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Topic: Why sell/trade? |
Brick Spieth
From:
San Jose, California, USA
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Posted 7 Sep 2008 9:56 am |
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As a newbie, I've noticed quite a few of what for me would be ultimate dream guitars being bought, sold and traded. I am by nature someone who hangs on to equipment, and am only now thinking of selling off a few tele type guitars to fund an UPGRADE PSG. Trading up is a concept I understand, and having more than one is a concept I understand, but could some of you old hands explain why anyone would buy a top of the line steel in exactly the color you want, from the builder you want, wait a long time to get it, and then eventually sell it?
I used to run into a guy at a very high end acoustic guitar shop, who told me he wanted to own every great guitar out there, but was destined to do it one at a time. Is this the same in PSG?
I also can relate to chasing the Holy Grail.
I understand financial need, failing health and other such misfortune. I'm interested in the motivation of selling something really good to buy something else really good. |
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Richard Sinkler
From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
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Posted 7 Sep 2008 10:05 am
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Why do some people trade their cars in every couple of years and get a new one? Just 'cuz they can. They like the feeling of something new.
Also people trade up for more features, different make they may have just tried and like better, or maybe just because want a different color, type of necks, etc. Some have to sell that dream guitar to finance the new guitar. Some like me, had to sell their other guitar(s) because they don't want a divorce. You know how unreasonable some of those spouses can be. |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 7 Sep 2008 10:36 am
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| Quote: |
| Trading up is a concept I understand, and having more than one is a concept I understand, but could some of you old hands explain why anyone would buy a top of the line steel in exactly the color you want, from the builder you want, wait a long time to get it, and then eventually sell it? |
There are a myriad of reasons, and they don't apply only to steel guitar, but any instrument or amp.
1. A lot of steel guitars - and these days, other instruments like guitars - are purchased at-a-distance without ever being able to try them first. Sometimes something that looks perfect on paper just doesn't work out as intended.
2. A player may grow, or just change, in a direction that a particular guitar doesn't suit as well. It may be the holy grail to you, but not necessarily everybody.
3. An instrument with significant novel features may suddenly appear on the market, and a player may want to try them out. As mentioned earlier, sometimes those things don't work out, but you never know until you try. Again, trying new pedal steels out isn't always so easy. For example, if you want to really find out if a Franklin is for you, you will have to react fast with a bunch of money - not for the faint of heart or faint of pocketbook.
4. Of course, general restlessness is undoubtedly a major cause - the grass is greener syndrome.
Of course, if you have money and room to just keep them all, it isn't always necessary to sell one to get one. But that has its limitations, as anybody with a bunch of guitars and steels can tell you.  |
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Brick Spieth
From:
San Jose, California, USA
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Posted 7 Sep 2008 11:00 am
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You know, not being able to try before you buy has got to be the reason for a lot of this.I really can't think of another instrument where flying blind is more like the norm.
In the classical music world, if you want to get an oboe, a dealer might just send you three to try. My daughter had eight violas worth between $4000 and $10,000 each in our living room from three different dealers. If a shop knows your teacher, they take your drivers license number and a phone number and out the door you go with $10,000 worth of inventory. Can you imagine taking home three steels to try for a week?
It was a very good day when the $4500 "cheapie" won out over all the rest in a blind listening test.
I buy a car new and am done with it after 250,000 miles. |
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Benton Allen
From:
Muscle Shoals, Alabama, USA
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Posted 7 Sep 2008 11:24 am
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| Quote: |
| You know, not being able to try before you buy has got to be the reason for a lot of this. |
Possibly, but what I find so hilarious is that some guys will order a new Whoopi-Do brand of steel and while they are waiting a year or more for it to arrive we hear what a great guy Joe Blow is to do business with and what great workmanship he puts into the construction of his particular brand of steel.
When the guitar finally arrives, we hear tons of accolades like - It sounds just as good as an Emmons, It's got tone to the bone!, or the pedal action feels as smooth as butter.
Then in a few weeks you see it for sale here on the forum account he needs money to buy a new Do-Wa-Diddy brand of steel.
Nothing wrong with this, I just find it funny sometimes. 
Cheers!
Benton |
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Dick Sexton
From:
Greenville, Ohio
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Posted 7 Sep 2008 12:32 pm The quest for, fill in the blank!
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There are as many reasons as steels to change, buy another, or trade. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to. But something always stopped me, probably the same thing that kept me from getting the first one for so long. Wife, kids, and a job with a 24 hour trigger, mostly and then the money. Had I known then what I know now,(good hook for a song), Id' have a warehouse full of push pulls, a tractor trailer full of Webbs, I'd married into the Zum family, had my kids marry into the Mullin family and bought MS, IBM and Ebay stock for 5 dollars a share. But I didn't, bought my first steel new in 79, a Charokee, my second in 90, a previously owned Marlin, stopped playing in 95 for 10 years and had to start over, but I just bought a new steel, well, new to me and I'm waiting on it now. I'm 65, I want it and I deserve it. I've been patient, kids out of college and grown, wife happily retired and comfortable, so I'm getting a new one. Should you? Do you deserve it? Have you gotten everything there is to get out of the one you have? Maybe. In my openion you can change to much/to often though, especially early on. I think you have to be completely intimate (minds out of the gutter) with your instrument to get "that tone" or "that sound". To have it give itself up to you, so you can project your heart and soul through it by way of your music. That heart has to be caressed out of your steel. Does it happen every time, "Hell No", but life is good when it does. Now, I worry, will I be able to get it out of my new steel. I'll keep my old bar dinged and not so pretty Marlin close at hand, just in case I can't or it takes a while. Hard to give up a good friend for a new, younger and prettier one.
Been playing less then a few years and want a new steel, more thingies on it, wooden necks, aluminum necks, different pick up, more pedals, inlayed wooden body, 12/14 string, double neck, positrack, keyed, keyless, Push Pull/All Pull, Fuzzy, Muzzy, Fessy, Vintage, spanking new, by all means, get it. It might be the one to give it up for you. But then again...Sorry, just some thoughts. DS
Last edited by Dick Sexton on 7 Sep 2008 2:53 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Jeff Hyman
From:
West Virginia, USA
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Posted 7 Sep 2008 2:25 pm
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| Buying a PSG is like getting married, except divorce is more expensive. I'm happily married for 28 years, and still have my "The Professional" in a nice clean temperature regulated part of my house. Heck... I do the same for my wife. |
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Dick Sexton
From:
Greenville, Ohio
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Clyde Mattocks
From:
Kinston, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 7 Sep 2008 4:16 pm
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Hey Dick, you should have held on to that Cherokee. It probably would be worth at least $50.00 more than you paid for it!
_________________
LeGrande II, Nash. 112, Fender Twin Tone Master, Session 400, Harlow Dobro, R.Q.Jones Dobro |
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Dick Sexton
From:
Greenville, Ohio
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Posted 7 Sep 2008 5:54 pm Charokee!!
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| Hey Clyde, how you doing. Your right, but that's not why I wish I had it. Just something about the sound, loved it. It made a trip to Japan with me and never missed a lick, me on the other hand. Hope your doing well and things are good in NC. Still trying to get something cooking here. Keep in touch, DS |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 10 Sep 2008 6:18 pm
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| Quote: |
| I also can relate to chasing the Holy Grail. |
You mean that "special something" that no one has ever found?
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Brick Spieth
From:
San Jose, California, USA
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Posted 10 Sep 2008 6:22 pm
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| Yes, you know it's out there somewhere just waiting to be discovered. |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 10 Sep 2008 8:58 pm
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| brick...i'm with you. i tend to get something that works and hang on to it. it confounds me how many cases i've seen as you've stated. i think lots of people are nuts or insecure! |
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Ron Scott
From:
Michigan
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Posted 14 Sep 2008 7:40 pm
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I think buying a new steel would be great just for the simple reason that with new technology the way it is they can improve the way they play. I love my Franklin but if I could afford it I would buy another one too just for the reason I said above.I would keep my Franklin though..Never would think about selling it....Ron
_________________
Franklin D10 Stereo - 8 and 6 - Black Box-Zum Encore 4 and 5 Nashville 400,Session 400, DD3 for delay ,also Benado Effects pedal.
Steeling with Franklin's..and Zum Encore |
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