Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Peter, I see your point. They also weren't considering their guitars as collectibles and how much they would some day be worth. I just wonder if the person who now owns that Gretsch has any idea what he/she has? Isn't there any record of the serial number out there?

We as enthusiasts have an added dimension to our perception of these instruments. The Beatles still have them for sentimental reasons, and when you think about it they did pretty much keep everything that was significant. Perhaps George just felt like a good deed when he gave the 2nd Gent away.

Keep in mind that Paul McCartney has quite a collection of other things: The upright bass that Bill Black played with Elvis, a '57 Les Paul Goldtop (left-handed) and a '59 Les Paul Flametop (also left-handed), and who knows what else!!! I think that they are 'gear heads' more than we may think. What is neat is that for many things that we now hold dear, they were on the cutting edge of most all of the 'goodies' in the book.

How true.

I already have both editions of Beatles Gear. Is there any reason to get the new third ?

Stuff is only worth as much as folks want to say it is.

Case in point: in the late '80's, I purchased a beat up circa 1936 Gibson L-00 for $200 from a local guitar shop that the owner is an expert at vintage guitars, hanging out with Gruhn and others, and he gave me a good deal. I gave it to my great uncle as a gift, since he was looking for a small body guitar. Years later, being the Gene Autry fan he was, he purchased a Martin 000 brand new for big bucks, and gave me the L-00 back. I played his 000. Nice, but not a great, guitar. Before I got the L-00, it had been in a wreck and needed a new back and repairs to the sides. But it played relatively well with a substantial neck and the original screened script Gibson logo on the headstock. Also before I got it, someone had replaced the first few frets, obviously worn out, with fingerboard divots from the "cowboy chords," but with modern jumbo fret wire. So when I got it back, I had a local talented luthier go through it and fix it. He gave it a complete fret job with correct vintage style frets, cleaned everything up, reglued a brace or two, filled in the divots, etc., all for a very low price considering. I fingerpicked it, but the neck was just a little too beefy for me, and I wanted something I could bang chords to accompany folks a little better, whether on stage, at church, for my son's Scout Troop, etc. But it was just a $200-400 guitar, almost a throw-away, and I was in no position to spend substantial bucks on another instrument.

Then lightning struck. A fingerpicking fad started. Then Gibson reissued what cost $35 in 1935 for @ $5000. Original clean examples, with real Brazilian rosewood fingerboards (like mine) and Adirondack spruce tops (again, like mine), with intact labels and good provenance, started bringing the price or more of the new reissues. Even with no provenance, no label, etc., just the original screened logo on the headstock to prove it was a real Gibson L-00, the value of my guitar skyrocketed literally overnight.

Then, on one sunny day in December a few years ago, I happened to stroll through a music store and found the J-45 I had been looking for and dreaming about for over 30 years with just the right balance of playability and tone. I advertised the L-00 and sold it on pictures only for $1700 to a fingerpicker who loves it. I went back to the shop on a strange weather day when I knew their humidor would be whacked out and sure enough, there was some tongue lift on the J-45. I pointed this out, bemoaned that it sounded good and felt good, but I wasn't sure I could deal with the tongue lift compromising the action as I came up the neck. So they discounted the price to $1800. I did the deal, took it home, and of course, rehumidified it to the proper level, and the tongue lift went away. Then I added a real bone saddle with additional compensation, lightweight TonePros Klusons with the antique white knobs, and a bone strap button in the "Taylor Position" to take a neckstrap properly. A little fine tuning to the nut slots, and I had my dream acoustic guitar for about $600 total actual cash outlay over the years, including original purchase price of the L-00, repairs to same, then adding the upgrades to the J-45.

The point of this long anecdote is simply that any instrument can become either worthless or priceless, depending on nothing other than the vagaries of circumstance. John and George also owned sonic blue Stratocasters. A real '62 Strat does go for big bucks, but not because of either John or George, ironically, although on songs like "Nowhere Man," and the outakes of Magical Mystery Tour, that's what makes the song.

Frankly, I don't see how a Hofner 500/1 can command the price it does. I played a real '64 at Gruhn's in Nashville a couple of decades ago, set up absolutely perfectly, and without a small tube bass amp driven to the edge to give natural compression, to me the tone was, to quote somebody else in a Guitar Player magazine also a couple of decades or more ago, like a pebble dropped on wet cardboard, with neck dive. But because of all the Macca enthusiasts, it does. So be it.

All I can say is that I'm lucky to have the instruments I have, because it seems every time I turn around, something happens in the market that would make it that much more difficult to replace what I do have. Play on!

Andy's sister works for a very good friend of mine here in town. I often browse his original copy, which Andy kindly signed, when I am over his house, carefully handling the full glass of red that usually accompanies such an evening...

Looking forward to the new version...

There are so many great years for certain instruments -- high and low end. Instruments that will never be "made famous". I have 2 1966 Rick 330 models. They are really good players, I think, but will never "skyrocket" in price. Which is fine. That means that they will be available/accessible to those who know what they are and want to buy/play them. I also think that my 2003-ish Korean Epi Dot is a great guitar - one of my absolute favorites. It's no Gibson, but certainly better than a lot of "better" guitars made in the 60s and 70s. It will never be worth more than about $250, and it may be one from a better "era" of Epi Dots. For what that's worth. Probably nothing!

One other thing....Andy Babiuk sold me the Epi Dot when he worked at the HOG.