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guitarcapo

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guitarcapo last won the day on March 21 2016

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  1. I had a 1990 Gretsch White Falcon I bought new that played nice but sounded like crap. It was one of the thinner ones with a double cutaway. Anyway back in those days there was no TV Jones so I sold it. I got a good price for it (the same $2400 I paid for it 8 years earlier) but now I just wish I hung onto it and replaced the pickups. Anyway I might buy one again if I can find that same model used and less than 2 grand.
  2. After the resurrection of this old thread I figured I'd post the values over the years I ended up with for this amp...It's pretty far removed from the Champ design at this point but sounds fantastic.
  3. I usually remove them and install a basic 3 prong grounded cap. Whatever reduction in hum you are going to hear is eliminated that way anyway. They weren't installed to eliminate hum...they were installed for safety reasons. The reverse polarity switch was invented to reduce hum. The death cap was installed to provide safety for reversed polarity situations before grounded electrical huose wiring became common.
  4. The reason for giving something a name is so that it will come to you when you call it. That's why you should bother naming fish in a fish tank, plants, objects etc......
  5. They seem to have 3-on-a-plate tuners: Stewmac golden age tuners?????????? They aren't exactly the same but maybe the post spacings and screw locations match up..the fellow on this link says they match perfectly: http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145311 http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guitar,_solid_peghead_tuners/Golden_Age_Restoration_Tuners_for_Solid_Peghead_Guitar/Golden_Age_Restoration_Tuners_for_Solid_Peghead_Guitar_with_Square-end_Baseplates.html
  6. Usually I only value old instruments when they have features that you can't find in new instruments. For example take this "budget' Harmony acoustic, the 1260 model: These were made in the late 50's, 60's and early 70's. They would be impossible to make today. The neck is solid one piece Hondran mahogany. The back and sides are solid Honduran mahogany. (by "solid" I mean the back is a single 16" wide slab of quartersawn wood unlike Martins and Gibsons. The top and all bracing is solid split billet red spruce. The fingerboard and bridge are Brazilian rosewood The finish is shellac spirit varnish The glue used is hide glue. Built in America. Adjustable truss rod (don't laugh, Martins didn't have one until the 1980's) This was the acoustic that the baby boomer generation grew up on. It's acoustic guitar that Jimmy Page used to play the most famous acoustic guitar piece in the history of rock and roll: the intro to Stairway to Heaven. Lots of famous rock stars learned their first chords on a Harmony Sovereign on both sides of the Atlantic. What a newly manufactured would one cost to buy today that is perfectly accurate? Probably over 2 grand retail I would imagine. They sell all day long for around $500 on the internet. Less if they need work done. My point is that THAT is the definition of a "VINTAGE" guitar. Something you seek out because they don't make them like they used to. Some plywood Japanese guitar? Get out of here with that crap.
  7. Another observation: All guitars will change in sound and have a "peak" where they sound their best. Sometimes this "peak" can be just a year after the guitar is built...sometimes decades depending on how heavily it's braced. A guitar that's heavily braced will just take longer before it sounds good. Also some guitars will start to sound bad after they have peaked. This can take decades and might be rectified by new bracing...but an old acoustic past it's prime can sound bad if the top gets played out without a luthier maintaining it.
  8. Reward $ is kinda low. I bet he spends that on room service. I clicked on "like"
  9. Zappa should be in the top 10. I think it's cool Ry Cooder made it. I'd have Keith Richards and Chuck Berry somewhere in the 20's at best. Robert Johnson only made one album. You don't make the top 10 of all time playing for 40 minutes. Sorry. Some of these guys are songwriters who just happen to play guitar....yea I'm talking about YOU, Cobain. If you get to be #12 then Bob Dylan gets to be #7 or something because he plays better than you and also writes better songs.
  10. He'd have a career similar to Santana or Jeff Beck etc.....a great guitar player but just another great player.
  11. Lately I've been going nuts over Magnatone amps. So easy to get a good sound without fighting it.
  12. Probably worth 2 grand at least because it's Brazilian rosewood.
  13. Other than changing the strings or bridge material I don't have much to advise that would have an effect. One thing I do know. A guitar can sound a LOT different to the player than it does to someone standing 10 feet in front of him. Try it sometime. Play a guitar and then have someone play it FOR you while you stand 10 feet away. Things like the overwhelming bass that you hate when playing the guitar yourself might sound perfectly balanced to the listener. Another angle is that guitar that sounds fantastic live might be an absolute bitch to record...while a dead sounding plywood guitar sounds very balanced and refined into the mic. Really resonant expensive hand-made acoustics might feedback like crazy once you put a pickup in them and try and use them on stage...while again, a dead department store Harmony plywood box becomes the perfect tool converted to electric/acoustic for stage work. Bottom line: Every guitar will have strengths and weaknesses, it's up to you to find them and exploit them.
  14. What I meant is that it had the "flecks" that you see in Lacewood...but it was more orage in color and the flecks were a lot larger.
  15. There are some exotics out there that are gorgeous for sure. Snakewood is one, but it's hard to find big pieces. I have a back and side set of "mysterywood" that looks kind of like lacewood. It came from South America and I can't figure out what species it is. I really need to take pics. Maybe someone here knows.
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