The Vintage Guitar News and Views August / September Edition.

                                  This Faux is for you
                                                                  Fake guitars in the guitar market
 

                                         The Vintage Guitar News and Views August  /  September Edition
                                                                                  Greg's Guitars


This feature is concerning the fake or faux guitars that have been flooding the used and new guitar market . It is not meant to be all inclusive nor is it meant to say that the fake Les Paul guitars  that are in the marketplace are necessarily bad guitars or inferior made products. This article is meant to inform prospective buyers that they do exist and some of the points to look for when trying to decide if a deal is to good to be true for the advertised price. I hope you find it insightful and informative and the article helps you in your purchasing decision.Greg Mayo, proprietor of Greg's Guitars.

First up is the guitar case(s) themselves. Most f the fake Gibson cases I have seen are of the generic build with the exception many carry the Gibson or Gibson Custom Shop logo on the top side. The latches are nt as rounded as the Gibson latches, many have fewer latches and almost all have what I call fake stitching on the outside, that is the stitches are actually a part of the case and not a separate piece of fiber. Also you will see a lack of protector "buttons" on the outside of the case in question. The lining of the case is usually of a light blue fur fabric and not the same quality as an original Gibson guitar case lining.


The next item that you will want to look at is the headstock. The top of the headstock on a fake Les Paul is not cut as deeply as an original Gibson Headstock.The headstock pitch angle is getting surprisingly accurate though. The Gibson logo on a real Les Paul guitar is much clearer and the letters are not as crude or as closed up as on a fake Les Paul. The nut on a real Les Paul is much smaller and secures to the neck slot much better in fit and form.Also the back of the neck where the headstock joins is usually more tapered and shows superior craftsmanship on a real Les Paul guitar.




The fake Les Paul seems to have one of more scarf joints on the back of the necks.The depth of the heel is larger also.

There is also on the back of the headstock no evidence of the "wings" commonly found on real Les Paul guitars. Wings are the extra side mountings attached to either side of the back of the headstock blank during construction.

Knob placement is haphazard at best and are spaced incorrectly.


Spacing and placement for the tailpiece and  bridge also show discrepancies.


The neck body joint at the top of the guitar on a real Les Paul shows no neck material showing on top of the guitar itself ,whereas on the fake guitar some neck material is protruding out of the top of the body itself.



The body thickness and shape are very similar but the actual length of the guitar are different as well as a splicing of body woods showing.



You will also on a new Les paul see fret "nibs" extending to the ends of the fret and the neck side dot markers are larger and more defined on an actual Gibson guitar than on a fake guitar.




There are also many other things that should set of alarms when looking at a fake Les Paul, such as really crude cavities routed into the body for the electronics to go into, the truss rod route and truss rod placement as well as the electronics themselves.





Also note on the picture above the selector switch ring has larger printing for the treble and rhythm positions.Also the wiring and pickups are of a inferior quality than you would normally find in a real Gibson Les Paul.

I hope you have found these pictures and descriptions insightful as well as helpful. All in all the fake guitar shown is a very good guitar if it is sold for what it is, a fake  and not sold by some unscrupulous individual  trying to pass it off as a real Gibson guitar. It feels rather nice and plays good enough , of course electronics upgrades are a must. So if you find yourself looking at one of the many fake models of guitars available on the market pleas do not confront the seller as that may end up rather unpleasant . Instead just walk away.As usual this is just my news and views. May all your days be memorable,all your friends stay true and may all your riffs be killer. Greg.

The Vintage Guitar News and Views April / May Edition

                           Time is money

       The April / May Edition of The Vintage Guitar News and Views.

       

Time is money and money is time applies to just about every aspect of our lives today.I know some people who do their own yard work and I know others that have it done as their time is better spent pursuing other matters. Buying and selling vintage and collectible guitars is in many ways no different than the other things we do in life. I cannot speak for other guitar dealers but I spend a lot of my time in all things stringed. Not being in the position to purchase every guitar dealt my way I have to do my research accordingly. Some dealers can and do buy everything they can and there is nothing wrong with that; they even the market spread and save other items for future sales based on their own time spent doing research. Some guitar dealers buy only certain brands of guitars and concentrate on that market ,others buy guitars made in a selective few years based on their expertise and research. Within these certain niche markets I am probably correct in the assumption that each guitar dealer has spent considerable time investing into research and at reaching their business model conclusion.Personally I can not afford to gamble buying every guitar that is offered to me for sale,so I do market research and try to read into what I perceive the future and present state of the guitar market is and what it may be (speculation).

 Retrospectively speaking anyone can say "you should have bought this or that" or "you should have sold those items when the market was better",whether it be in stocks,real estate or vintage guitars. When the facts are already a known given price wise it does not take a genius to make an educated guess.
 
As guitar dealers most of us spend a lot of our time reading reviews, talking to players and collectors, feeling out forum rooms for talk about certain guitars, and pour over magazines, news articles and our peers publications. We read every book with pertinent facts,pricing guides and index's on our wares. I spend a lot of time looking into buying trends, visiting big box outlet and seeing what age groups are buying and interested in  which products. Yes, time is money.

Even when all this is considered, things in our ever changing industry can still be murky at best. After all we are selling a luxury tangible item and know one really knows what the future may hold. Even still I spend my free time (what is left of it anyway) looking into archival reports, articles and literature on certain years,makes,models,colors within certain manufacturers that have peaked my interest. I look to see what changes occurred in what years, were they received as good changes or bad changes and how that effects the vintage guitar market.Sometimes the payoff can be huge and sometimes it is small, it is all relative to what measure you hold for success. In my case I feel successful by what I have achieved by myself and that is good enough for me.
I any not be able to offer very many "401K" guitars for sale ,mainly because I do not have that kind of money to spend or risk, but what I do have and will always enjoy i the amount of information I gather that make reflect on what I do buy and offer for sale to you the client.These days it is not enough to just offer an item for sale that will differentiate you from the other guys with a slick website,but it is the amount of time  and work that I actually put into this passion of guitars. I am sure this can be felt and seen when dealing or talking with me as well as visiting my website and making that "wish list"  of your very own. After all you too do your own investments in time when looking at the various guitars you will or would like to purchase someday now don't you ?

So remember than when you call to ask about a certain guitar and sigh at the price that may be asked for it, that a lot more than just plunking down some cash for any old guitar and throwing it up on the website may contribute to the price. On another note, if you are scouting for a price on your guitar remember that most dealers do charge a fee for this service as the spend time doing the research and after all "time is money" .
Remember that this is just my news and view and may differ from yours , but I hope you have enjoyed this installment of The Vintage Guitar News and Views and as always , may all your days be memorable, all your friends stay true and all your riffs be killer, till June ( as we are now going to a bi-monthly  publication format) Greg.

The March Edition of The Vintage Guitar News and Views

The Vintage Guitar News and Views March 2010.

"Staying on Top"

Why are some guitar tops painted and some guitar tops plain? Why do some builders use polyurethane paints and some guitar builders use nitrocellulose paints? Is the reissue bug just a fad or craze ?Are older guitars really better? In the later issues of The Vintage Guitar News and Views I said to ask questions and boy have I been hammered ! It has been a phenomenal response from you the readers and I thank all of you for your questions.So as to some of the questions you the readers have asked ,let me try to give what I believe are reasonable answers.
 Why are some guitar tops painted and some not ? I believe it has nothing to do with tone or sound (duh) it is about the aesthetics  of color for the buying public as well as a way for builders to hide imperfections in the wood and to be able to splice several pieces of wood together to complete a top. I know ,your top should be 1 or 2 pieces of wood joined at the center seam but even as far back as the 50's companies have had to use all the wood they could for their products ,they never imagined that we would be all freaky about this sort of thing 50 years later.It just make plain good business sense to utilize all the woods available and to hide these seemingly imperfections with paint. Personally I covet the mismatched, wood grained, mineral stained, unflamed tops myself.
Now "pretty" wood such as flame, fiddleback,curly,bearclaw and the like are perceived to be more pleasant to look at and (now at least) they are not covered up with paint. At one time though some of the prettiest tops I have seen were "uncovered" during a restoration or conversion and rescued from under the painted tops that were hiding them.
But these types of tops can now command a higher price tag and are displayed behind a clear of more transparent finish rather than hidden away never to be seen. All at the same time by creating a larger buying market and even so much as creating smaller "divisions" among the market base of clients.I will leave that subject alone for now and leave it to many a articulate or even imbibed discussion amongst yourselves.
Poly finish or Nitro?  To me the best ,well one of the best smells there are is when you pop open a guitar case and the smell of nitro permeates the room. That unmistakable smell is what makes this question kinda hard, you see nitro never really cures fully and is in a constant state of evaporation from the moment it is applied to the day it returns to sawdust with that old guitar.
I like nitro on all my acoustics as I do believe it does, as time passes contribute to the opening up of the tonal qualities as many people subscribe to. On electric guitars I think the switch to a poly finish was as mentioned by others before me a decision to make the finish on the guitar harder and last longer without fade, a protectant and a cost cutting decision for the production plants as poly dries faster and more guitars can be made to sell.As far as sound qualities on the electric guitars? Well there have been a whole lot of sweet sounds and great players that played those poly coated beauties now haven't there? Some poly coats seemed to fare better than others and the reissues from overseas tend to age and pock just a little differently than their American counterparts. Why? I do not know, they just "relic" differently.
Which brings up the next topic,the relic craze. Nostalgia? The bygone days of youth when you first started playing ? From the mildly and elegantly understated aged guitars that are made by master builders and custom shops which are limited in run and will possibly retain and gain in value to the obviously overdone relics that  look "cookie cutter made" all intended to stir these emotions in the consumers.
Truthfully, do some play better or sound better than others? You bet they do. Limited runs and custom reliced guitars are more hand crafted and have more attention to detail even when it comes to aging the parts and pieces that make of our lovely ladies. Where the mass produced guitars all look the same and are more budget priced, they seem to just use the standard parts and pieces,  and if one plays better or sounds better ,lucky you.
Which brings us to the next subject. Are old guitars better? Hmmm ,gotta pick my words carefully here.Well some of the appointments look better, I mean I'll take cloth covered wiring and paper caps over plastic any day, but today's wiring is probably better made and the shielding is superior but then again isn't  it the quirks that make guitars so lovable? Pickups are next, I mean a good pickup will make any guitar sound better and a bad pickup will make  good guitar sound lousy and I am sticking to that statement.I prefer older alnico magnets to todays blends and ceramics ,nope ain't gonna do it.  Appointments? well the old parts do seem to get real brittle and crumble to dust and often need replacing, personally I prefer steel tuning keys over others and multi-ply covers and guards over the older single plys ,but that is just my preference.
Which brings us to the bare bones of any guitar,the wood used. I do think older wood is better, and older guitars are made of superior wood in my opinion, not that the wood is actually better but more the process of air drying for years wood that gets cut and air dries for years more stored on racks and shelves then is made into various parts of a guitar and again sits until orders are placed or new models are designed and then the wood was hand caressed into works of art, that's what I mean by old wood. Todays guitars are being shaped as the axemen strip the branches from the trunks of the trees, green wood being forced kiln dried and mass produced to be shaped and shipped to the consumer. I cringe every time I see a "modern " guitar assembly plant in operation on tour videos, I understand the economics and the tighter tolerances touted, but it just ain't the same as far as I can tell. The marriage of certain parts and pieces seem to be another quandary to amuse all of us guitar nuts.Think about it , most of the guys we idolize play guitars that are made from several different guitar, which dispels the myth of certain era guitars being better than others now doesn't it? Take "Blackie" and Duane's Burst , parts guitars........We all know that certain points have counterpoints and in the guitar world the greatness lies in the diversity, we as guitar lovers want to spend our money on something we can hold,touch,feel,smell,play and admire for  all our own reasons and that makes us all part of this huge family no matter what we think individually about certain brands,makes,parts or pieces,diversity is the key because if all guitars are eventually created equal then we would all own the same guitar and it would be like every other guitar on the planet, well except for the color..........Till next month may all your days be memorable ,all your friends stay true and all your riffs be killer, Greg at Greg's Guitars. 

Proper Grammer ? The February edition of The Vintage Guitar News and Views

 
 The Grammer Guitar.

Many people know that I am a follower and lover of The R.G. and G.factories Grammer acoustic Guitars that were made is Nashville during the 1960's. I have bought and sold over 40 of these fine American made acoustic guitars and I am constantly looking for more. I field questions almost every day about these instruments from prospective clients and people just interested in them.
Here are a few tidbits of information for those people who have never heard of them.
A more in depth informative site can be found here. In the early 1960s, Billy Grammer was finding success and keeping very busy. He had a big hit record that crossed genres, a membership in the famous Grand Ole Opry and was gearing up to record his next album. Ever since starting his career as a professional musician, Billy envisioned building the perfect flat top guitar. It would be built to his specifications, combine all the best features of his favorite acoustic guitars, and be made out of the finest materials available and felt  the time was right to build the Grammer guitar. (cited from the works of Rob Kilgore)

   Clyde Reid. Clyde operated a music store in Donelson, Tennessee, right outside of Nashville. Billy knew he would need the help of an experienced luthier to build his flat top guitar. He contacted J.W. Gower, a Nashville resident who came from a family of luthiers and wood workers. With Billy at the helm, Clyde with his managerial skills, and J.W. with his guitar-building know-how, all the pieces were in place. They approached a Nashville lawyer named General Howard Butler and under his legal representation, established a corporation. The new company would be called RG&G Musical Instruments, Inc. (Reid, Grammer, and Gower).Billy told me "that his name by chance looked the best on the headstock hence the name The Grammer Guitar was chosen".

Eventually some problems did occur and with the help of Fred Moore (see this link) some financial help did arrive in time to keep the plant afloat. With the help of Ampeg to infuse capital and produce and distribute his guitars, Billy's factory stayed alive. Many people are under the impression that Ampeg owned Billy's guitar factory , but according to Billy that was not the case. There were changes to the guitar ,but the same experienced luthers still produced the guitars. Some of the changes are what I call the transitional Grammer guitars in which the "railroad track" inlays on the finger board were still there but the Ampeg logo was on the headstock are the earliest examples, other notable changes was the blue label being replaced with a black and white inner label bearing the Ampeg logo on the right side of the label as well as the lettering changing on the headstock from capital T,G and G to lowercase letters .

Some model number discrepancies as well as serial numbering also came into being ,and as Billy stated "I didn't even know what serial numbers were being used at this time" can only lead to confusion among followers and collectors alike. In the spring of 1968 a fire decimated the factory and almost everything was lost. By 1972 the last of Grammer guitars were produced and with the influx of cheap guitar from overseas the Grammer factory close its doors forever with left over inventory and parts being auction off to the highest bidder(s).

Many people like myself have developed an almost cult like following of these fine American made vintage acoustic guitars. Many dealers are also becoming interested in these guitars and can be seen listing several for sale at any time. Ebay will have one or two for sale from time to time as well. The Grammer guitar has even finally been listed in the Vintage Guitar Guide, It must be noted that Billy himself once told me that after the auction several loads of unfinished guitars and guitar parts were sold , so buyer beware .Billy Grammer is still alive and I have the chance to chat with him from time to time and is still active in the music industry, He has just completed filming for several installments to be aired on the RFG channel sometime in March of 2010. Billy has even been so kind to allow me to use the Grammer guitar headstock outline as part of Greg's Guitars logo.

Now this is not meant to be an all inclusive complete history of these fine guitars but merely a reference and starting point for those who may be interested in them.  So until next month May all your friends stay true ,all your days be memorable and all your riffs be killer , Greg.

        

Posted by Greg's Vintage Guitar News at 1/30/2010 3:24 PM

Going for the gold, The 1952 Gibson Goldtop Les Paul.

The December edition of The Vintage Guitar News and Views. 

This issue of The Vintage Guitar News and Views we will look at what has made the Les Paul guitar such an iconic guitar and also some of the changes that it has undergone throughout the last 57 years.
Wanting a guitar to compete and to overshadow the guitars that the competition was making out in California ,Ted McCarty introduced the first Gibson solid body electric guitar in 1952,The Les Paul. In body wood choices Gibson deemed an all mahogany model may sound to dull and lifeless and an all maple guitar would (get it?) be far to heavy .So a compromise was agreed upon to make a solid maple carved top,to take advantage of the old world craftsmen employed by Gibson with a set neck and solid mahogany back. Complete with 2 P - 90 pickups ,2 volume and 2 tone controls as well as a 3 way selector switch and  a trapeze tail piece.
This was Gibson's first solid body guitar to be produced and was released in 1952 with the patent number of 2714326 in January of 1953. It was produced in two standard ( no pun intended) colors, Black and Gold,although it is acknowledged in several publications that sunburst was the traditional Gibson color in name recognition ,according to other sources Mr. Les Paul himself requested these options. Gibson enlisted Les Paul (r.i.p.) to promote it's new guitar with his (Les Paul) name emblazed across the headstock, securing not only Les immortality but also securing Gibson a bonafide name recognition with their new guitar. Originally produced with a trapeze tailpiece that was  replaced in the start of 1954 with the wrap around stop tail piece.
The standard pickup was th P-90 single coil and it was not until 1955 that a test version of Mr. Seth Lovers pickup the "humbucker" was applied to a Les Paul guitar. Even though most guitars would not receive this upgraded pickup until mid 1957. A late 1955 " consolette steel guitar was actually the first Gibson product to receive the new "humbucker" pickups in the Gibson line. But , 1957 is perceived as the era that the humbucker pickup was available guitars. In 1957 the "fretless wonder" was introduced(smaller ,low action frets) along with the "Bigsby" vibrato unit. The tune o matic bridge was also introduced in 1957.
By 1960 the last production year of the first run of Les Paul guitars a 3 pickup version aptly named the Les Paul "Custom" was offered for sale. Interestingly enough these guitars sold for $395.00 without the plush lined "California girl" case and the Les Paul standard sold for a mere $265.00 (if we only knew).
Yes The Gibson Les Paul solid body guitar from it's inception through 1959 only suffered slight but significant changes,from the trapeze tailpiece to the more familiar stop tail piece ,tune o matic bridge configuration. From the P-90 pickups to the P.A.F. Seth Lover humbuckers,structurally and production wise it remained the same, even in it's second incarnation when  this icon of rock and roll was reintroduced into production. A true testament to the golden age of guitars and guitar manufacturing in America. Now of course this is not an all inclusive article to list all the minute changes from the headstock angle and size,bindings,color choices,etc.etc... but as always this is just my news and views. So until next month may all your friends stay true all your days be memorable and all your riffs be killer,Greg at Greg's Guitars.

The Vintage Guitar News and Views August Edition.        

                                              Got Tone?

    Good tone can be attributed to a lot of different factors and a lot of different factors can contribute to good tone.This month let us look at some of those factors that may possibly help you in your own quest for tone(s).Almost every guitar manufacturer today makes several levels in the guitar entries to sell, many are branded by the builders under different names or country(s) of origin by these manufactures.

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The Vintage Guitar News and Views July Edition

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Amps and the general scheme of things

The Vintage Guitar News and Views, June Edition.

I get questions concerning amps all the time, some easy to answer and some a little harder to answer. Here in this issue of The Vintage Guitar News and Views I will lay some very basic groundwork for you to digest concerning guitar amplifiers. Class A amps have low distortion and low power output with full power always flowing to the amps tubes, these style amps consume a lot of power and have great sustain, think of the Vox AC 30 as one example.
 Class B style amps turn Ac power into current and have more distortion are more efficient energy wise. Class A/B ,which most Fender amps are and most B class amps give the best in design of both sustain and breakup or distortion ( natural) , they are cheaper to build, reliable and easy to work on.

The output stages being one .the push pull style can be summed up as to whatever one tube is doing in the circuit the next tube is doing the opposite in operation ,hence the name "push pull " Capacitors or "caps" as they are commonly called store a charge and block out or taper low frequencies and allow higher frequencies to pass through the circuit, There are several different caps available in amps , the "vintage " paper caps, then the mylar caps,electrolytic caps,and the most common used today the mylar caps. They all do the same job in the circuit but some people prefer one type over another.

Hard wired or point to point amps are generally more expensive although almost all "vintage " amps are wired this way. this is where each component is linked to the next inline via the solder joint and is not attached to a circuit board of any kind. The circuit board in most amps built since the 1960's is usually made of a fiber material and most components are attached to the board .

Speakers have changed over the years also, the best by general consensus are the alnico magnet type of speakers, but in the mid 1960's the ingredients used to produce these magnets became to expensive and newer magnet material(s) were developed with a combination of oxide(s) and ceramic (s), these are pretty much the norm today.I like the blue back celestions myself.

Then there were the manufacturing companies that produced amplifiers( to many to list) but makers such as Oahu,Gibson,Supro,Danelectro,Rickenbacher(Rickenbacker today ) ,Fender, Magnatone, Alamo,Vox ,Marshall,Gretsch,Kelly,Music man,Mesa, and hundreds of other companies. My personal amps consist of my Magnatone M-10,Gibson GA-5, Fender Vibroverb, 1960 Concert amp, and my Fender Bassman, all different but all the same , I still search for really cool amps to offer my clients as well as myself.

As far as tubes go, some work better than others and some work better in different spots along the amp circuitry, you have to experiment and mix and match until you get the desired effect out of tube placement  and that can and is a whole article within itself.So  until next month, may all your days be memorable, may all your friends stay true and may all your riffs be killer, Greg at Greg's Guitars.

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The Vintage Guitar News and Views April Edition,"Music the Universal Language"

October Edition of Vintage Guitar News and Views.

The July edition of Greg's Guitars" Vintage guitar news and views."

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