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Topic: The funny old world of the Stringmaster and Ebay... |
Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 15 Jul 2015 8:59 am |
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Over the last few days, most of the hardware from a Stringmaster Triple was up on Ebay - not including legs or sockets - and the parts went for over $1500 ($1558 by my calculation). I've not included the body in this calculation as only one original neck was up for sale.
I wonder how much less it would have gone for if the seller had taken the trouble to assemble it into a workable guitar (minus legs and case).
3 days ago, a completely original guitar, with case, in pretty good condition only fetched $1495 and in June one went for $1225.
I know that's the reality of the vintage market at the moment but thought you might be interested in those numbers. |
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Jim Williams
From:
Meridian, Mississippi, USA - Home of Peavey!
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Posted 15 Jul 2015 10:56 am
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I don't know...ebay sellers are nuts in most cases. Note the number of Mavericks listed for $1000 and over. I really don't know if anyone ever buys em or not. Heck, I might buy a Maverick for what is is actually worth.
_________________
GFI SM10 3/4, 1937 Gibson EH-150, 2 - Rondo SX Lap Steels and a Guyatone 6 String C6. Peavey 400 and a Roland 40 Amps. Behringer Reverb Pedal. |
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 15 Jul 2015 11:12 am
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| Jim Williams wrote: |
| I don't know...ebay sellers are nuts in most cases. Note the number of Mavericks listed for $1000 and over. I really don't know if anyone ever buys em or not. Heck, I might buy a Maverick for what is is actually worth. |
The prices I quoted were actual selling prices - not just what sellers were asking. |
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Cartwright Thompson
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Posted 15 Jul 2015 11:19 am
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The guy selling the Stringmaster parts wasn't nuts. He started them all low and let the market decide the final price. Some went for less than I've seen them go for in the past. I think the sellers mistake was to list them all at once, if he had doled them out one at a time he probably would've made more $$.
As Jeff pointed out, he didn't list legs or sockets, nor a case ( maybe he didn't have one). These items would have added several hundred dollars to the total.
I think we can safely say that these days, a Stringmaster is worth less than the sum of its parts. From my experience, the same is true with Bakelite Rickenbachers.
For those of you trying to sell your beautiful Stringmasters, get out your screw drivers and have at it! |
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Keith Barron
From:
British Columbia, Canada
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Posted 15 Jul 2015 5:23 pm
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| Maybe it's just me, and to each their own, but I kind of frown little when I hear of people parting out vintage. Parting out, because it's worth more than selling the whole unit. I don't know why I don't like it. I guess deep down I want to preserve any vintage Fender gear. In reality I suppose, for owners who need to fix up their originals, they need parts. Original parts. Where else are they going to come from? It just seems shameful to rip apart a 51 Pro Deluxe 8, or whatever. The increased monetary value when parting out, is irrelevant to me I guess. It's just me. |
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Steve Marinak
From:
Man O War Cay, Abaco, Bahamas
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Posted 15 Jul 2015 5:54 pm
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same holds true for cars...parting out will typically yield more dollars.
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Steve Marinak |
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Mike Spieth
From:
Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Posted 15 Jul 2015 7:17 pm
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It's impossible to know the intent of all the buyers, but like organ donation, the one guitar pulled apart might save a few others  |
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Stephen Cowell
From:
Round Rock, Texas, USA
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Posted 16 Jul 2015 10:37 pm
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Looks like an opportunity to me... the pickups are already repro'd... time for the rest of it to be.
It should be easy to CNC something that would take the place of the tuner ash-tray... maybe even create something keyless that bolts in. Re-creating the bridge plate and bridge is no big deal... it's just the chrome that costs the money. Legs and sockets are already repopped too.
_________________
New FB Page: Lap Steel Licks And Stuff: https://www.facebook.com/groups/195394851800329 |
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Cartwright Thompson
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Posted 17 Jul 2015 1:48 am
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| Pickup covers on a 3D printer? |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 24 Jul 2015 5:32 pm
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I think there is a HUGE stock of really good, fine-playing and fine-sounding guitars out there, and this is especially true with non-pedal steel guitars. Is the wood warped? Are parts broken? Do the pickups pick up and the tuners tune... but any semblance of such practicality is so hopelessly mashed together with the "antiques market" and "historical significance" and sentimentality and financial speculation, isn't it unlikely to make sense in only single one of any of those categories?
Steels may actually hew a little closer to earth orbit... Consider a 1954 Stratocaster! The neck radius is 7.5", you CAN'T play whole step bends without fretting out on the tiny banjo frets (or RE-fretting, shhh!), the authentic vintage Kluson tuners were kinda lowlife compared to a $20 set of modern Pings, there's no tone control on the bridge pickup because Leo Fender was partially deaf in the high frequencies and he spec'd it HIS way; if it's still really, genuinely got the original finish on it, it won't have much of it.  If there's a short in it but the broken soldering globs are ORIGINAL shorted-out broken globs it's still worth far more than if it's been ruined into working correctly again. Basically, if it works right it's either ruined or it's fake. Steel owners are really somewhat the lucky ones here; since the prices aren't so grievously-inflated to begin with, you just can't lose as much by restoring it to playability again.
Like, I was just looking at that lovely little D-8 Supro and wondering, WHO were they aiming at in 1958? Country players were all Fender, Bigsby, Rickenbacker consoles except, wasn't it Don Helms playing the Gibson? The Hawaiian door-to-door thing was long gone by then, David Lindley and Jimmy page were in, like, 3rd grade or something |
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