Gitter

Hipsters seem to be the center of the market but don't under-estimate the sheer number of "people over 50" who apparently decided all at once to pile on the 'go out and look for old vinyl' train. I swear to god, it was like a giant hive-mind had been activated. Vinyl was once limited to collectors and oddball enthusiasts and hard-hardcore music afficianados, it then became a 'cultural' thing with hipsters and a nostalgia thing with old timers. The only thing that I can't figure out is how sudden it was. I've seen plenty of 'collector manias' brew, blow-up then die in years past but this one was probably more abrupt than any I've seen in my relatively brief years in this planet.

It's completely, completely insane (at least in So Cal, Chicago and certain parts of Florida I frequent). As noted, as recently as 3-4 years back it was kinda-sorta starting to pick up a bit but you could still go to any given garage sale or flea market, find vinyl and good chance you would be the only one there that day who gave two **** about it. Now? You'd better show up early and expect to have competition. Want customers at your next garage sale? Advertise vinyl and see what happens (seriously, when my aunt wanted to have a garage sale, I gave her a box of crappy $1/ea vinyl just so she could advertise she had it because it's such a draw around here... and 3/4 of it sold) Apparently, every hipster and mid-life crisis moron decided at once to collect vinyl sometime in 2010 and the dam completely broke.

The craziest thing about vinyl has to be how "vinyl mania" hit so **** hard and fast over the past few years. As recently as 2009/2010 there were a handful of guys at my regular few flea markets scouting the albums (including myself). Now, in-thje-wild albums are the surest way to get a group of shoulder-to-shoulder buyers and *everything* is pummeled down to the Pete Fountain and Johnny Mathis. Like, not 10 years ago you could've stood vinyl in the trash and it would've been a coinflip if anyone would bother to stop and look through it. Now? Insanity. I beat my collection down to three rows of 5' (about half) since there was just a lot I wasn't listening to, couldn't forsee myself ever putting in the rotation and frankly, after a growth period in my life, came to realize just how hoarder'ish 'collecting' can become if it goes unchecked and you start acquiring for acquisitions sake. A lot of it was stuff from bulk-purcahses and collection buys, back when you could get a collection of 200-400 unpicked albums from the 60's-80's for $20, $30, $40 a load. The bad news, the good old days of in-the-wild vinyl are completely over; another cool interest {censored}ted up by hipsters, dbags and trendistas.

I call all my guitars motherfu*ker.

See, that's what I'm talking about. Perhaps its not 'perfect' if you look it over closely but per that picture, it's a nicely done scallop job and nothing appears 'wrong' with it. Just because some people have a child-like inability to work on stuff (like the horiffic scallop job above) doesn't mean everyone does.

Spindle sander, or chuck an abrasive spindle into a drill press, or be careful as **** with a Dremel sanding wheel, then finish by hand. Not exactly a mystical process. You're shaping channels into a flat surface. You could use rasps/files and finish with sandpaper, if you wanted. It all boils down to how patient you are and/or how confident you are with high speed tools that cut fast, but bear in mind something like a Dremel cuts many times faster than a human being can react so the object is to work SLOWLY as possible with it, removing material in passes, not big, deep 'cuts'. Know that you're gutting the value of any neck you do it to, please for the love of god don't do it on something like a 1980's Charvel or the like...