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Author Topic:  Why the rise in parting out non pedals
Michael Lee Allen

 

From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
Post  Posted 19 Apr 2017 9:10 am    
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"Insanely overpriced" steels are just that. Insanely overpriced. Asking and getting are two different things. Those steels do not sell. they get relisted over and over, sometimes on a different "platform", sometimes they are off the market and come back, sometimes the "sellers" just give up. The thing is they do not sell. There used to be one guy on eBay regularly parting out steels. Monkey see-monkey do. Now there's four of them. All clueless. See the high prices and smell a profit. Not that they can know what actually happens. On eBay you can check "completed listings" to get an idea of what happened, on other sites no way to find out anything. Sell one or maybe two parts right away and get some cash in, but be stuck with the rest of it for years? Kind of stupid. And stupid can't be fixed.
Now I actually have a dead steel. It was in a flooded basement along with it's amp. The amp can probably be saved but it's wood cabinet will need a lot of work. It's a long term project that's on the back burner. The steel is shot. Been air drying for a couple weeks and is still wet and has multiple splits. I just bought a guitar that was missing the original knobs which were identical to the steel, the steel's knobs became donors yesterday. It's pickup and wiring harness are garbage at this point. Probably sell for next to nothing on eBay to some guy who wants to experiment with rewinding. The nut, bridge and fingerboard are useable. the tuners are pulled and soaking. The case is garbage but every piece of metal on it, hinges, tacks, and screws will be pulled and cleaned for reuse. The instrument is simply not worth the time and cost to restore. I wouldn't have even bothered with it except that it was part of a very big package deal. Not that it matters but it's a 1930's Epiphone Electar Century and you can buy a new and decent remake with a gig bag for $250.00. If it had been a functional instrument I would have kept it that way and offered it intact. So every once in a while a basket case shows up that has some value as parts but isn't worth fixing. What's going to happen with all four of those ebay sellers is they will each end up with a big box full of ZipLoc bags filled with overpriced steel parts that won't sell and a pile of stripped bodies in their garage or basement that will take up space for years to come. These guys are all working against each other and "glutting" a tiny market. You can't fix stupid.
MLA
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Daniel McKee

 

From:
Corinth Mississippi
Post  Posted 19 Apr 2017 6:46 pm    
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Well said. I'm all for salvage in a case like yours where most of the guitar was flooded and I think its great to see someone do what your doing and salvage as much as possible. I just cannot imagine taking a fully intact, likely very much working condition instrument and taking it apart. I've had a few low end lap steels that probably weren't worth much but I've always tried to fix them and get them to a good home rather than part anything out. I guess the steel guitar community is just small and people don't see the importance in them that we all do.
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Daniel McKee

 

From:
Corinth Mississippi
Post  Posted 21 Apr 2017 3:17 pm    
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I'm sure some of you have noticed but now I'm seeing parted out Fender pedal steels on ebay. Where does it end.
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 21 Apr 2017 5:15 pm    
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Quote:
...now I'm seeing parted out Fender pedal steels on ebay. Where does it end.


It's the same guy... michael_atw. Now he's also scavenging Fender pedal steels. The last time I checked (last week) he was running over 350 auctions on eBay for guitar parts. 150 of of his auctions were for steel guitar parts. No complete steel guitars, just the parts. What amazes me is his total lack of shame. You'd think he would be embarrassed to list... a triple neck body, three sets of pickups, three sets of tuners, four legs, a case, and a control plate, all at the same time, sepatate auctions. It's obvious that he's tearing apart complete guitars. No shame there. That blows my mind. I know it's his property and he can do what he wants with it, but it just seems so cynical and disrespectful. Just my opinion FWIW.
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Daniel McKee

 

From:
Corinth Mississippi
Post  Posted 21 Apr 2017 7:10 pm    
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I agree, and I too realize its his stuff to do whatever he wants with but wow just tearing apart good guitars. I didn't check to see if he had the parts but there is a 4 neck fender in the mix somewhere (if its the same seller) which was a body only but I'm sure it was stripped of the parts like the rest before listing. I really wish I had the money to buy these and put them back together. I really hate seeing this done to such wonderful instruments.
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William Rasch

 

From:
Vermont, USA
Post  Posted 22 Apr 2017 3:37 am    
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I sent him a message on ebay on his practice and well I won't list the response I got
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K Maul


From:
Hadley, NY/Hobe Sound, FL
Post  Posted 22 Apr 2017 7:48 am    
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I sold that guy a beat up,road scarred but fairly viable Stringmaster. I packed it well but misjudged what I did inside the case and a couple legs came loose. He sent me a pretty nasty note about it. I offered compensation, got no response and he dissed me big time in eBay feedback. The legs apparently bent a couple tuners,which were already bent and not working great,which I noted in my product description. He is selling them anyway,looks like. I didn't know he was buying to strip it....Oh well.
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 22 Apr 2017 8:37 am    
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Right now he's running 142 auctions for steel guitar parts. About 15 of the auctions are Fender steel guitar bodies only. Sad
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Daniel McKee

 

From:
Corinth Mississippi
Post  Posted 22 Apr 2017 3:10 pm    
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WOW, that's a lot of steels that have been stripped for parts. That's really scary. I hope this doesn't get out of hand and lots of people start stripping steels for parts. I mean it has already turned into stripping fender pedal steels so who says it will stop there.
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Jeff Mead


From:
London, England
Post  Posted 22 Apr 2017 4:06 pm    
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Daniel McKee wrote:
WOW, that's a lot of steels that have been stripped for parts. That's really scary. I hope this doesn't get out of hand and lots of people start stripping steels for parts. I mean it has already turned into stripping fender pedal steels so who says it will stop there.


It's got to the point where it's hard to imagine that there are enough people needing parts to make stripping all these guitars viable. People can't possibly be buying whole guitars in bits as that is more expensive than buying a whole one.
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 22 Apr 2017 4:59 pm    
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I agree, Jeff. I think this guy is going to end up with a houseful of parts he can't sell at the price he'd like to. And he must have paid quite a bit to acquire these guitars. He's driving prices down by listing multiple auctions for the same items... 3 Fender Champ bodies, 3 identical tuner pans, several identical pickups. Prospective buyers no longer see these parts as rare and will not pay high prices. And they will not get into bidding wars for the parts. Let's hope he quits soon.
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Daniel McKee

 

From:
Corinth Mississippi
Post  Posted 22 Apr 2017 9:13 pm    
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Yea I hope it ends soon too. I'm not super good with ebay so you guys might can answer this better than If I tried my hand at sorting this myself but say I were to be interested in one of the bodies and wanted to buy its parts, how hard would it be for me to get the body and at least correct parts together and price wise would it even be a reasonable task? Probably a dumb idea but Im tempted to give it a try. I just cant stand these guitars being torn apart like that.
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Jeff Mead


From:
London, England
Post  Posted 23 Apr 2017 12:13 am    
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Daniel McKee wrote:
Yea I hope it ends soon too. I'm not super good with ebay so you guys might can answer this better than If I tried my hand at sorting this myself but say I were to be interested in one of the bodies and wanted to buy its parts, how hard would it be for me to get the body and at least correct parts together and price wise would it even be a reasonable task? Probably a dumb idea but Im tempted to give it a try. I just cant stand these guitars being torn apart like that.


It wouldn't be hard to do but it would cost you way more than if you just bought a complete guitar. And you'd just be giving him the money to buy another one (or two) to part out.
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Daniel McKee

 

From:
Corinth Mississippi
Post  Posted 23 Apr 2017 1:12 am    
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After doing some browsing the various items on the sellers page I see what you mean. It would get expensive very quick. Very true, I don't wanna fund another hacked up guitar.
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Jeff Mead


From:
London, England
Post  Posted 23 Apr 2017 2:08 am    
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Looking through the sold listings, it looks like he's accepted quite a few "Best Offers" so it's hard to gauge exactly how much the parts have been selling for.

When I totted it up on a big batch of parts that went up about a year ago, it came to about $500 per neck for the hardware (not including the legs, leg sockets, bodies themselves or a case). At that time two complete triple necks went for $1300 and $1100 and a quad for $1500.

BTW, this was based on auction prices, not But It Now sales.


Last edited by Jeff Mead on 23 Apr 2017 7:55 am; edited 2 times in total
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Bill Sinclair


From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
Post  Posted 23 Apr 2017 6:36 am    
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Doug Beaumier wrote:
I agree, Jeff. I think this guy is going to end up with a houseful of parts he can't sell at the price he'd like to. And he must have paid quite a bit to acquire these guitars..... Let's hope he quits soon.


Maybe the guy just has a vendetta against steel guitars, or steel guitar players, or Hankaroo (who used to be the guy parting out steels on ebay)? Rolling Eyes Obviously, calling him out on it is pointless so hopefully his business model will collapse. I just hope that he and others of his ilk don't start hanging out here to snap up the guitars being offered to actual players.
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Jack Hanson


From:
San Luis Valley, USA
Post  Posted 23 Apr 2017 7:52 am    
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William Rasch wrote:
I sent him a message on ebay on his practice and well I won't list the response I got

I once sent him a message to ask if he'd be willing to sell the aluminum foil in the pickup cavity of one of his Deluxe 6 bodies separately; you can imagine his response.
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 23 Apr 2017 9:15 am    
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Here's his business model: Tear apart old Fender lap steels and list the pickups on eBay as 1950s Telecaster pickups, for $609.99 each. And then list a bunch of empy Fender bodies for sale. And Telecaster control knobs for $125.00, and 1950s Telecaster pots... you get the idea.



If you want to seach only the items that a certain seller has listed on eBay, go to one of his auctions and click on "see other items". When you get to that page, enter the words "steel guitar" in the search bar. This guy currently has 142 auctions for steel guitar parts.
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Daniel McKee

 

From:
Corinth Mississippi
Post  Posted 23 Apr 2017 5:10 pm    
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Thanks Doug, I finally figured out how to search the other listings. I did inquire about if he had the parts to that fender quad and he replied that he did have most of the parts but after looking at those prices, yikes I see what you guys mean. One can buy a complete fully functioning instrument for much less than putting one of those back together. In case any of you wondered though, on the Fender quad he has all the pickups, He said most of the hardware but didn't mention if the tuner pans were still around or if it had legs or a case. I did see a Fender 4 neck case in his listings somewhere so I assume that was it. Ok so I have another question, I get the whole 6 string pickup thing for electric guitars but is there any purpose in parting out 8 string steels? other than just for their tone pots, knobs?
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Jim Sliff


From:
Lawndale California, USA
Post  Posted 4 May 2017 3:06 pm    
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Long thread - I admit I did not read all of it but wanted to add my two-cents.

There are several levels of "problems" with the "parting out" of vintage guitars.

Some sellers are parting out guitars of any brand they can get hold of - and I know for a fact at least two current sellers are buying perfectly good instruments in playable condition (and good_ to excellent cosmetic condition) .

"Parting out" removes a vintage instrument from the planet permanently. There are a finite number of these in existence. To reputable vintage dealers (and buyers) this is criminal.

Worse yet - many of these parts - especially Fender 6-string parts - are purchased for the purpose of creating a complete "100% original vintage guitar" using parts from several. This is fraud.

Fender steel parts, while not from "revered vintage guitars" still take what are a very limited number of working instruments out of circulation. At least one excellent condition long scale Fender 400 was purchased from a seller who thought the buyer was going to *play* it - and parted out. Profit on steel parts may be very low, but they serve to support the operation.

The sad fact is there are more fraudulent "Vintage Fender Guitars" being sold today than real ones! It is very, very difficult to recognize a "parts" guitar assembled by a skilled counterfeit builder. These crooks will buy parts from eBay sellers (that either came from complete or partial guitars stripped for parts sale) and sell a counterfeit for 5-10x their investment ...or more.

The eBay seller parting out these guitars are the first step in a wide, fraudulent market. Buying anything from them, regardless of the reason or guitar type, is helping support fraudulent activity.
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 4 May 2017 4:05 pm    
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Good point, Jim. The guy selling these old pickups for $600 each does tell buyers that the pickups came from a Fender lap steel... but the guy who buys one of these pickups and installs it into his 1950s Telecaster or Esquire will likely Not tell the next buyer than the pickup is not original to the guitar. It would be "period correct", but not original.


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John Dahms

 

From:
Perkasie, Pennsylvania, USA
Post  Posted 4 May 2017 4:36 pm    
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I can't even look at the parts ads that have been showing up. It upsets me more than I want to be.
While you can substitute Telecaster lead pickups and Champion steel guitar pickups while they are not identical. The leads exit out the bottom on a Tele and out the top on Champion pickups. The fibre base plate has 3 mounting screws and only 2 on the steel.
My pet peeve is that knobs from pre-Tele steels are filched from steels and end up misrepresenting what machine patterns and dome shapes went on to Teles.
A 1948 Deluxe steel's knobs on a '53 Tele are no more correct than Les Paul knobs would be. The fossil record gets distorted.
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Jeff Mead


From:
London, England
Post  Posted 4 May 2017 11:38 pm    
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Doug Beaumier wrote:
The guy selling these old pickups for $600 each does tell buyers that the pickups came from a Fender lap steel... but the guy who buys one of these pickups and installs it into his 1950s Telecaster or Esquire will likely Not tell the next buyer than the pickup is not original to the guitar. It would be "period correct", but not original.


Although those pickups look the same when installed, the bottom of them is comletely different and a baseplate would have to be added to install it in a Tele.

I guess someone could fake a new baseplate and age it, but if they have the skills to do that well, they could probably fake a whole pickup without having to spend the $600 in the first place.

I'm sure nobody would pay big bucks for a vintage instument without taking it apart and so, at that point, it should be obvious that the pickup isn't right. Any vintage expert would pay particular attention to the pickups and attempts to fake and age the baseplate would probably be noticed - particularly under blacklight which appraisers will use extensively.

That's why it's always worth paying for an expert to look over a vintage guitar before buying.

This is what a Tele pickup looks like...


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Daniel McKee

 

From:
Corinth Mississippi
Post  Posted 5 May 2017 12:58 am    
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I didn't realize this stuff was going on as much as it is. If it keeps up it will put a dent in the number of lap/console steels around. It seems small now which is still sad but this type of thing can get out of hand.
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 5 May 2017 2:55 pm    
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Keep in mind that those high prices are asking prices, not necessarily the selling price.
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