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Played a bunch of Vintage Guitars the past two weeks....


deytookerjaabs

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Got this silly idear in my head: pack up a small closet of mid priced fiddles to trade in on something in the area of 7k-12k or so, basically a dramatic down size for one higher priced git. Romanticizing  I guess, thinkin' it'd be cool to bring a gem back to the dive bars where they came from. We had a slow week at home, sort of a staycation, lol. 

In the midst of this I stumbled on an Super (Or Golden, don't remember) Eagle from well into the "Pre-Plaza" years way back when. Holy **** you barely touched that guitar and it projected incredibly well. I was and am not in the market for a Jazz-type box atm but damn. So I wandered through a good number of Vintage box's, a couple Johnny Smith's, Super 400 IIRC, a number of L5's and a Bennedetto just to see if I was crazy...plus it's fun. Nice guitars they were, did not have the projection & authority and crispness that Eagle had!! Someone is going to end up with a mother****er. 

 

 

Meanwhile, the fiddles I was interested in: refin '60 Strat, a couple '66 strats, '66 strat w/bucker routes, oversprayed '62 ES-345, '65 ES-345, '63 Tele Refin, modded '68 Tele Custom, and a couple other player grades. I was ready and time after time was underwhelmed ? IMO, a few may have been hack jobs regardless of the dealer, but who knows. Some were really disappointing and others were just OK. I ended the week being VERY pleased with my own stable and at the same time having that Eagle on the brain along with one other guitar. Both well under the range I was looking to spend, eek, need more guitars I do not. 

 

Anyways, just more props to the big H for making a FINE FINE FINE box that has aged wonderfully. Those Eagles consistently surprise me. 

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There's nothing magical about a solidbody guitar just because it happens to be old. Most of what makes a guitar special or not comes to down to the individual pieces of lumber and cuts used. That varied from guitar to guitar back then, just as it does now. I love kicking the tires on cheaper used guitars and finding *that one* that I will love for years without breaking the bank.

That's particularly true of Fenders, in my experience, as they have always been 'factory' guitars. If you play a bunch of recent Mexican Strats and Teles, you will find a couple that are truly special--a little TLC on the frets and maybe a hardware upgrade, and you'll have a keeper for less than the price of some of the hardware on vintage parted-out guitars.

Hollowbodies are probably different, because they change as the wood ages, just as with an acoustic.

I think you'd be crazy not to pick up that Eagle, personally. Okay, I'm probably not being the best adviser, here. :lol:

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On 5/26/2019 at 7:07 PM, deytookerjaabs said:

Anyways, just more props to the big H for making a FINE FINE FINE box that has aged wonderfully. Those Eagles consistently surprise me. 

On 5/26/2019 at 8:19 PM, pro-fusion said:

I think you'd be crazy not to pick up that Eagle, personally. Okay, I'm probably not being the best adviser, here. :lol:

 

One should never be surprised at an older Heritage standing up to any guitar. 

Pro-fusion, you are like a guy walking into an AA meeting suggesting going out and getting some, "cold ones."  Shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame...

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