Checking out Jap guitars on eBay

[fuzzsniffvoyage]

I was looking around on evil bay, at 70's & early 80's Jap copies. Man are they getting expensive. And what gets me most is they are claiming "Law suit guitar" when they are clearly not a law suit model??? and then they want top dollar for players. Is it me? but if I'm going to pay top dollar for a "Vintage" guitar, I want it original. Not replaced tuning keys or pickups. I also want the original case.


Maybe I should have put this in the Cave, but am I being to anal?

I am in the market for a new guitar, getting the itch for a new toy. But for these prices I'm thinking of getting a NEW Carvin for a few bucks more.

 

[ido1957]

I'm always on the lookout for an early 70's Ibanez Goldtop that I had years ago. 2350? They come up every so often but not always in original condition either.

 

[aaronmcoleman]

the days of great deals are pretty much gone. ebay has driven the prices up on anything old.

 

[dervish riff]

The bad thing is, somebody's still buying them. I saw a thread on another site where somebody was trying to get $225.00 for a one pup Teisco--the kind of guitar nobody would touch twenty years ago. Haven't these people played a Squier lately?

I'm notoriously cheap, though. The last electric guitar I bought was an Electra X290 sorta-Paul for $40.00. The switch and pots were all gunked up--DE-Oxit to the rescue.

 

[ranjam]

I bought 'a few' Tokai guitars only a handful of years ago, and thought $800 or $900 for a 'burst Les Paul was a sign I am losing my sanity. Sure they were 70's or 80's models, but that didn't make a difference to my wife. The prices now are averaging $1,300 and go up to $2,000 for a LS160VF. Sure you can spend $500 for a Korean model, but the headstock is 'wrong', and may be what sparked the 'lawsuit' myth. The $500 Strats and Teles I bought are now at least $1,000 and the new ones have a 'wrong' headstock as well.
The problem with those 70's and 80's Tokai guitars, and I've gone through a couple of dozen of them, is the pickups are junk, and the lower end models have junk tuners. So you really have no choice but to change them. The Les Pauls are great, but the pickups all squeal and don't have great tone. The Fender copies are great, but again, the pickups are bad, and the lower end models have really bad tuners. And the Strats have bad bridges. So I dicided to stop paying for a guitar that I knew I had to change everything on it to make it playable and usable on stage or to record. Just think of that, and if you don't feel like shelling out the extra dough, you'll have an excuse to look for something else.

 

[fuzzsniffvoyage]

the days of great deals are pretty much gone

You got that right.

Every Sat. I use to go scrounging for a deal, and would usually find one. Over the years I've sold or traded some great guitars and amps, and am looking to re-acquire some of them back. But dam shit has gotten expensive. I go to pawn shops and they want new prices for used gear. I don't know how they stay in business. There's a pawn shop down the street that has an Epi Sheraton w/case and they want $589.99 plus tax...????? I offered them $400. They said what they have on it is as low as they can go.....It's been on the wall over a year now.

I don't know, maybe I need to expand my search area and go into Chicago shops.....I'm in N.W. Indiana.....any suggestions for Chicago????

 

[aaronmcoleman]

You got that right.

Every Sat. I use to go scrounging for a deal, and would usually find one. Over the years I've sold or traded some great guitars and amps, and am looking to re-acquire some of them back. But dam shit has gotten expensive. I go to pawn shops and they want new prices for used gear. I don't know how they stay in business. There's a pawn shop down the street that has an Epi Sheraton w/case and they want $589.99 plus tax...????? I offered them $400. They said what they have on it is as low as they can go.....It's been on the wall over a year now.

I don't know, maybe I need to expand my search area and go into Chicago shops.....I'm in N.W. Indiana.....any suggestions for Chicago????

I'd guess Chicago is going to be even more expensive. I lived there for a few years, and currently live in LA. The big cities are ridiculous for used gear. In LA I've seen stuff selling for 25% more than what I thought was a pretty high price anyway! And the stuff sells in no time.

But, the mid-range vintage stuff (i.e. silverface fenders, jazzmasters, rivera era amps, nice late 70s-early 80s teles/strats) are still relatively good deals. But, I don't expect that to last too long. So, if you can find some stuff that a lot of people don't want, you can get some decent (not great deals) still. I love big old twins and jazzmasters, so I've been able to find a few really nice deals on them.