How to Buy TOO MANY GUITARS. tips, tricks, hints & hacks for buying vintage guitars on a budget
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- The Second most common question I hear, since beginning my TH-cam adventure is "can I have one?" but the first most common question is: "where do you find all this awesome stuff". Well, today, I answer both of those questions. One succinctly, and the other, a meandering rant that you may or may not find useful. How do I find them? by looking of course! and here's exactly how I go about it. Can't wait for all the extra competition hhahahahahhahahahhahahahahhaha.
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#vintageguitar #gibson #Martin #acousticguitar #electricguitar #antiqueguitar #fender #slingerland #maybell #repair #tips #tipsandtricks #hints #hacks #rare #rareguitar #banjo #notaluthier #luthier #collection #guitarcollection #ebay #craigslist #repair #restoration #guitar #acoustic #electric #tenorguitar #taylor
What’s your best score?!
A week before Christmas this year I found a Headless Cort Space Stat from a local classified auction for $80 turns out they resale on Reverb for around $650
I have a 1950 Gibson L12P that I got on Reverb for $1200. It had been listed for a long time at about 3x that price, over time it kept dropping, I engaged the seller in some offline banter, and they just wanted to get rid of it. It has some holes and mods but it’s one of less than 100 made over the 3 years of the model’s existence, and supposedly one of 6 made in 1950.
Won a Marshall 6101LM and cab in an ebay auction. Got it really cheap!
I had some luck using this strategy: Sometimes people want to sell an instrument to pay some bills, to clean some space or just do not have patience to list and wait. And most musicians don't feel good giving up their instruments.
So I offer a low price, giving the seller the opportunity to buy it back for the same price in few months if they regret. I only ask them to delete the original listing.
You would be surprised how many people don't even try to relist it to get a better price.
Wait, is this not a part of everyone's every day routine? Are they wrong? Or are we? Great video either way.
I found a 1963 Espana Classical Guitar made in Sweden yesterday
And a parts put together Schecter Dream Machine, with parts (Body + Neck) made from when before they started making guitars! It had a pre patent Kahler, vintage Schaler Tuners and old logo 1980s EMG SA pickups. Plays and sounds like a guitar worth thousands in vintage standards xD
All for 500$ in total because people didn't know what they had!
Keeping the lookout for more fun finds, I really really enjoyed cleaning them up and getting everything sounding nice + playing well
How to buy guitars is not something I need help with.
🤣
I believe this to be my favourite new guitar channel of 2024. Happy New Year Levon. 💥
Thanks so much! You to!
@@Notaluthiererm acktually, its "too" 🤓🥰🙏
Your sweariest content yet! (And that's up against some stiff competition!) 😂
Great work, you are exploring in a good way-investigating the passion for instruments but not understanding at the same time. I appreciate the ‘build the ship as we sail’ model.😊
That May Bell pearloid guitar is crazy, great find you did with that one
Great video, and I'm super excited to see the banjo video. That recording master though is an absolute thing of beauty. Also appreciate the footage and music at the end.
Yes! Looking forward to both as well! The banjo project will be SO EASY in comparison, but the recording master will probably get some decent views!
It’s too late for me to stop acquiring instruments! The latest short you posted would be an excellent choice to do a full repair video on the guitar and amp!!! Love the channel! Thanxz
Great video!
I always tell people to learn how to manipulate the search function on any website. You just aren't going to find what you're looking for if you don't know how to widen or narrow your parameters.
And learn some people skills, you can get some pretty sweet deals just by being a decent person.
Happy New Year!
Thanks! Happy new year!
A most excellent video, Levon. I live in Australia and the number of super rare guitars available is really quite limited. Damn it.
Well, I sympathize for sure! You wouldn’t believe the scarcity of Australian guitars here !
@@Notaluthier You don't want em. Bloody Matons.
Fun to watch! Thanks for your insight
Thanks!
Too kind Ben thank you!
@@Notaluthier Not much for the work you put in for us, so thank you.
😊
Great music in the outro! Happy New Year and all that jazz!
Thanks! You tooooooo!
Cool, interesting video Levon. Happy New Year to you and yours 🎉
Same to you, Andy!
That was all solid advice. I watched shopgoodwill go from a decent source to blown out in real time. You have some excellent stuff. That Stork banjo story is tthe kind of serendipity that makes a person smile. I see you have a Villager. I had one of those. I threw the body away about 30 years ago. 🙄 That decision has been torturing me for about 25 of those years. My head wasn't right at that point regarding this subject. I still have the neck, neck plate and screws....minus 2 frets. I tried selling it on eBay 10 years ago but nobody bit. I've always wondered if it was the missing frets.
That Stork was meant to be fretless? That must be wild to play.
Hey! I don’t have a villager! I bought the neck on eBay and put it on an electric body. And I’d do it again 😝🤘does your have tuners?
And yes it’s a fretless banjo and it taught me so many new techniques! I will restore it soon.
@Notaluthier Unfortunately the tuners were replaced. Brass Cort Schaller copies. So heavy. You could have used it as a war club. They're excellent tuners. I put them on 2 six string patients. I think the nut is original...if the original was a middish translucent brown. If you ever decide you need the neck let me know. The plate is cool. It looks like a badge.
Thanks for insights. Happy New Year to you and yours, Levon.
You too!
HNY ! wow, the Banjo ...and the pearlite resto I look forward to seeing that !💫💫💫💫🪐🪐🪐☀☀☀🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
I started playin the auctions about 2015-16. I can’t count how many times my thrill was crushed in the last 2 seconds…….and ive enjoyed every minute of it!!! Most of what I did get was purty good( cuz I’m watchful). I regret nothing! More, MORE!
Before the holidays, I was taking my morning dump and spotted a super nice local to me Ludwig drum kit on Marketplace listed like less than an hour ago... My GF said she needed the bathroom so I shutdown the project and went to work. As I was brewing a cup of coffee at 9:00am I checked the listing again, messaged the guy and sadly there was obviously someone interested and scheduled to pick it up!! My presonal advice, never leave the throne without closing a deal!!!
That Slingerland Maybell is the bees’ knees. Wow!
It’s so crazy cool!
No more guitars. I'm up to seven. I bond emotionally to things that bring me simple joy. That's why you had to get the restraining order. My bargain is my Tokai - Purchased from a dealer in japan, ( Kevin at Sharpened Flat ), with a lowball offer. He countered, with a LOWER offer becuase he had slightly mis-labelled the guitar in the listing. When i die, the guitar is going back to Kevin.
Awwww I love that
Cool outro, and happy new year!
Thanks, to you as well!
Thanks for the videos. Happy New Year!
Happy new year!
It took me a good while to kick my habit of obsessively trawling marketplaces for guitar deals…now you’re advocating it 🤨. Must not revert, must not revert, must not…
Be strong (as I peruse the net on another 10 tabs).
You're doing the guitar gods work. Carry on...
Great vid. Enjoyed it. Looking forward to you battling some perloid. Inhave two Stromberg Voisinets with warped tops that need neck resets and fret work. I just stare at them from afar then go do something else
The number of guitars I have waiting for resets and refrets is daunting 🙈
I’ve really enjoyed your videos this year. Happy New Year! Hope our paths will cross someday.
Thanks!!!
Your passion is the driver)))
Cool channel - subbed!
Yeah buddy! Hi!
That Regal tenor 😮😮
thank you for actually making this video
Happy New Year...
Youtoooooooo!
I am enjoying you videos! I wish you well. I will try to comment on your videos to help with the algorithm.
Thanks!
The polite, old-school way of saying "I gotta take a dump" is to say "it's time for my morning constitutional". 😉
i don't do repairs but still very cool and interesting video!
Mann acoustic guitar purchased from FB marketplace for $40 cad last summer.
Had been out of the guitar and personal repair game for a while, bought it in a whim because it was a Japanese late 60s era 00 style acoustic with good wood (Brazilian back and sides)
Anyways did the most minimal repairs for some cracks and truss rod l, restring etc on my lunch break and was just expecting to flip it, let it sit around for a month and it’s now become my main guitar I play for the last year.
I went to long and Macquade on Boxing Day and the Martin’s are made of plastic for $2000 I just won’t understand new guitars.
I don’t mind spending a lot for the right guitar if it’s truly right, but for me bonding with and instrument by repairing it is part of the journey and the art. I had a chance to wind the pickups on my main electric guitar for instance
Anyway best guitar content on TH-cam this year. I hope you continue to grow and thanks for the vids :)
Thanks a lot! So many 1960s Japanese guitars are such SLEEPERS! Such great builds
For so little money. I got a Japanese made Pan classical for $60…I couldn’t keep it when I moved the west coast, but I couldn’t sell it either, so I gave it to my good ol’ dad
Very interesting and informative, thank you. Edit:animals and nature ❤
Cool instruments
How can you possibly drown in guitars, when as a rule they tend to float? As long as the sound holes are facing upwards, of course..... 😉
New soundtrack on piano??? Goooooood!!!
🙏🏼
@@Notaluthier love love love!!
I know how to buy them, it's how to pay for them i struggle with. I window shop on ebay and Gumtree every day anyway because I'm emotionally undeveloped 😊 Thanks for the nature section, and your tune was great. What would the world be without animals/fuzz?
Sometimes a deal is so good you have NO CHOICE but to find the money
You're preaching to the choir! It's my wife you need to convince.
I used to have one of those Teisco exactly like that one listed for $999. When I was in high school, a guy gave me one because he didn't like it. I must admit, it did sound pretty bad with the original pickups. I ended up trading it for a Yamaha acoustic which was later stolen. Sometimes I get in these moods where I think about all the equipment I've owned over the years that I got rid of and it makes me want to cry.
I had a painting by Kurt Cobain that I lost 🤮
Ive done this with drums for 25 years. Which is why i now have a collection that is quite out of hand 😂.. but i do have quite a few one off and rare items. Its a sickness ..get down with sickness. .. hi, my name is ___ and I have an addiction!!
Dead Bald Eagle? I saved a water logged Eagle once. Had to call a Kalispell tribe member because only a native could legally touch it here in the US. It survived though 👍
Yes, I was covering its skull, but same goes here. Only the first nations people can have them.
@@vadenk4433 ..I wouldn't've hesitated to break the law in a time sensitive emergency like that. 🌊🦅
Whoa Whoa Whoa! I love that you take us way out on the limb, but the start of this one got me so far out there that it nearly broke over the fiery pit! Ya Man!🧔🧔🧔🌼🪐🪐🪐
Got my 54RI Black Beauty and a 65 Mustang for 1k.
In the '80s, of course.
Sweeet!
You should do a rate of followers projects 😅
I might be too harsh for this task 😂🙈
My wife put a limit on 12 guitars total. I recently acquired a Finneas edition acoustasonic tele and got caught... So I have to sell another one from my collection. Might be time to list the D'angelico on reverb.
What’s the old saying “no wife, happy life?” Something like that
Waiting until the last minute works if maybe one guy has a bid in and you hope he forgot and you snipe him but sometimes if it is something you want and no one has bid I will bid to sort of claim it for me many times if I see one or two people have already bid unless it is something i really really want i just leave it go rather than get into a feeding frenzy. IME doing that you can sometimes pay too much because this gambler instinct kicks in an you keep going back and forth thinking nope A-hole its mine give up, then you realize after there was another one "buy it now" for less presently listed but in the heat of the moment winning is all that matters.
EBay once let me put an extra bid in After the auction was clearly over. (My first bid was at 3 seconds left and it took all of that time to process, got a message saying you missed out, and then slid another bid in) this would appear to be fraud in my opinion, but it allowed me to win my 1935 Rickenbacher Spanish guitar (the most I’ve ever paid for a guitar)
@@Notaluthier Someone else had a bad day that day. I am more into electrics, but I am having fun with these vintage Harmony acoustics repairs, much more wood work which I enjoy, I guess I don't know enough about vintage acoustics pre-1930 and /or what to do to fix them so I shy away. I am really looking for the right F-hole archtop Jazz box but I just hate to spend $1000 on something I have never played.
I shop Goodwill auctions.
Yeah but you're giving all of our secrets away! Lol I regret telling people about shop goodwill cuz I was scoring killer guitars for dirt cheap before anybody knew about the site. Now every guitar goes for over it's value there. Bummer. Oh well love your vids and the new old secret is to shop pawnshops because I've noticed recently everyone is buying online again and there's awesome deals at the right shops. Happy hunting! ☮️
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t give them years of pricing experience to actually know what to buy! I just hope no flippers learn anything
@@Notaluthier yeah troglodytes suck
Hmm... Google won't take my debit card. It takes it just fine elsewhere though it did fail recently when I went to tip during a live chat. I'll have to try Patreon at some point.
Dude seriously, people refuse to ship to Canada lol I used to live in Ontario, California but reverb would show “Ontario, CA” and I’ve had so many people refund me or ask if I have a US address 🤦
Hahahhahahahahha sorrrrrrry bout that!
You're a live person about to learn more about pearloid than most dead people will ever know. (EDIT: To be clear, I know f**k-all about pearloid; I'm just pretty sure that everyone else who's done the repair you're about to attempt on that sweet pearloid honey you showed us died before the Korean War. Viel gluck!)
Theres this amazing old resonator electric at one of the local shops. No clue why i menton it 😅
Tell me more tho!
@@Notaluthier just found it on the site. Its a national reso-phonic electric
@@whiskymylove oh yeah those are wacky!
Again Levon, when u get a comment from Darla, it’s actually from her husband Wade. We are trying to get this staightened out, and I only mention it again because when I look at my auction sites, she is looking at jewelry sites. We will both continue till there’s no more money. Lolololol
Oh hahaha! Thanks for clearing that up Wade!
🎇
What if i say pretty please can i have one then
Already can do, about 3 dozen....
That’s a good start
Why is FB marketplace unusable? Is it because everything good is always too far away and nobody wants to Ship, ..or, ..?
It’s just the worst garbage website I’ve ever been on. You can’t sort or search effectively, and it’s littered with ads. It’s a heap of shit
man i hate when sellers hide damages :v, why do they do that 👺
I’ve learned to not really listen to sellers…they generally have no idea wtf they’re talking about. However, when they specifically mention something being fine and it’s not 👀🤬🤬
Looking forward to that mother of toilet seat guitar restoration. It's going to be a real nail biter. I don't think you can use much heat on that plastic.
I feel like guitars are genuinely more expensive in Australia. Can anyone confirm?
Seems plausible, you’re kinda all the way there over there! But ask Iceland! They might have you beat.
@@Notaluthieri reckon you’d never find anything here under $500 worth touching (aussie dollar is pretty comparable to canadian i think)
WHY NOT?!!
Needs 5-10x more Buggy.
You right, my bad!
I met a guy who wanted to buy horrible, not worth repairing instruments on eBay, have me do the repairs on them for free and then he would resell them on eBay and we could split the profit. It seemed to me there might be some flaws in that business plan.
Ugh. Worst kind of “customer”
OK, can I have two though?
Hahhhaha! Finally an original request
thanks for sharing - happy 2025
Right back at ya
Interesting and informative, but you’re giving away your secrets and now your viewers will be bidding against you! lol
If I can help players buy them instead of flippers, I’m happy.
Happy New Year! I'm worried you're going to wreck your own market, like Anthony Bourdain ruining his own favorite spots by advertising them.
Ahhh, maybe for the best! Most people are too lazy to follow through though. And the market is already full of flippers! I’d rather let real players have a chance to beat out the vultures.
"baxendale-give me a break"?
1: paying $2k-3k for a guitar that’s realistically worth $100 is never a good idea. 2: i’ve only ever heard from one person who was happy with their bax.
Yes, this is the issue. The work is not done to a high enough standard to warrant their pricing. I’ve seen more than enough examples of hack work coming from them to know it’s hit or miss at best. Evan (overhaul) guitars is much more selective with the guitars he starts with, and performs the work (himself, unlike bax/staygold) to a very high standard. If I was hell bent on buying an X brace conversion, I would go to him.
Also for the prices they charge you can easily buy guitars that were amazing to begin with and will maintain their value.
@@Notaluthier exxxactly. i too, already have TOO MANY GUITARS, but for some reason or another want my silvertone converted. hell bent-possibly. ;) yeah, i've already reached out to evan and received a quote. someday! altho, i've never gotten my hands on his overhaulz? have you had any experience with his instruments? they look fabulous! honestly, if i had the dough, i'd love a custom-vintage build from fraulini-his shiz is dohhhpe!
Wandering boy also does what appears to be amazing work!
You definitely weren’t hard enough on Facebook Marketplace.
Hahahahhahahha! I joined Facebook like a month ago for the first time ever…hoping to find some furniture for my house, but when I saw how it operates…ooof sickening
@@Notaluthier, I've been trying for years to get my wife to ditch Facebook and Amazon. Both companies are run by a-holes who have virtually ruined social media and online purchasing.