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 Squier Telecaster

Here is yet another Squier being sold as a Fender. And it’s a bottom of the range Chinese version as well. But this is where it gets utterly crazy…starting at £200? With buy it now at £300??? You can get a new one for £120. Or a Standard (much better quality) one for £179.

Why do people waste their time? Is this seller seriously expecting someone to pay this or are they intentionally trying to defraud someone? Stay well away.

Gibson The Paul

Massively overpriced budget Gibson at the link above. There’s a very good reason that Les Paul refused to have his name associated with these guitars – at the time they were one of Gibson’s attempts to counteract the Far Eastern guitars which were flooding the market but were strictly a budget affair. This is one of the earlier models (not one of the later Firebrand examples) but still very basic – take the seller’s claims about playability and sustain with a pinch of salt…although I haven’t played this exact one, I have played a couple of these in my time and they are fairly utilitarian. A decent Yamaha SG will knock the pants off it for example.

Whilst I am aware of the costcutting that was rife throughout Gibson and Fender in the 70s, I’ve always been surprised how other US manufacturers managed to produce high quality instruments. 70s Rickenbackers and Guilds are often better built than the 60s ones – so how could they manage it? Rickys were built in lower volumes admittedly, but still…

[Full disclosure: I own no 70s Gibsons, but do have a 70s Guild and a 70s Fender]

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.

Washburn Force 40

Here’s a fantastic Washburn bass from the 80s – through neck, 18V active circuitry, through body stringing – what would you need to pay to get that today?

Well worth checking out, and you’re unlikely to bump into someone else playing one. £220 is a reasonable starting bid – up to £300 would be a reasonable price to pay.

[Full disclosure: I have no connection whatsoever with the seller of this instrument and I do not own any electric Washburn basses, although I do have an old Washburn acoustic bass]

…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.

Gibson The Paul

reasonable guitar, overpriced though. Maximum I would pay for this would be £500, especially without an original case. They are decent guitars though.

Squier Bullet

Here’s a perfect example of the sort of eBay listing that really burns my canolli. The seller has described this Squier as a Fender, which it isn’t, and for some reason has described the neck as a “great JV neck”. Now this is more than just being disingenuous; this is deliberate falsification to make the guitar seem more interesting than it is. A Squier is a Squier, it’s not a Fender and the only JV guitars are the Japanese Vintage Squiers that have a JV serial number.

In addition, the listing is littered with spelling mistakes, “They getting hard to find”, “and will sent via post will be shpped after Chrismas” and “keep and eye on my other actions” being my favourites. None of this would give me any confidence that this is a seller to be trusted – if you’re trying to sell something, how difficult is it to proofread and spellcheck your advert?

Yamaha SA1000

Yes, I love Yamahas. This is something a bit special though; one of the original Super Axes from the late 70s. Yamaha deliberately set out to directly challenge Gibson, which was quite an aggressive strategy at this time – bear in mind that most far eastern manufacturers were focused on copying more established guitar makers but to sell them at a cheaper price, not to directly compete. As this seller points out, their USA advertising even mentioned their intention to directly compete.

If you’re into semi solid guitars, this is a very good alternative to a ES335 – and certainly the woods on these late 70s Japanese SAs are better quality than the 335s from the same period where Norlin were cutting costs. They are certainly some of the most well made mass produced guitars to come out of Japan, or any other country for that matter. It will also appreciate in value, although due to fashion this won’t be as much as you would expect from a Gibson.

This example is certainly up for a fair price -  the lack of the original hard case is the only thing that prevented me from pressing the Buy it Now button…

[Full disclosure: I have no connection with the seller of this guitar and do not own any Yamaha SA guitars]