years ago a bandmate decided to sell his 68 J45 that I had always admired.....I told him I wanted it and we came up with a fair price. When I was at his house I asked him what else he had to sell and he started pulling things out of the closet......after about three cheapos....out comes a 59 ES330 w/ original case.......he just threw that in with the deal..........free.99.

Jason Duguay · From: Massachusetts, USA

Chris, I'd day that counts! Is there a story behind it?
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Ralph. Mooney.

Jerry Kippola · From: UP Michigan, USA

'62 burgundy mist strat, $250, action shopper 1978

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