Got a wild hair this weekend to put new strings on my old guitar and start playing again, after leaving it in the case for the better part of the last decade. Doing so made me wonder how many other cheap-and-cheesy guitar owners are out there among the teeming.
Mine’s a early/mid-60s Silvertone (made by Harmony) solid-body shaped like a Fender Jazzmaster/Jaguar, two pickups, dark red sunburst finish with tortoise-shell pickguard, large square mother-of-pearl inlays in the fretboard, with a tremolo arm. Saddle assembly appears to be rosewood, held in place by string tension; the saddle can be adjusted up or down by two knurled flanges on the screws that attach it to the bottom piece. Despite that, it plays surprisingly well – the action’s low, the neck’s still straight, no buzz, and it stays in tune remarkably well.
Here’s a pic of a very similar guitar. Body shape, neck and fingerboard inlay, headstock shape, tuners, knobs, pickguard, etc. are all the same. Where the pictured guitar is solid red, mine’s a darker red sunburst finish going to black at the sides, headstock on mine is black instead of red, mine has a single toggle switch instead of the blender-style switches on this one, and mine has two pickups instead of the three on this one (they’re identical pickups, however). Tailpiece looks very similar to mine, though mine has the whammy bar-- it’s possible that the they’re essentially the same, but I can’t tell from this pic.
If I find that I keep playing regularly, I may have to go find a Danelectro/Silvertone amp-in-case rig in playable but not collectible condition. Love the way older Danos play – my college roomate had a vintage Silvertone U2 that had been repainted mother-of-life-jacket orange before he got it, and I still covet it (especially since he got it for $75).
What about you? What do have? What do you wish you had?
I have a fender/squire stratocaster, double humbuckers. It is sort of like this, but mine is black body with a white pickguard. Also, the neck is stained light, not dark (it’s the same color as the head in the picture.)
I got it for about $200 a year ago. I don’t consider 200 that cheap, but it’s definitely on the low end of guitar prices. I figure it’s all I need until I get a LOT better.
My best friend in high school had a Sears Harmony. The neck was about 2 inches thick and looked like a rollercoaster ride. It was a great guitar though!! We used to practice flipping it around our bodies. (it died a fantastic death akin to Jimi’s fenders!) He then bought a “Series 10” guitar (dont know who made them). He played the most incredible solos with his teeth.
My first guitar, which I still own, is a Fender/Squire Bullet - black. It looks like a really cheap imitation Strat, but with no contours on the body front (you know the upper portion toward the back that’s shaved down - I don’t know what else to call it). Two cheap, plastic covered humbuckers - No frills no spills. I got it for 100 clams in 1984. Now it’s all beat up, and plastered with stickers so it looks pretty cool.
The acoustic I have now I got for Christmas about 3 or 4 years ago. It’s a Samick, which I’m told is a discount division of Yamaha, but that could be just bull-pookey told to me so I wouldn’t fret about having such a cheap instrument, but it sounds great.
My other guitar is a Les Paul Studio. It has a “Custom” label on the head, but it’s a Studio (that was my cousin’s idea of camouflage). You see, my cousin had it as a gift from a girlfriend. When they broke up she wanted it back but he claimed he didn’t have it anymore. So he changed the label, and painted it with this God-awful Eddie Van Halen pattern, with stripes and electrical tape and whatever. It had been this beautiful gloss white. After a while he couldn’t handle the guilt of having it so he gave it to me. Screw it, I got no conscience. So my father did me a favor and stripped it down and re-painted what was supposed to be gloss-red, but it came out kind of pink. The trouble is he doesn’t know much about putting guitars together so he slapped the hardware in as best as he could figure out. It sounds ok, but it still needs work that I don’t know how to perform to get it perfect.
Thus ends “Jack’s History of Guitars”. There will be a quiz.
Mine’s a plain blond-wood acoustic, standard shape, from a company called “Francisco”. It cost me $20 at a flea market. It was missing a thingy – tuning knob thing, I don’t know if there’s a word for that besides “tuning knob”, I’m self-taught and don’t know/talk to any other guitarists – so I had to get all the machines replaced and a new set of strings, which cost me about $30. I’ve had it for about a year and a half now and it’s got a beautiful sound to it. I’m looking into getting an electric now (branching out) and I’ve got my eye on a $150 Fender thing at the music store up city. I’ve gotta go cheap but I’m gonna go a little bit further upscale than my flea market find.
Correction: I just looked at the label inside my acoustic again, and the company is Franciscan, not Francisco as previously posted. It should be named The Evil Guitar Into Which Picks Are Drawn As Into A Black Hole, Never To Be Seen Again.
I have a Takamini accoustic guitar. I also have a Les Paul copy by Hondo. Whoever they are. Thinking about getting a Telecaster if I can find the right colour.
My current electric guitar is one of the new Danelectro reissues; in fact, it’s the U-2 reissue in “Cool Copper.” They seem like such cheap guitars, but when you put good distortion on them, they get a great, ratty vintage rock and roll sound.
My first guitar, like so many, was a Sears Harmony guitar. I think I eventually pulled a Pete Townsend with it just for kicks.
Johnny L.A., I saw a great Telecaster at Mars Music a couple of weeks ago. (Teles are my favorite.) It had a white finish with black binding, absolutely beautiful. Of course, I still love the '65 reissue model, red with white binding. Nice axe, that.
I went to a guitar store yesterday. They have Teles for $300. But they didn’t have the one I want. I picked up the Fender magazine/catalog, and they didn’t have the colour I wanted in it (at least not for the Telecasters). I’m looking for a Tele with a rosewood fretboard and “Vintage White” (actually kind-of yellow) body. I’m not good enough to buy a custom one. I don’t play guitar, but rather play with the guitar. Rhythm, no lead. It’s odd that they’d have all of the parts and the paint, but don’t offer the one I want “off the rack”. I looked at another Takamini while I was there with the narrower neck and metal strings. (Mine has the wide “classical” neck and nylon strings.) May have to think about that.
I used to have a Ventura hollowbody that I paid $100 for. Twin humbuckers, lauan plywood with a red flamed finish front and back, it sounded like a white noise machine when turned up.
It was stolen from my house, along with the flying-V I made in high school wood shop. They left my Rickenbacker and Martin 12 string, and took the speaker cabinets I had built, leaving the store bought amps. I guess sentiment was worth more to them than money was…
