RSS

Archive for February, 2014

Economics or Happiness (You Decide)

Thursday, February 20th, 2014

A would be client of mine (and a friend, although I’ve never sold him a guitar and never met him in person-the internet is a funny place) called me up to ask about a particular ’59 ES-335 he was thinking about buying. It had tons of issues-extra holes under the guard, removed Bigsby, heavy wear and probably BO. But he really liked it and was very concerned about overpaying for it. Nobody likes to overpay for anything but there is a limit, I think. Most vintage buyers have a pretty good idea about what a no issue guitar of a particular type should sell for-although I can think of a few dealers who take the term “should” to whole new levels. But we’ll leave that alone. What bogs so many buyers down is when they find a guitar they like-they like the way it plays, they like the way it sounds and they like the way it looks (and you can’t see under the guard anyway) but they hesitate. They want to know what each hole, each crack, each parts swap does to the resale value. I understand the desire to do this but you really can’t. If you assign a value to each issue, each hole and a value to each changed part, eventually someone will have to pay you to take the guitar off their hands. It’s a little like the reverse of building a car from parts-it’ll cost you ten times the cost of buying the already built car. The general rule about a refinished guitar is that it’s worth 50% of the value of an original. The general rule about a headstock break is the same. So, what if somebody has a 59 dot neck with a broken neck and a refinish for sale? Is it worth 25% of the value of a no issue one? And what if it has a Bigsby-that’s another 15-25% off. And maybe a few filled holes at $1000 each off. I’m not going to do the math (although I could) but you get the idea. There are diminishing returns here. In situations where I’m dealing with a severely impacted guitar, I often work backwards. If the PAFs are intact, that’s $3500 or so. Original parts can add up pretty quickly and even a refinished and repaired headstock husk has “old wood” value.

Pretty nice 61 dot neck, right? Look at the next photo to see why it was a $6500 61 dot neck.

Pretty nice 61 dot neck, right? Look at the next photo to see why it was a $6500 61 dot neck.

 

Yikes. That's pretty horrible. Same guitar as above

Yikes. That’s pretty horrible. Same guitar as above

About 2 years ago, I bought a 61 dot neck that had a headstock break and a Bigsby (and Grovers and a fair amount of wear). I sold it for around $7000 and made a modest profit. It was a decent sounding, decent playing guitar with a terrible repair-it was solid but really ugly and the front of the headstock was poorly re-veneered and painted with no inlay. Pretty cheap for a dot neck-the PAFs and the bridge were worth almost that much. Then the buyer did something sort of miraculous. He did something I almost never consider doing (because it’s usually a bad business decision). He made it into a project. He had a local luthier make a new neck for it using the original binding, fingerboard, inlays and truss rod. And he made a big ol’ 59 sized neck and the repair was just stellar. This was not a small investment either-close to $4000. So now it’s a renecked Bigsby ’61 instead of broken headstock 61 and his investment is around $11K. Is he nuts? I would have said yes at first look-at least from an economics standpoint. A reneck is still considered to be half the value of an original so, in theory, it was worth exactly the same as it was before $4000 worth of work. Except that it wasn’t. It looked perfect, it played beautifully and it now had the neck that everybody wants. When it came up for sale, I hesitated. can it really be worth that much? I remembered how good it sounded even with its broken neck and bought it back. It was a wonderful guitar-good enough to keep (if I didn’t already have a 58). With 59 dot necks well over $30,000 and approaching $40K or more, maybe this was an opportunity for someone to get a big old neck dot for well under half the price of a 59. I listed it at $14500 and had five potential buyers within a day. Four of the five were questioning my pricing and asking me to justify how a renecked 61 could sell for that much. My explanation was that if you want a dot neck with a big neck and you can’t afford a 58 or 59, you can buy a reissue or you can buy one with issues. A smart buyer saved a wad of cash over the cost of a 59. Was it a good investment? Well, the buyer traded it back to me months later for a big neck early 60 and I put it up again for the same price. Gone in a day, again.  The way I see it,  if you can get the guitar of your dreams for a price you are comfortable with that plays and sounds just like you want it to, the smart thing to do is damn the torpedoes and buy it.

And here it is re-necked, stop tailed and ready to rock.

And here it is re-necked, stop tailed and ready to rock.

Neck and Neck

Thursday, February 13th, 2014

 

The main reason that the neck profiles are so variable is that they are shaped by hand. As you can see in this photo from the Gibson site, they still are (at least in the Custom shop)

The main reason that the neck profiles are so variable is that they were shaped by hand. As you can see in this photo from the Gibson site, they still are (at least in the Custom shop)

What’s the most often heard request I get?—“I want a 59 (size) neck.” Neck sizes are trendy things. Back in the mid 60’s the trend was for “fast” necks-narrow at the nut  and slim from front to back. You can probably thank Leo Fender for that as Gibson was chasing Leo and followed, when necessary, the leader. The necks at Gibson were still finished by hand so there is bound to be some variation within any given era. That said, we tend to describe ES necks by a year designation. To most of us a 58 neck is big and round from one end to the other, a 59 is also big with a bit more shoulder and widening and deepening going toward the 12th fret. A 60 is wide and flat with almost no taper, as is a 61 and a 62. Most of us perceive a 63 and a 64 as medium chunky with some shoulder and a considerable increase in size going up. That’s a fairly good generalization but it isn’t really all that accurate. It may be accurate for the majority of the ES guitars for those years but it may not be accurate for the one you just bought and that’s the one that counts.

Let’s look at the range for each year as I’ve seen them. 1958: These are pretty big and pretty consistent. I’ve measured perhaps 6 or 7 of them and the measurement at the first fret from the board to the middle of the back is .88″-.90″. By the time you reach the 12th, it’s around .98 which is not much of a taper. 1959: Here’s where it gets really tricky. The range at the first fret in 59 is from around .83″ to over .90″ that’s a big range. Most get pretty big by the 12th fret -a full inch or slightly more. But here’s the problem. They are all over the place. It’s not like you can say that a particular serial number range is going to have a particular neck. It just isn’t so, although the earlier the serial, the more likely you are to get a big neck. Anything in the A28xxx range to A30000 will probably have a big neck but there are no guarantees.  After that, it’s a even more of a crapshoot. For example A30906 (which was my red one) has what I think is a perfect neck. It was, I believe, around .87 at the first and 1.00″ at the 12th. I currently have A31348 with a neck measurement of around .83″ at the first fret and .94″ at the 12th. That’s a nice neck but it isn’t  a size most of us would associate with a 59. I’ve always called that size a “transitional” neck but that one is pretty early-probably early October. I expect that neck in the A31800-A32285 range in 59 and on into 1960 for another 800 or 900 serial numbers. But that’s not consistent either.

1960-1962: It’s a pretty good bet that the neck is going to be pretty flat and stay that way. With the exception of the early 60, you are likely to find some consistency here in that none of them will be particularly large, They will be wide (1 11/16″ more or less) at the nut but the first fret measurement is going to be from .79″ which is blade thin up to around .82″ which is still thin but not glaringly so. I’ve had a number of 61’s that were so thin that there is almost no wood between the truss rod and the back of the neck. You should look out for cracks (and back bows) in these thinnest of necks. The crack is usually from an overtightened truss rod and the back bow is because there just isn’t much wood to counter the string tension and folks keep tightening the truss to compensate until there’s no more range. Then somebody takes the strings off and boinng, you have a back bow. By the time you hit the 12th fret on these, the neck hasn’t gained much heft, Measurements of .87″ are common. As you get into later 62 and into 63, the really thin necks disappear and something like .82″ at the first fret is pretty common.

1963-1964: By mid 63, the necks have gotten pretty big again-even if the first fret  measurements don’t entirely bear this out, there is so much more shoulder in many cases that the neck feels pretty chunky. I’ve played 64’s that measure only .82″ at the first fret that feel huge. That’s the shoulder-a rounder profile as opposed to a flatter one. The range from mid 63 to early 65 seems to be from around .82″ to around .86″ at the first fret which many folks feel is the best of the Gibson neck carves for a 335. I like them myself. And don’t go by the contemporary Gibson “59” and “63” reissue profiles. The 59 has a ton of shoulder- much more than a real 59 and the 63 is more like an early 62-at least that’s how they felt to me last time I played one (2012 or so).

These is pretty general stuff and there are going to be exceptions all over the place. If you are very particular about neck size, ask a lot of questions or better still buy from someone who will take the guitar  back if you don’t bond with the neck. Playing the guitar before you buy it isn’t always possible, so go into your deal with a little knowledge. Most of us are pretty adaptable but if you’re spending the kind of money these guitars go for, shouldn’t you have the neck you really want?

The '59 on top measures .89" at the first fret while the '62 below measures .82" which is actually pretty big for a 62. 7/100 of an inch doesn't sound like a lot but it sure looks like a big difference. And it is.

The ’59 on top measures .89″ at the first fret while the ’62 below measures .82″ which is actually pretty big for a 62. 7/100 of an inch doesn’t sound like a lot but it sure looks like a big difference. And it is.

 

Same two guitars at the 10-12th fret. The 59 measures 1.02" which is a lot of neck. The 62 is only .88" . I find both pretty easy to play and I have small hands. I play equally badly on a 62 and a 59.

Same two guitars at the 10-12th fret. The 59 measures 1.02″ which is a lot of neck. The 62 is only .88″ . I find both pretty easy to play and I have small hands. I play equally badly on a 62 and a 59.

 

 

Fifty Years Ago Today, Part 3

Monday, February 10th, 2014

 

Peter Frampton on a 64 335 along with the very talented Steve Lukather.

Peter Frampton on a 64 335 along with the very talented Steve Lukather.

Adam Levine on a 63 or 64 335.

Adam Levine on what looks like a 63/64 335. Could be a reissue judging from where I’m sitting but maybe not. Wrong tuners but, really, who cares.

Rusty put down the blonde 59 'cuz he needed a whammy and this 59 or 60 ES-355 seemed to do it. Knock of $1000 for the missing pickup cover.

Rusty put down the blonde 59 ‘cuz he needed a whammy and this 59 or 60 ES-355 mono seemed to do it. Knock off $1000 for the missing pickup cover.

There wasn’t going to be a part 3, actually but I feel compelled to write a little more – mostly about the CBS “Tribute” Show that aired last night (Sunday Feb 9). If nothing else, it certainly was an ES fest. Without going back through the show, I would say more ES guitars showed up on stage than any other. Adam Levine on what looked like a 63/64 block, Dave Grohl on the blue Trini, Peter Frampton playing a red 64, Rusty Anderson on his blonde dot neck and what looked like a 59 or 60 ES-355. But the show wasn’t about guitars, although some very fine playing was in evidence. There was also a big dose of nostalgia (always fun), some really dopey choices (c’mon, circus acts up in the air?), unforgivable overproduction and way too many shots of Tom Hanks and Mrs. Hanks. And Yoko Ono but at least she’s part of the family. I always wonder who you have to know to get tickets to events like this or for the Sullivan Show in 1964. When they interviewed some of the “girls” from the 1964 audience, one was named Sarnoff. What a surprise -David Sarnoff owned RCA and NBC (I know-it was on CBS but connections are connections). Sir Paul generally puts on a good show and he was in great form although at his age some of the high notes, as Ringo would say, don’t come easy. Ringo was just wonderful. Same old Ringo having fun and being fun to watch. I should look that good at the age of 73.

As far as the acts went, it was a pretty mixed bag. I’m neither a TV critic nor a music critic although I’m probably a lot more qualified to critique the program as television-40 years as an editor gives me that right. As television, the show was kind of a mess but a fun mess. I enjoyed the Letterman interviews in the Ed Sullivan Theatre (where I worked for almost 20 years). As music, it certainly had its great moments. As something of a Beatles aficionado, I don’t like covers of Beatle songs and I really don’t like “interpretations” of them. As talented as Stevie Wonder is, I didn’t think “We Can Work it Out” was anything more than Stevie does his version of a Beatles tune. Fair enough. The other end of the spectrum, I suppose, was Maroon 5 doing All My Loving. It sounded very Beatles like and I would be happy if my Beatles cover band could do it that well. But there were moments that soared (and not necessarily the ones the real critics are wetting their pants over) and some that landed with a thud. Sorry, Annie Lennox’ “Fool” didn’t do it for me nor did John Legend and Alicia Keys’ “Let it Be” although they all have wonderful voices. I thought seeing Dhani Harrison (hello, Mr Director, there’s a third guy on the stage-how about including him) doing “Something” along with Joe Walsh and Jeff Lynne was quite moving. He looks so much like George, it’s scary. The singing hats doing “Here Comes the Sun” was simply dull. Katy Perry? Don’t get me started. John Mayer and Keith Urban’s guitar pyrotechnics on “Don’t Let Me Down” were impressive but out of character here. So, what did I like? “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was fab with Joe Walsh, Gary Clark, Jr and Dave Grohl just tearing it up out there. But the high point for me (and probably very few others) of the non Beatles performances was “Hey Bulldog.” There’s a vibe to a Beatles song-it’s not always the same vibe but if you can capture it, it almost doesn’t matter who is performing. The essence of the song was there.  Dave Grohl and Jeff Lynne (and the piano player who was just great) were having a ball out there and the spirit of John was alive and kicking on the stage. Steve Lukather nailed the guitar break but the director totally missed it. Despite that, it was magic.

When it was time for real Beatles, there were some great moments-“Sgt Pepper” being performed live with French horns was wonderful and you knew the famous Ringo was coming out next the moment they started the song. Loved it. The first two numbers “Birthday” and “Get Back” showed us that Paul can still hit the high notes but not without a fight. His band, especially his very hard working drummer, were tight as ever (love the black SG that Brian Ray was playing). Finally, “Hey Jude” was the appropriate closer and everybody looked appropriately exhausted by the time it was over. Even Tom Hanks.

Dave Grohl, who stood out as the guy having the most fun-in the audience, behind the drums and playing guitar. Jeff Lynne didn't look like he was having that much fun but "Hey Bulldog" was the highlight for me. Nice Trini, Dave but not as nice as the one I offered you two years ago.

Dave Grohl stood out as the guy having the most fun-in the audience, behind the drums and playing guitar. Jeff Lynne didn’t look like he was having that much fun but “Hey Bulldog” was the highlight for me. Nice Trini, Dave but not as nice as the one I offered you three years ago.

Fifty Years Ago Today, Part 2

Saturday, February 8th, 2014
This photo was taken February 7 at newly renamed JFK Airport. It's important to have a childhood hero. I had four of them.

This photo was taken February 7 at newly renamed JFK Airport. It’s important to have a childhood hero. I had four of them.

February 9, 1964 marks the beginning of a lot of things. In no particular order: The British Invasion, The “Guitar Boom”, The “Garage Band”, Long hair on men, maybe even “The 60’s” as we know them. But this is about the event, not the effects, vast as they are. The Gelber boys were supposed to be in bed before 9 on a school night but not on this night. We were all (at least those of us older than 5) crowded around the big old GE in the basement playroom to catch our first glimpse of John, Paul, George and Ringo. I had the old Wollensak rolling and off we went into history. …”close your eyes and I’ll kiss you, tomorrow I’ll miss you”…no intro, no lead in-the absolute perfect opening number and still a great tune 50 years later. I couldn’t have been more than a foot from the screen, trying to catch as much detail as possible. I knew,at that very moment,that I needed an electric guitar and I strained to read the brand name on Lennon’s headstock. It looked like Rickenbacker to me (I remember commenting …”wasn’t he some kind of WW1 flying ace or something?”). I spoke with my brother Brian the other day and asked him what he remembered. He is two years younger than I am so he was 9. He said he recalled our father commenting -saying something like “how can you listen to this stuff (he probably said crap) but you get the idea. That seems odd since the second song was ‘Til There was You” which is from “The Music Man” and my Dad loved Broadway show tunes and I’m pretty sure he had the original cast recording of it. “She Loves You” followed and then they went to commercial. A bunch of typical Sullivan dog and pony acts followed and, at the end of the show, The Beatles came back and finished strong with “I Saw Her Standing There” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

The show was a turning point for so many of us. Before that I merely listened to music. From then on, I wanted to make it. I took up the guitar almost immediately thereafter, bugging my father to get me a guitar-any guitar. He came home with a Kay flattop that I’m pretty sure he bought for $15.95 at Woolworths. I took lessons and, as everyone says, practiced ’til my fingers bled. Actually, with that guitar, it only took about 10 minutes of playing until that occurred. Sure we all had an idea of what we wanted to be when we grew up-astronaut, big league ballplayer, doctor (like my Dad) or some other mainstream profession. Rock star had never entered our collective consciousness until that moment. Suddenly, every kid in America wanted to be John. Or Paul. Or George or Ringo. Imagine…to have the talent, the adulation…the GIRLS. I was 11-what did I know about girls? Not much but I wanted them to be screaming for me.

I worked pretty hard for the next 6 or 7 years becoming a decent player (for a teenager, anyway) and playing in bands all through middle school, high school and into college. We gigged regularly and were considered pretty good in our little village of Scotia. I played dances and sock hops at 14, bars at 16, frat parties at 17 at Union College in Schenectady and was supposed to be the opening act for The Hollies in ’68 or ’69 (it never happened but that’s another, longer story). By the time I had finished college in 1973, I was on to a different career having realized that just being an average guitar player and backup singer wasn’t going to make a career for me. I sold off the gear, keeping just my Martin D-28 and barely picked up a guitar for the next 15 years. I never stopped listening to The Beatles though. In 1987 when my son was born, I picked up the guitar again (to entertain/distract a baby more than anything) and haven’t put it down since. I can play at least 80% of The Beatles catalog from memory and know the lyrics to virtually every song even the obscure ones like “Not Guilty” and “That Means a Lot”. Is that a waste of brain cells? Well, no, except maybe “Mr. Moonlight”. After all, I’ve got another 2000 songs in my head-many of which I don’t even like.  The Beatles have made my life better for 50 years and, especially now that I occasionally play in a Beatles cover band, continue to do so.

This is me with my first ES-a 63 ES330.

This is the earliest photo I could find of me with a guitar. It was the Summer of 67 at the Ridgewood Swim Club in Glenville, NY. I was 15 and playing a 330. Note the sideburns-pretty good for a 15 year old. That’s Mark Cerasano playing the plastic Hagstrom bass. If not for JPG&R, I wouldn’t be there then doing that or here now doing this.

Fifty Years Ago Today: Part 1

Monday, February 3rd, 2014

 

This was what it looked like from inside the Ed Sullivan Theatre on February 9, 1964. Of course it was in color if you were actually there but most of us saw it in glorious black and white.

This was what it looked like from inside the Ed Sullivan Theatre on February 9, 1964. Of course it was in color if you were actually there but most of us saw it in glorious black and white.

It was December of 1963 in Scotia, NY. Where? Scotia, where I grew up, is a little village across the Mohawk River from the industrial city of Schenectady-home of General Electric and, formerly, The American Locomotive Company (“The city that lights and hauls the world”). I’d call it a sleepy little village but it really wasn’t–it was more tired than sleepy.  It was less than a month since President Kennedy’s assassination and the national mood was decidedly grim. But we were kids and politics and presidents

The eight Gelber boys lived here in 1963 (yes, that's a pink house) and we were in the basement that night watching Ed Sullivan.

The eight Gelber boys lived here in 1963 (yes, that’s a pink house) and we were in the basement that night watching Ed Sullivan.

took a back seat to the coming holidays and snow days. There were eight of  us then (all brothers) the youngest was four  and the oldest was 15. That’s if you don’t count my brother Steve who was still 5 months from being born. My number two brother, Bob, always had a radio playing. It was a brown plastic thing with a three inch speaker that only got AM. It had a volume control and a tuner. I don’t think it had an on/off switch because it was never off. There was no rock or pop FM back then and AM “Top Forty” was what you listened to.  WPTR (fifty thousand watts of music power!), one of the three local AM Radio stations in the area, had put three or four songs in its rotation by some British group that was apparently getting a fair amount of attention in the UK.  I’m pretty sure I heard “I Want to Hold Your Hand” first and I was hooked. My taste has always run toward artists with big vocals and harmonies and the Beatles certainly had that. It was just so different. It wasn’t just the great melodic hooks and tight, tight vocals… it sounded, I don’t know, modern (gear, fab).  Keep in mind I was 11 years old and I wasn’t exactly a musical sophisticate but here I am 50 years later still listening to them and playing their music. I remember introducing my son to them when he was three or four. I told him that two hundred fifty  years ago there was a composer named Mozart who was so good that people still play his music today. I believe that the Beatles will still be popular in another 200 years. The first fifty years were a piece of cake. But in December of ’63, the term “Beatlemania” didn’t exist in this country. It would be another 6 weeks before that would occur. It was, of course, a very different world in 1963. If something big was on the horizon you learned about it slowly. From TV, magazines and newspapers. News traveled slowly and the hype for the Beatles started weeks in advance of the actual event. The “event” is, of course, The Beatles appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” It was Sunday night and Ed Sullivan wasn’t really on our list of must see TV at the time. First of all, it was a school night and second, we were supposed to be in bed by 8 and Ed was on from 8 to 9. The TV, a big black and white GE, was in the basement playroom – no TV (and no food) in the living room in our house. Mom’s rules. I hooked up my fathers reel to reel Wollensak tape recorder to preserve the occasion although thinking I could get my brothers to shut up during the performance was a fools errand. I don’t know where the tape is now (or the Wollensak) but I remember the night like it was yesterday (I feel a song coming on). So, imagine the scene. Ben, Bob, Frank, Charlie, Brian and probably Mike draped over the big Barcalounger and on the floor glued to the fuzzy image from Channel 10, the then CBS affiliate in Albany. My younger brother, Brian, says our Dad was watching too making comments like “how can you listen to this crap.” I don’t recall that but I do remember him saying that more than once. More than a hundred times but who’s counting. A Norman Rockwell moment if ever there was one. Next…the really big show.

I was armed and ready to record the event for posterity on my Dad's Wollensak.

I was armed and ready to record the event for posterity on my Dad’s Wollensak.