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I was out visiting one of the out of the way guitar shops today. Amongst a whole lot of nothing I saw these two. What do you think?


A real fixer upper. Have a feeling the neck was a little warped. Poles on neck pickup show signs of rust. Pickguard faded, dirty. Asking $150
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Action a bit too low - string buzz. Neck pickup not working - suspected wire loose. Missing toggle knob. Asking $180
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I'm tempted to buy the gretsch - it felt kind of nice. I don't know if anything can be done for the neck of the other one. It looked a bit like this:


That is, the low e was higher off the frets than the High e.

The first one is probably worth $150 at a stretch anyway, with a dodgy neck it's worth more like $15.

James wrote:The first one is probably worth $150 at a stretch anyway, with a dodgy neck it's worth more like $15.

What's the best way to tell? Is it looking at it from above the headstock with one eye closed? because that's what I did.

that doesn't necessarily mean the neck's warped.

i bought one of those gretsches as my first guitar about 5 years ago. i just sold it for £100 together with a boss ds1, which is roughly 200 US dollars. they're fairly solid guitars for the money, but a bit clunky to play in my opinion.

It looks the same as a stagg guitar with a different decal. there total arse really don't bother.

First guitar is fugly as hell. The second one would look better in a different color, possibly even a Fender custom color.

i just read what was wrong with that gretsch- don't fucking buy it at that price if one of the pickups doesn't work! if it was $50, maybe. and yes, the first guitar is just horrible.

A dead pickup should be an easy fix providing he knows his way around a soldering iron. Wouldn't bother me in the slightest. I'be bought quite a few badly wired guitars that needed attention and never had a minutes trouble with them after rewiring.

Neil wrote:A dead pickup should be an easy fix providing he knows his way around a soldering iron. Wouldn't bother me in the slightest. I'be bought quite a few badly wired guitars that needed attention and never had a minutes trouble with them after rewiring.

that guitar's barely worth $100 in full working order. it would bother me paying that much for something of that quality that didn't even work properly, soldering iron or not.

Both of those prices are with no haggling attempted, which is more than doable at that place.

Re the Synchromatic, I wouldn't walk out with it unless the guy fixed the wiring or gave a chunky discount. When I saw them at the start of the week I had a little money burning a hole in my pocket but a couple of days holiday changed that.
I think if I was really going to get another guitar in the near future I'd save up a few extra clams and get an Eastwood Stormbird.

offer to buy the pair at a big discount
or just one whatever---
if you want a project---- do it
if not save your dough for a better guitar
sometimes we buy things just to buy them and regret it