When I discovered eBay in the early 2000s, I started buying loads of amazing gear for cheap, and the fact you could buy from anywhere in the world meant I could find all kinds of obscure gear most people didn’t even know existed. I found that only lasted about a decade though, before the flippers caught on and started buying up everything and reselling at jacked prices. Even the cheap and obscure gear I used to buy 15 years ago is no longer really that cheap anymore. A 1972 Harmony electric I bought for a couple of hundred dollars around 2008, I’ve seen on Reverb a couple of years ago with a price of $1200. -Edit that- I just looked again, right now, and there is currently one on Reverb, a Harmony Rebel in avocado green like mine; asking price $1644.41. I got mine for $250. I’d really like to believe you guys when you’re talking about the cheap gear that still exists, but I just haven’t been seeing any of it for a long time.
There used to be an awesome music shop in NE Philly (Cinioli's) Where you could not see the lights on the ceiling because it was blocked 1000 hanging Guitars. I'd just patiently work my way through the cheap ones and always find a gem
The older Silvertone/Dano stuff is loads of fun even if it is built like a Polish tractor. Even the later Univox stuff is good for cheap. The best deals are in the 50s and 60s amps though. Some of thosse Sears catalog amps sound great.
Look, I’m in my 50s, so I shudder to think what is considered “vintage” by some of the younger kids, but I did pick up a late 80s Telstar - ugly af - but man, does it have a sound….great show, thanks gentlemen!
Local shop had a 1968 SG Junior. Played the two new SG Special they had. Of the three one of the Specials was fantastic and I bought it for a quarter of the vintage guitar. The other two were duds. I think a new heavy relic custom shop guitar like my 52 Tele is better than vintage. Don’t have as much money tied up in it. It looks and feels like something that is that age. If the hyper kitten knocks the fan over into it no one can tell unlike my formerly brand new looking Original 60s Jaguar. Most importantly, you have a guitar with the look and feel of a legit vintage piece, but the body neck and hardware are all brand new and you don’t have to worry about it crumbling in your hands and paying for repairs and replacement parts that make the guitar worth a fraction of what it was before.
Case in point. The often overlooked yet phenomenal Gibson lab series amp made with Moog. Those things are amazing, cheap (for now) and were good enough for BB king. The bass models are a hidden gem for guitarists.
I got a Harmony Bobcat on reverb for $400 and had to spend $100 to do some minor repair and setup. Is killer and I actually like the trem bar more then on my strat (sometimes). The two pickups along are prob worth more then that haha
Got a perfect Teisco amp from Goodwill years ago. The clean tone on that amp was to die for. 50 bucks along with an old Acetone 1 Combo organ. Probably the best thrift of my life.
I went around looking for my guitar. I have a very good local shop. Dana has come to me three times and said "I got one I think is good for you." I now play the '52 ES125 that he brought out to show me. I also still play the '61 J45 he showed me while it was open. I still play the '66 Epiphone Pacemaker 5w amp.
I have really come around to solid state amps recently. I love my Blues Jr, but my teacher just got the new Twin Reverb Tone Master and I am hooked on the sound and the 30-ish lbs isn’t too heavy
I’m really into vintage Ampeg amps. A lot cheaper than vintage Fender amps, but they have something else special to them. I also have 3 old Tiescos that all have a weirdly cool vibe to em. I’m glad they aren’t as well known.
Rhett Shull put out a great video about a month ago where a friend of his saw a great player who was using some early solid-state amp (Peavy?) and getting an awesome sound and his friend realized he had one of his own shoved in the back of a closet because he had the idea that it sucked because guitar players hear with their eyes. I had a really bad Peavy amp in the 90's but I have several solid-states that kick some ass, like my Marshall Micro-Bass, G-DEK, and Fender Frontman Reverb (and others) that get some raised eyebrows and dubious smirks when I show up with one, but it's not too long before whomever I was playing with was wanting to plug in.
I have a very cool T-shape Teisco and it rocks. Kinda wonky and lightweight but awesome. Sounds cool through my mid-60s Supro Spectator. Got the guitar for $300 and the amp was $450. Great old stuff. The Teisco had a song in it that I pulled out the day I got it. And it's from the '60s! Still has music in it.
I have a couple of old Harmony acoustics, and they both sound amazing. I got both of them for less than $15 apiece. They both needed a little work, but they sound killer.
Cool that you show a picture of the Sears Roebuck 200g amp. That was my first amp. I recently purchased one for nostalgia sake, knowing that it would probably sound like trash...way worse than I remember it, especially compared to my black face and silver face Fenders. I was shocked that it actually sounded good, WAY BETTER than I remember it. It's a totally usable tone. FYI, I made NAM and TONEX captures of it that can be found on Tonenet and Tonehub🤙
Back in the late '60s I had a Haynes Jazz King amp. 2x12, solid state. Had a fantastic, ballsy sound. At the time I was playing a Fender Mustang and then a Gretsch Tennessean. Still have the Gretsch. Wish I still had that amp.
Amen. Some of the seventies/eighties Japanese guitars are honestly great, mostly from Fujigen Gakki & Matsumoku, but most manufacturers made a few high end models. I also have an early sixties Applause short scale single pickup that cost me well under a hundred even with shipping, and while it's not objectively a GOOD guitar, it's subjectively a FUN guitar. All the old Peavey MIA guitars are good to great. Some of the old Peavey, Randall & Crate SS amps were excellent for their one or two signature sounds, and I have an old Crate SS bass amp that not only has great tone but is loud enough to be a danger to low-flying aircraft. As long as you don't pay stupid money (all my MIA Peaveys & various MIJ/MIA Harmoneys and Japanese imports were under five hundred, some way under - many under a hundred) you can go a little crazy. My office is packed with guitars but my wife says it's still cheaper than a convertible and one twenty-something bleached blond so we're good. (Activate Mid-Life Crisis Power, form of guitar collector!) Have to admit though that my current interests are an orange Guild Surfliner, a red Fender Noventa Strat and maybe one or two more IYV's so except for very cheap unicorns falling into my lap I don't see me buying many more vintage guitars any time soon. (That and the fact that if I want to continue actually squeezing into the office with the guitars I need to shed a few before buying any more.)
ive got a 1961ish hofner congress, it had a pickup installed and many parts replaced that i got for 260 quid, it sounds amazing and is relatively easy to play, i really recommend them
i have the collection your talking about. id love to show it off. where can do i send the pictures. 50+ oddball guitars and amps and boxes. lots of catalog and vintage japanese stuff. its killer cool stuff with tone for days
I still gig regularly with my '88 Peavey 'no stripe' Bandit and an '87 Korean E10 Squier Strat...including pedals I'm under 500 CDN dollars and rocking the house every weekend. We loved this gear when it was new (re: yes I'm old), and it still drives the party. Hey kids, take a tip from the old dog, sure, buy gear...but shop smart and keep some cash. Buy (or build) a reliable car, get a decent education (so you can build your hot rod), and buy a house (so you have a place to build your hot rod)...and real food (so you can have snacks while building your hot rod). You'll thank me for it...hehehehe.
So many vintage beauties never got through bias of the consumer back in the day. As much as we hear "buy USA", it was never as common practice as the old days. They really talked and looked down on people who used foreign items whether of cost/necessity, or choice/preference. It's absurd how many very good pieces got stopped simply by being foreign, despite being great guitars. Tiesco, Framus, Tokai.... very good. Hated in their time vs the big 4, Gibson, Gretsch, Fender, and Epiphone. Rickenbacker too, but mostly they died in the public eye the second the Beatles found Fender guitars. Amps, way too many to count but some came back like Magnatone. Also, many makers are gone that had massive fan bases in their heyday, like Hamer, or Carvin vs Keisel. Very good market for many of these things right now on Reverb.
I have a question for Baxter and Sean. have you guys played any Roscoe guitars? they're made by Keith Roscoe in Greensboro NC. His basses go for thousands, but he made guitars at one time, and CC Deville of Poison had several guitars. I have one myself, it's shaped like a Les Paul just a touch smaller but with the addition of a Floyd style bridge made by Kahler it also has a humbucker in the bridge and a single coilin thr neck . it's honestly the best playing electric i have ever played if you haven't played one try to get your hands on one you'll love it.
I have a 1984 Ovation Ultra GS that was their last effort to get into the solid body electric guitar market. The idea was to have bodies and necks made in Korea by Samick and assemble them in the U.S with Schaller hardware and Dimarzio pickups and be able to sell at a competitive price. They were marketed as the " Hard Body" series. There was also a Ultra GP that was an alternative to a Les Paul. Those could be had for very cheap until Josh Homme bought 3 or 4 of them and was shown on the cover of a guitar magazine with one. Then they shot up to over 2 grand. But the Ultra GS ( S is for Strat) was made in several models from straight Strat to Super Strat to shredder type with Rose type trem and single humbucker in the bridge. Mine is a S S H. with a traditional style 6 screw strat trem. A one piece maple neck with skunk stripe ( no separate fingerboard). White body over a mahogany or korina looking plywood body. Plays very well after a setup and surprisingly resonant acoustically despite the plywood body. From what I have read, they figured out by the middle of the first year of production that is was going to be a flop, so when they ran out of Dimarzio pickups and Schaller hardware, they just put cheap Korean made PUPs and bridge/trem assemblies to use up the rest of the bodies and necks they had just to blow them out. Although mine has Grover tuners when they ran out of Schallers. But my original PUPS were not Dimarzio and the bridge was cheap pot metal and not Schaller. But the build quality and fit of the neck in the neck pocket is immaculate. I don't know where it gets is strange sounding, but surprisingly clear resonance. It played so well after set-up that I decided to give it a NOS Kahler bridge/trem with Graph Tech saddles and brass block. Made the resonance even better. Replaced the PUPs with Suhr V-60LP (neck) ML standard (middle) and Thornbucker + (bridge). Upgraded the capacitor to a Mallory. Had it wired to allow all combinations of PUPs , including splitting the humbucker. Now it sounds like a million bucks and is one of my favorite guitars to play , even though I have a 3K dollar Forshage custom GT, and a 2.5K Palir Imperial custom guitar, a Heritage H-140, and other guitars more expensive than the Ovation.....It doesn't know its a cheap guitar and doesn't play or sound like one. I bought it for $350,00. Spent a little over $100 for the new bridge assembly and about $220 for the PUPs. In the market place, I could probably not get what all I have put into it dollar wise if I sold it, but I don't plan to sell it and when I die someone will get one hell of a bargain on a great sounding, playing, and looking guitar.
I have Marshalls, Hiwatts, Fenders, etc. -- my favorite amp is a $300 Crate Palomino, 16 watt EL 84 tubes. Probably get about $150 on Reverb now but it's my best sound amp
My grandpa gave me an old wurlitzer electric piano that i would plug my guitar into. I eventually pulled the little tube amp out of it and put it in a box with a 10" celestion and it was killer. Loud as hell. I have no idea what happened to it... kinda wish I did.
Check out the 80-90s era Fender Solid state amps, like the Sidekick 65 Reverb…sometimes they’re called the Rivera era solid state amps….I got one for $75 and it sounds great
I remember when you could get a 64 duo sonic II with the longer deck for 400 600 bucks. So you could own an old fender with old Fender wood for very cheap. All the crackle, all the brown that’s on the maple, all the places dug into the Rosewood for cheap. Now they run around $1200…it’s probably just inflation but that’s still a pretty good deal for an old fender.
I had a couple of 90s bass guitars that I started on. $500 or less for an American made instrument! Though, American Fenders were less than a grand back then
Fender has released "vintage" all-tube amps in the last 12-15 years. I have a Gretsch G5552 Electromatic that came out in 2010. It's the same as the Fender Champion 600 from the same time. 2 inputs and a volume knob. $120 at a pawn shop in 2018. They also released the Greta 2W amp with a 4" speaker and a input for your phone or iPod. Volume AND tone controls and a VU meter to display distortion levels. Can be slaved to an amp via line out, or plugged into a cab. They were overpriced in 2013 and some said it was just a toy. It can be, but those who had one and ditched them wish that they hadn't LOL I bought mine at a different pawn shop in 2018 for $87. I just love cheap, used and discontinued low power amps.
So when I learned guitar I was playing a Ric 360. I was in 10th grade and 15=16. Jeez guess I'm vintage too. My 1st guitar was a 74 hardtail maple neck 3 color sunburst Strat. Bought used 76-77 $300. Had that 1 for over 10 yrs and wore out the frets.
I won't say what it is just yet. Because I have been buying them like a madman for the last year. But there is something you can get from the early to mid 80's that is the best deals you can get. 😂
My oldest guitar is a 58 Silvertone (Danelectro) dolphin nose w/ 1 lipstick pickup. Not the easiest to play, probably not tour-durable, but that tone! All those old department store catalog guitars are inexpensive, relatively speaking, and killer for recording. I have s friend who only collects and plays such guitars. Oh yea, and another friend has a 50s Silvertone amp with like an 8” speaker. She just will not sell it to me. Another gem for recording due to its tone.
I have a 57 Danelectro U-2. It sounds as good as anything, although it feels a bit "brittle" due to the steel nut and rosewood stick for a bridge. Lipstick pickups!
Check out early 1960's Italian guitars by Eko, Galanti, Wandre, Zero Sette... most of the Vox guitars of the 1960's were built by Eko or Crucianelli in Italy.
I got a Sears drum set in about 1970, when I was eight yo. I saved up my allowance for like a year. My parents felt bad and finally pitched in the rest of the $$ so I could buy it. That drum kit was unmitigated crap 😂
I have a amp from sears a melody 6 it's tubes with a little speaker and less than 1 watt but will push a 4 12 cab..its cool ..it has 3 inputs and 1 volume knob..someone told me it was what harmonica players used ?
My first guitar was bought off a friend who got it from Sears. in those days the catalog guitars were seconds bought off big guitar makers as 'seconds". It had the name "GLOBAL" on the headstock - shaped like an SG with ACTUAL PAFs .. ! it was a beautiful piece of wood with a TERRIBLE desert- floral design woodburned into the front. M.O.P. inlays and sounded great with a Boss pedal. .
I have a KMD GTX-53 Koran-made bass that my then-guitar player found for me in a pawn shop. I think I’ve dated it to 1980. I don’t need a vintage P-Bass. I have my gaudy, electric blue, otherwise-unlovable thumper. I also have a luthier/woodworker/repair guy friend who buys every Montaya & Firefly guitar he sees. He then applies his magic to them and they become the Les Pauls, 335s, & Martins he can actually have, and play.
That 1-watt Traynor; that just had a volume and tone; made the best dirty tone I ever captured on 4-track tape back in the day. With an Ibanez X-series Destroyer.
I played one that I didn't admit at the time was cool as balls, because I just started guitar and had a Fender boner raging strong. I think about it from time to time.
It's all subjective - and if you love something then you love it. Buying stuff as an 'investment' is always a massive gamble. Buy what you enjoy playing and you'll be happy.
I have a Silvertone Catalina, blue and white, that i got at a rardsale for 75 bucks. Its way cool. And a Jay Turser Tele that i got for 50. The tele probably isnt vitage but its a cheapo no name that is absolute magic!
I have lots of vintage creepiest, hagstroms, Kay's, harmonys, ovations, t3iscos and kawais, hit me up. I buy and sell,I jist need to clean and set up a lot of them. Oh, silvertones, too!
The killer harmony, silvertone, supro stuff used to be obtainable. Look on reverb. The ones worth having are 900- 2500$. And keep going up. When they used To be 300- 600$. Kinda late to the party with this video. I don't want them going up anymore. Working people pay check to paycheck can't afford this stuff like we used to. I have not had a fair trade or buy since this covid mess anyway on the used market.
I’ve got a early 1980’s Aria Pro 2. And a Fender 85 amp. I’ve played vintage guitars and tube amps. Maybe there’s something wrong with my ears I can’t justify spending that kind of money on name brand equipment.
Jesus, guys, can we not? I'm tired of seeing $2,000 stratotones and dookie-ass, beat up Tiescos for $1,500. We don't need more hype in the last place where fun is.
Great and true show today. But come on, we dressed funny in the seventies? Have you looked at yourselves in mirror? And Shawn your hair cut is just a mullet sliding sideways of your head. I mean no offense, but listen to what people say 40 years from now. And I think you guys are great, fun, knowledgeable, and completely entertaining. Have a great day!
Let's keep quiet about Gibson amps until I get a GA-40T at a decent price can we all agree on that?! I mean we all keep gassing over them they'll end up more expensive than the pro level clones/homages soon.
2800 bucks for my 61 Les Paul jr is cheap to be honest. I got it 2 years ago. Headstock repair but it's a killer guitar. I'd love a Martin 1937 authentic D28 but you're talking 9 grand for a new guitar without a truss rod. Yet just because a guitar is old doesn't mean it's good. A 59 les paul burst isn't goin to give you life changing tone. Buy what ya can afford and give er hell
When I discovered eBay in the early 2000s, I started buying loads of amazing gear for cheap, and the fact you could buy from anywhere in the world meant I could find all kinds of obscure gear most people didn’t even know existed. I found that only lasted about a decade though, before the flippers caught on and started buying up everything and reselling at jacked prices. Even the cheap and obscure gear I used to buy 15 years ago is no longer really that cheap anymore. A 1972 Harmony electric I bought for a couple of hundred dollars around 2008, I’ve seen on Reverb a couple of years ago with a price of $1200. -Edit that- I just looked again, right now, and there is currently one on Reverb, a Harmony Rebel in avocado green like mine; asking price $1644.41. I got mine for $250. I’d really like to believe you guys when you’re talking about the cheap gear that still exists, but I just haven’t been seeing any of it for a long time.
1500 dollars is puppy chow to these guys.
Crate and Peavey are the harmony and danelectro of their generation, so many players used them whether they admit it or not
There used to be an awesome music shop in NE Philly (Cinioli's) Where you could not see the lights on the ceiling because it was blocked 1000 hanging Guitars. I'd just patiently work my way through the cheap ones and always find a gem
My first rig is now vintage. MIJ Blackie Strat and a Peavey Audition Plus….. good times, good times
The older Silvertone/Dano stuff is loads of fun even if it is built like a Polish tractor. Even the later Univox stuff is good for cheap. The best deals are in the 50s and 60s amps though. Some of thosse Sears catalog amps sound great.
Lmao..."polish tractor"
Those single ended class A amps are noisy and burn through tubes...but they sound killer, and have so much mojo that modellers can't replicate
Look, I’m in my 50s, so I shudder to think what is considered “vintage” by some of the younger kids, but I did pick up a late 80s Telstar - ugly af - but man, does it have a sound….great show, thanks gentlemen!
Local shop had a 1968 SG Junior. Played the two new SG Special they had. Of the three one of the Specials was fantastic and I bought it for a quarter of the vintage guitar. The other two were duds.
I think a new heavy relic custom shop guitar like my 52 Tele is better than vintage. Don’t have as much money tied up in it. It looks and feels like something that is that age. If the hyper kitten knocks the fan over into it no one can tell unlike my formerly brand new looking Original 60s Jaguar. Most importantly, you have a guitar with the look and feel of a legit vintage piece, but the body neck and hardware are all brand new and you don’t have to worry about it crumbling in your hands and paying for repairs and replacement parts that make the guitar worth a fraction of what it was before.
Case in point. The often overlooked yet phenomenal Gibson lab series amp made with Moog. Those things are amazing, cheap (for now) and were good enough for BB king. The bass models are a hidden gem for guitarists.
I love the Lab Series amps, but they have become quite rare, and I haven’t seen any that I would really call cheap.
I just got a 1952 Harmony from a local antique shop my wife drug me into. It’s sounds amazing, pickup still works and it has a killer vibe!
I got a Harmony Bobcat on reverb for $400 and had to spend $100 to do some minor repair and setup. Is killer and I actually like the trem bar more then on my strat (sometimes). The two pickups along are prob worth more then that haha
Got a perfect Teisco amp from Goodwill years ago. The clean tone on that amp was to die for. 50 bucks along with an old Acetone 1 Combo organ. Probably the best thrift of my life.
I got an Hofner acoustic from 1969. Sounds really good😊
I went around looking for my guitar. I have a very good local shop. Dana has come to me three times and said "I got one I think is good for you." I now play the '52 ES125 that he brought out to show me. I also still play the '61 J45 he showed me while it was open. I still play the '66 Epiphone Pacemaker 5w amp.
I have really come around to solid state amps recently. I love my Blues Jr, but my teacher just got the new Twin Reverb Tone Master and I am hooked on the sound and the 30-ish lbs isn’t too heavy
I have some really nice amps, a custom reissue drip edge vibrolux, a ‘64 blackface Princeton, yet I play through my Blues Jr the most.
Total sleeper amps for you guys on that side of the pond, Alamo amps out of Texas!.
Those 50's-60's amps are amazing!.
I’m really into vintage Ampeg amps. A lot cheaper than vintage Fender amps, but they have something else special to them. I also have 3 old Tiescos that all have a weirdly cool vibe to em. I’m glad they aren’t as well known.
I've owned so many Ampeg amps! I presently have four, but over the course of my career, I've had many, including a couple of SVT's.
Yes and posting comments like this all over the internet will *definitely* help keep them cheap for those of us in the know 🤦♂️
Shawn - really loved your old band and time with the Dead Milkmen!
Rhett Shull put out a great video about a month ago where a friend of his saw a great player who was using some early solid-state amp (Peavy?) and getting an awesome sound and his friend realized he had one of his own shoved in the back of a closet because he had the idea that it sucked because guitar players hear with their eyes.
I had a really bad Peavy amp in the 90's but I have several solid-states that kick some ass, like my Marshall Micro-Bass, G-DEK, and Fender Frontman Reverb (and others) that get some raised eyebrows and dubious smirks when I show up with one, but it's not too long before whomever I was playing with was wanting to plug in.
I have a very cool T-shape Teisco and it rocks. Kinda wonky and lightweight but awesome. Sounds cool through my mid-60s Supro Spectator. Got the guitar for $300 and the amp was $450. Great old stuff.
The Teisco had a song in it that I pulled out the day I got it. And it's from the '60s! Still has music in it.
I have a couple of old Harmony acoustics, and they both sound amazing. I got both of them for less than $15 apiece. They both needed a little work, but they sound killer.
Tonal gold can be discovered in a "cheap" guitar. The cool thing is with a little work in most cases you've found a surprise gem.
One of the best amps I ever played was an old Sho-Bud amp with a D130F speaker in it. It was amazing!
That would have been an expensive amp back in the day with the Pedal Steel tax
Cool that you show a picture of the Sears Roebuck 200g amp. That was my first amp. I recently purchased one for nostalgia sake, knowing that it would probably sound like trash...way worse than I remember it, especially compared to my black face and silver face Fenders. I was shocked that it actually sounded good, WAY BETTER than I remember it. It's a totally usable tone. FYI, I made NAM and TONEX captures of it that can be found on Tonenet and Tonehub🤙
Kustom tuck-n-roll!
In a nice deep maroon,style all the way
Back in the late '60s I had a Haynes Jazz King amp. 2x12, solid state. Had a fantastic, ballsy sound. At the time I was playing a Fender Mustang and then a Gretsch Tennessean. Still have the Gretsch. Wish I still had that amp.
My 1960 Gibson GA-79, that I've had since the mid- 60s, rocks.
Amen. Some of the seventies/eighties Japanese guitars are honestly great, mostly from Fujigen Gakki & Matsumoku, but most manufacturers made a few high end models. I also have an early sixties Applause short scale single pickup that cost me well under a hundred even with shipping, and while it's not objectively a GOOD guitar, it's subjectively a FUN guitar. All the old Peavey MIA guitars are good to great. Some of the old Peavey, Randall & Crate SS amps were excellent for their one or two signature sounds, and I have an old Crate SS bass amp that not only has great tone but is loud enough to be a danger to low-flying aircraft. As long as you don't pay stupid money (all my MIA Peaveys & various MIJ/MIA Harmoneys and Japanese imports were under five hundred, some way under - many under a hundred) you can go a little crazy. My office is packed with guitars but my wife says it's still cheaper than a convertible and one twenty-something bleached blond so we're good. (Activate Mid-Life Crisis Power, form of guitar collector!) Have to admit though that my current interests are an orange Guild Surfliner, a red Fender Noventa Strat and maybe one or two more IYV's so except for very cheap unicorns falling into my lap I don't see me buying many more vintage guitars any time soon. (That and the fact that if I want to continue actually squeezing into the office with the guitars I need to shed a few before buying any more.)
I love absolutely everything about this video!
ive got a 1961ish hofner congress, it had a pickup installed and many parts replaced that i got for 260 quid, it sounds amazing and is relatively easy to play, i really recommend them
Anyone remember Aria and Aria Pro II guitars? And Pignose amps?
Aria has a new line out called the Hot Rod (S & T bodies, & a single cut) that are supposed to be a lot of guitar for
i have the collection your talking about. id love to show it off. where can do i send the pictures. 50+ oddball guitars and amps and boxes. lots of catalog and vintage japanese stuff. its killer cool stuff with tone for days
I still gig regularly with my '88 Peavey 'no stripe' Bandit and an '87 Korean E10 Squier Strat...including pedals I'm under 500 CDN dollars and rocking the house every weekend. We loved this gear when it was new (re: yes I'm old), and it still drives the party. Hey kids, take a tip from the old dog, sure, buy gear...but shop smart and keep some cash. Buy (or build) a reliable car, get a decent education (so you can build your hot rod), and buy a house (so you have a place to build your hot rod)...and real food (so you can have snacks while building your hot rod). You'll thank me for it...hehehehe.
So many vintage beauties never got through bias of the consumer back in the day. As much as we hear "buy USA", it was never as common practice as the old days. They really talked and looked down on people who used foreign items whether of cost/necessity, or choice/preference. It's absurd how many very good pieces got stopped simply by being foreign, despite being great guitars. Tiesco, Framus, Tokai.... very good. Hated in their time vs the big 4, Gibson, Gretsch, Fender, and Epiphone. Rickenbacker too, but mostly they died in the public eye the second the Beatles found Fender guitars. Amps, way too many to count but some came back like Magnatone. Also, many makers are gone that had massive fan bases in their heyday, like Hamer, or Carvin vs Keisel. Very good market for many of these things right now on Reverb.
I have a question for Baxter and Sean. have you guys played any Roscoe guitars? they're made by Keith Roscoe in Greensboro NC. His basses go for thousands, but he made guitars at one time, and CC Deville of Poison had several guitars. I have one myself, it's shaped like a Les Paul just a touch smaller but with the addition of a Floyd style bridge made by Kahler it also has a humbucker in the bridge and a single coilin thr neck . it's honestly the best playing electric i have ever played if you haven't played one try to get your hands on one you'll love it.
I have a 1984 Ovation Ultra GS that was their last effort to get into the solid body electric guitar market. The idea was to have bodies and necks made in Korea by Samick and assemble them in the U.S with Schaller hardware and Dimarzio pickups and be able to sell at a competitive price. They were marketed as the " Hard Body" series. There was also a Ultra GP that was an alternative to a Les Paul. Those could be had for very cheap until Josh Homme bought 3 or 4 of them and was shown on the cover of a guitar magazine with one. Then they shot up to over 2 grand. But the Ultra GS ( S is for Strat) was made in several models from straight Strat to Super Strat to shredder type with Rose type trem and single humbucker in the bridge. Mine is a S S H. with a traditional style 6 screw strat trem. A one piece maple neck with skunk stripe ( no separate fingerboard). White body over a mahogany or korina looking plywood body. Plays very well after a setup and surprisingly resonant acoustically despite the plywood body. From what I have read, they figured out by the middle of the first year of production that is was going to be a flop, so when they ran out of Dimarzio pickups and Schaller hardware, they just put cheap Korean made PUPs and bridge/trem assemblies to use up the rest of the bodies and necks they had just to blow them out. Although mine has Grover tuners when they ran out of Schallers. But my original PUPS were not Dimarzio and the bridge was cheap pot metal and not Schaller. But the build quality and fit of the neck in the neck pocket is immaculate. I don't know where it gets is strange sounding, but surprisingly clear resonance. It played so well after set-up that I decided to give it a NOS Kahler bridge/trem with Graph Tech saddles and brass block. Made the resonance even better. Replaced the PUPs with Suhr V-60LP (neck) ML standard (middle) and Thornbucker + (bridge). Upgraded the capacitor to a Mallory. Had it wired to allow all combinations of PUPs , including splitting the humbucker. Now it sounds like a million bucks and is one of my favorite guitars to play , even though I have a 3K dollar Forshage custom GT, and a 2.5K Palir Imperial custom guitar, a Heritage H-140, and other guitars more expensive than the Ovation.....It doesn't know its a cheap guitar and doesn't play or sound like one. I bought it for $350,00. Spent a little over $100 for the new bridge assembly and about $220 for the PUPs. In the market place, I could probably not get what all I have put into it dollar wise if I sold it, but I don't plan to sell it and when I die someone will get one hell of a bargain on a great sounding, playing, and looking guitar.
The youngin's the spittin' image of that kid in T2
I have Marshalls, Hiwatts, Fenders, etc. -- my favorite amp is a $300 Crate Palomino, 16 watt EL 84 tubes. Probably get about $150 on Reverb now but it's my best sound amp
My grandpa gave me an old wurlitzer electric piano that i would plug my guitar into. I eventually pulled the little tube amp out of it and put it in a box with a 10" celestion and it was killer. Loud as hell. I have no idea what happened to it... kinda wish I did.
Check out the 80-90s era Fender Solid state amps, like the Sidekick 65 Reverb…sometimes they’re called the Rivera era solid state amps….I got one for $75 and it sounds great
Is the Martin Authentic series > than Martin Golden Era series?
I remember when you could get a 64 duo sonic II with the longer deck for 400 600 bucks. So you could own an old fender with old Fender wood for very cheap. All the crackle, all the brown that’s on the maple, all the places dug into the Rosewood for cheap. Now they run around $1200…it’s probably just inflation but that’s still a pretty good deal for an old fender.
My vintage desires are for the old Peavey gear! Cheap, sounds good, US made and sturdy too! They made everything back in the day.
Made like tanks. Could drop an amp out of a car doing 60 and still plug it in and use it.😂
I had a couple of 90s bass guitars that I started on. $500 or less for an American made instrument! Though, American Fenders were less than a grand back then
Wait. Did you say you played with Richard Lloyd?
Three gems I've come across, Traynor Mark 3 (aka the Canadian Twin), Harmony H303 and a Traynor TS-15 (dope Solid state in a 2x8 combo)
I have a tube works tube driver combo amp. It’s 250 watts and loud afff
Am I the only one who thinks that Sean could be Baxter’s secret love child from the late 90’s from his time in NYC?
Fender has released "vintage" all-tube amps in the last 12-15 years. I have a Gretsch G5552 Electromatic that came out in 2010. It's the same as the Fender Champion 600 from the same time. 2 inputs and a volume knob. $120 at a pawn shop in 2018.
They also released the Greta 2W amp with a 4" speaker and a input for your phone or iPod. Volume AND tone controls and a VU meter to display distortion levels. Can be slaved to an amp via line out, or plugged into a cab. They were overpriced in 2013 and some said it was just a toy. It can be, but those who had one and ditched them wish that they hadn't LOL
I bought mine at a different pawn shop in 2018 for $87.
I just love cheap, used and discontinued low power amps.
So when I learned guitar I was playing a Ric 360. I was in 10th grade and 15=16. Jeez guess I'm vintage too. My 1st guitar was a 74 hardtail maple neck 3 color sunburst Strat. Bought used 76-77 $300. Had that 1 for over 10 yrs and wore out the frets.
I won't say what it is just yet. Because I have been buying them like a madman for the last year. But there is something you can get from the early to mid 80's that is the best deals you can get. 😂
My oldest guitar is a 58 Silvertone (Danelectro) dolphin nose w/ 1 lipstick pickup. Not the easiest to play, probably not tour-durable, but that tone! All those old department store catalog guitars are inexpensive, relatively speaking, and killer for recording. I have s friend who only collects and plays such guitars. Oh yea, and another friend has a 50s Silvertone amp with like an 8” speaker. She just will not sell it to me. Another gem for recording due to its tone.
I have a 57 Danelectro U-2. It sounds as good as anything, although it feels a bit "brittle" due to the steel nut and rosewood stick for a bridge. Lipstick pickups!
@@RByrne That’s really cool. I have a Danelectro U3 reissue too and it’s great, but there’s nothing quite like the originals.
Check out early 1960's Italian guitars by Eko, Galanti, Wandre, Zero Sette... most of the Vox guitars of the 1960's were built by Eko or Crucianelli in Italy.
Assuming Baxter has seen the TPS episode with Noel Gallagher?!? The Definitely Maybe sound was a Marshall Valvestate into a WEM! 😮
I got a Sears drum set in about 1970, when I was eight yo. I saved up my allowance for like a year. My parents felt bad and finally pitched in the rest of the $$ so I could buy it. That drum kit was unmitigated crap 😂
I have a amp from sears a melody 6 it's tubes with a little speaker and less than 1 watt but will push a 4 12 cab..its cool ..it has 3 inputs and 1 volume knob..someone told me it was what harmonica players used ?
Yeah, my Marshall solid state 100 MG head sounds pretty good and I got a 50 tube by Marshall head. I can make them sound the same.
My first guitar was bought off a friend who got it from Sears. in those days the catalog guitars were seconds bought off big guitar makers as 'seconds". It had the name "GLOBAL" on the headstock - shaped like an SG with ACTUAL PAFs .. ! it was a beautiful piece of wood with a TERRIBLE desert- floral design woodburned into the front. M.O.P. inlays and sounded great with a Boss pedal. .
I have a KMD GTX-53 Koran-made bass that my then-guitar player found for me in a pawn shop. I think I’ve dated it to 1980. I don’t need a vintage P-Bass. I have my gaudy, electric blue, otherwise-unlovable thumper.
I also have a luthier/woodworker/repair guy friend who buys every Montaya & Firefly guitar he sees. He then applies his magic to them and they become the Les Pauls, 335s, & Martins he can actually have, and play.
Ain't nothing quite like playing a Norma guitar through a Traynor amp.
That 1-watt Traynor; that just had a volume and tone; made the best dirty tone I ever captured on 4-track tape back in the day. With an Ibanez X-series Destroyer.
Coolest guitar I ever had was a Gibson marauder with clear pickups I wish I kept..
I played one that I didn't admit at the time was cool as balls, because I just started guitar and had a Fender boner raging strong. I think about it from time to time.
It's all subjective - and if you love something then you love it. Buying stuff as an 'investment' is always a massive gamble. Buy what you enjoy playing and you'll be happy.
I hardly remember the 70's. I was told i had fun.
Kalamazoo KG-1 & KG-2 are a fun time in this world
Yes, sometimes as old guitar is just an old guitar...but it is an old guitar.
I have a Silvertone Catalina, blue and white, that i got at a rardsale for 75 bucks. Its way cool. And a Jay Turser Tele that i got for 50. The tele probably isnt vitage but its a cheapo no name that is absolute magic!
Gibson Lab amps are amazing, the problem is getting parts for them.
Getting rid of the beard shaved years off that mans face.
I miss the 1960s when pawn shop owners didn't have a clue. Lots of bargains.
It's Seanathon.
I got a bunch of Ibanez Rocket Rolls, not Teisco, still wacky.
A vintage banana can get pretty squishy.
So, "bell bottoms" pops up as "bail bond"!?!
Kapa Continental for the win.
Could make you a good deal on a Gibson G40r!!
Oh, and my 1964 Hagstrom! I'm the original owner.
I have lots of vintage creepiest, hagstroms, Kay's, harmonys, ovations, t3iscos and kawais, hit me up. I buy and sell,I jist need to clean and set up a lot of them. Oh, silvertones, too!
When something sounds good, it is good 😁don't look at the headstock for reassurance 🤪
Y'all should grab a Peavey T-60 and do a segment on it. A cool guitar that was American made affordable and ahead of it's time.
Kustom amps from the 60's and 70's are super fun. Recap them and they will last another 50 years
Vintage 1 of 10 dream machine, 2-6 very nice, 3-10 OK, nothing to write home about. If you notice, the same stats can be applied to brand-new guitars.
Call me dumb, but I just realized Sean is Baxter's son and Baxter is Sean's father... Congratulations on your father son relationship!!!
I watch these guys every day and never put that together. Can't unsee it now.
He sold me a Martin over the phone a few weeks ago and put a nice handwritten note in the gig bag. Nice young man.
The killer harmony, silvertone, supro stuff used to be obtainable. Look on reverb. The ones worth having are 900- 2500$. And keep going up. When they used To be 300- 600$. Kinda late to the party with this video. I don't want them going up anymore. Working people pay check to paycheck can't afford this stuff like we used to. I have not had a fair trade or buy since this covid mess anyway on the used market.
Yer hair's lookin' better. More Cosmo Kramer, less Larry Fine
I’ve got a early 1980’s Aria Pro 2. And a Fender 85 amp. I’ve played vintage guitars and tube amps. Maybe there’s something wrong with my ears I can’t justify spending that kind of money on name brand equipment.
got a vintage Harmony Sovereign 1260 and had to sell my 69 d18.. just swallowed it
Jesus, guys, can we not? I'm tired of seeing $2,000 stratotones and dookie-ass, beat up Tiescos for $1,500.
We don't need more hype in the last place where fun is.
Most Teiscos were $59 new and that was too much.
I’m against evil empires(Gibson), I’m really into the older Japanese “law suit era” guitars like Greco.
Great and true show today. But come on, we dressed funny in the seventies? Have you looked at yourselves in mirror? And Shawn your hair cut is just a mullet sliding sideways of your head. I mean no offense, but listen to what people say 40 years from now. And I think you guys are great, fun, knowledgeable, and completely entertaining. Have a great day!
Let's keep quiet about Gibson amps until I get a GA-40T at a decent price can we all agree on that?! I mean we all keep gassing over them they'll end up more expensive than the pro level clones/homages soon.
I’ll take my teisco amp over a bad monkey any day.
2800 bucks for my 61 Les Paul jr is cheap to be honest. I got it 2 years ago. Headstock repair but it's a killer guitar. I'd love a Martin 1937 authentic D28 but you're talking 9 grand for a new guitar without a truss rod. Yet just because a guitar is old doesn't mean it's good. A 59 les paul burst isn't goin to give you life changing tone. Buy what ya can afford and give er hell
Vintage sg 😂
I had a 1966's Gibson Humming Bird acoustic guitar in the easy 1970's. I have neuer found a better sounding guitar !!!