Flamin Lip said:
Nice score! I thought Ebay killed the pawnshops.... as far as finding sweet deals. Back in the day I used to get tons of good deals, but havent had ANY luck in the last 5 or so years.
WHen I first started playing, back in the early 80's, there was a pawn shop near my school in downtown. It had all sorts of crazy guitars and basses, many of which I remember being really inexpensive. Two that come to mind are: an American fretless jazz with tons of mods they sold my friend for $200, and he still plays it to this day, and this crazy double neck (12 and 6 strings) custom built thing with active electronics, neck thru, gold & brass hardware, etc. that was amazingly done. The first time I saw it, it was $800, but the last time it had gotten down to $299, then it was gone. I've always wished I'd had a way to buy that thing...
There is this guy Max, he runs a shop about 15 minutes away, and he has some 50 guitars in there at all times, a lot of which he'll take out for you if he sees that you are seriously looking...He plays regularly, and knows the value of them, so yeah, you might get a deal, but not a huge one. Ebay has indeed taken over - Max says he intends to get an Ebay shop going, too, but not sure if he has. I got a Mexi Nashville Tele in mint condition with a hard case from him for my LP Special that needed a new toggle. It may have been in his best interest, but retail they were similarly priced and at the time, I had no more use for another mahogany LP with humbuckers, since I had two others...It was a good trade for ME.
Other than that, most other shops around me are full of cheesy low end guitars and the guys running the shops all think they have good stock and talk to you like you are an idiot. Are they just there to get tax breaks? How do they stay in business????
