plucked out blog

Figured top Graduate 60

1979 Double Cut Graduate

GS1.60

Often referred to as the “British Gibson”, but mainly by themselves or other people trying to sell one Gordon Smiths are rightly very well respected – frankly if you’re in the market for this sort of guitar (set neck, humbuckers/P90s, and so on) then you should always try and give one of these a go. They wipe the floor with most similar guitars, and the ones towards the top of the range can make a fair few Gibson and PRS owners feel sick when they find out how much they cost. Plus, they are made in Britain – always nice to support local industry if you can.

The first Graduate linked above is particularly nice looking but arguably has a starting price that’s too high – £400 would seem a better price. The vintage double cut is a great looking guitar but again seems a little highly priced – Gordon Smith collectors are few and far between so the pricing should take this into account. Finally, the GS1.60 which is a more basic model than the Graduate – this version looks nice, particularly with a P90, but £300 would be the most I’d pay for this.

Having said that, compare those prices to the costs of comparable non-vintage Gibsons – you’ll be getting a much better guitar for much less money.

Fender Musicmaster bass

1978 Musicmaster. Reasonable short scale bass. Lots made. £850? Defintely not. £600? Only if it was absolutely mint (which this one isn’t) and had the original hard case (which it doesn’t). The real collectors items with respect to Musicmasters are the pre-1970 ones, even the early (71-73) seventies ones are worth having. The late 70s ones aren’t the best.

This is worth £450, tops. There are lots of these around so I’d suggest biding your time if you’re looking for one.

…and want an electric 12 string, you can do a lot worse than one of these

Hohner TE Custom XII

I used to have one of these when I was 15 years old – it was fantastic. Bloody heavy though – solid maple body. Really well made, like a lot of Hohner Professional guitars and quite underrated. I didn’t think much of the pickups though, if I was buying one I’d be tempted to put some humbucker sized P90s on there (Seymour Duncan make some I believe) to get extra jangle.

Vester Les Paul

Sorry it’s been a while. I will kick back into it with a rant; why the hell would anyone pay £450 for a fake Les Paul?  This is a Vester, who admittedly made some pretty good guitars, which has had a fake Gibson Les Paul logo applied. Now if you want to fake a guitar then that’s up to you – I personally don’t know why you’d want to do unless you wanted to defraud someone as if it was for your own benefit you’d always know it was a fake.

What makes this especially irritating for me is that the seller is asking £450 as a starting bid! The guitar itself (if it still had the original Vester logo) would be worth £250 max, probably closer to £200 – but given you can easily find a nice 2nd hand or  Gibson Les Paul Studio for £450 or a decent Epiphone for £250 (either of which  you can easily sell on in the future for a similar amount) why bother with a fake? Are you seriously going to pretend to your friends that it’s a real Gibson?

Steer well clear.

Fender Bullet

A Fender Bullet. A budget guitar from the early 80s. A bit different, yes. Made in the USA, yes. Don’t see them everyday, fair enough.

But £2600?

A Fender Bullet will never sell for £2600. Ever. The person listing this has just wasted their money and their time.

Aria Pro II Cardinal

In the first of what may or may not become a regular series on particularly underrated guitars, I’d like to draw your attention to this Aria Cardinal. During the late 70s and mid to late 80s, there were some fantastic guitars coming out of the Matsumoko factory in Japan, and Aria designed many of them. They don’t have the same cachet as some other Japanese makes like Ibanez but they were coming out of the same factory with similar levels of quality and some original designs.

This particular example (the CS400) is one of the top of the line models and if you like Les Pauls, PRSs or Yamaha SGs then it’s well worth checking out. As always though, it’s worth budgeting to replace the pickups as that’s one area where Far Eastern guitars sometimes miss the mark. Not too many of these about either and I predict that Matsumoko guitars will continue becoming collectable.

Telecaster Elite

OK, full disclosure upfront: I have one of these, in this colour. And it’s fantastic. But it’s not this one; I won’t be selling mine.

Sounds nothing like a Telecaster, but don’t let that put you off – they have a huge range of sounds, thanks to the strange little mini humbuckers (which I’m amazed Fender have never reused) and the active electronics. Yes, active; and on a guitar, not a bass. It makes for a guitar that is almost silent between songs or more importantly in the studio – it also looks superb and is genuinely rare, having only been made for 1 year. You won’t come across many people playing one of these – unless you’re sharing the bill with the Kinks (Dave Davies used one) or me.

Fender Lead II

Here’s an example of an often overlooked and underrated 80s US Fender, the Lead. If you’ve never played one, they really are worth checking out, especially the II variety – halfway between a Strat and a Tele is for once, an accurate description. Nice and lightweight too.

This one is worth keeping an eye on, although one note of caution: the seller mentions that the action is set “pretty high” so I suggest you contact them to confirm that there is no underlying reason why e.g. a dodgy or twisted neck.

It’s not 100% original so £400ish is a fair price. It’s likely to at least keep it’s value, and probably appreciate a little in future.

Yamaha archtop

Here’s a very interesting old Yamaha – not many of these around, particularly not in the UK. I don’t even know what model it is, but believe it’s from the SA series – it’s not covered on the Yamaha guitar database. Definitely one for a collector, but I think what the seller is asking is too high – not enough people collect Yamahas and that’s vintage Fender and Gibson money. Definitely worth making an offer on this one if you’re interested though, as it’s a real niche and I doubt there will be too many more opportunities to get hold of one outside of Japan.

1978 Jazz Bass

1976 Jazz Bass

Lots of 1970s Fenders look great, but the quality was extremely patchy in this period. Also, the variances in weight went from reasonably bulky to millstone. However, they do seem to be increasing in value but more down to the simple economics of supply and demand than them being any good. Personally I wouldn’t pay £1k+ for an instrument I wouldn’t enjoy playing, and I’ve never found a mid to late 70s Fender that I did.

If you’re looking for something to play, then I’d suggest looking elsewhere. If you want an investment, then the sonic blue 1976 linked above is worth a look, although I’d ask the seller for some photos of the neck pocket to confirm that the colour is original. Worth making an offer, but don’t expect more than a £200 increase in value over the next 5 years. The 1978 one has too many mods to be considered an investment in my opinion.

[Full disclosure: I have no 70s Fenders but I do have some from the 1980s and 2000]