How to destroy a $15,000 guitar!

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 15 Dec 2005 11:18 am

You have to see this to believe it. What a cryin’ shame! Click this

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Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 15 Dec 2005 12:10 pm

GAK!

I can understand how this could happen.
There was a time these sold used for $100 or $200. What's wrong with picking up a cheapo guitar to experiment with?

I remember seeing them stacked three deep, case-less, in stores on 48th St in NYC in the 70s. The cases were more valuable than the Teles. Who knew!?[This message was edited by Joey Ace on 15 December 2005 at 12:14 PM.]

Martin Abend · Post by **Martin Abend** » 15 Dec 2005 2:15 pm

Ahhh, weren't the 80ies great...?

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Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 15 Dec 2005 2:49 pm

Why would this have ever cost 15K?

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 15 Dec 2005 2:55 pm

You're right Joey. I bought a '62 telecaster back in 1969 for $100 and sold it a year later for $130 thinking I had done okay! The '60s and '70s were strange times. A lot of players painted thier guitars psychedelic colors and modified them in other ways. The one in this post is about the worst butchering I've ever seen.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 15 Dec 2005 2:59 pm

Barry, $15,000 is the current value of a 1957 Telecaster in excellent condition w/original case. This Telecaster however was butchered at some point in it's life and is basically worth whatever it's remaining original parts are worth.[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 15 December 2005 at 03:05 PM.]

Larry Robbins · Post by **Larry Robbins** » 15 Dec 2005 2:59 pm

Oh, the humanity!!!!

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 15 Dec 2005 3:56 pm

Yikes - a Fender Corvus! - looks pretty much like a Gibson Corvus, which has to be one of the ugliest guitars ever made, of course looks is in the eye of the beholder. I have a problem calling this "modded". "Butchered" is more like it.

If the other parts are original, and that's a big if, then it's worth quite a bit parted out.

The reason an excellent, original condition '57 Tele is worth $15,000 is because there weren't that many of them, they're great guitars, they're true American icons, and there's a bunch of rock stars and yuppie collectors that have to have one. Some of the prime pieces have doubled in the last year or two. I personally think it's overheated right now, but I don't think these will ever be "reasonable" again.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 15 Dec 2005 4:47 pm

Sad, dudes.

Bob Smith · Post by **Bob Smith** » 15 Dec 2005 5:43 pm

Yeah, Some of these guys oughta think twice before they grind the original finish off of some of these vintage steels, nothing destroys an axe more than that. IMO. bob

Ernie Renn · Post by **Ernie Renn** » 15 Dec 2005 6:05 pm

When Roy Nichols was with Merle Haggard he cut down a vintage Tele to use in his bunk on the bus. For all I know this is it. You never know. Maybe Terry Downs knows.

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Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 15 Dec 2005 6:56 pm

Oh, geez, I can hear it now. "Rare collector's item - Roy Nichols vintage '57 cut-down Tele practice guitar: $xxxxx.xx (insert your own ridiculous number here)".

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 15 Dec 2005 8:32 pm

Probably not a '50s model, looks more like a '70s, but it still hurts........

Steinar

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Jon Zimmerman · Post by **Jon Zimmerman** » 15 Dec 2005 8:55 pm

Steinar, is that the cut-down one that belongs to a one-legged waitress at IHOP?
--Seriously, the photo of the square-top knobs tells me it may not all be a 'period-perfect' tele. Any one else know fer sure? ~JZ~[This message was edited by Jon Zimmerman on 15 December 2005 at 09:12 PM.]

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 15 Dec 2005 11:37 pm

Ouch! that is painful.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 16 Dec 2005 3:05 am

"I have had several vintage dealers look at it and they have all said it is original."

Am I missing something?

Love those eyehooks on the Strackolaster, Steinar.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 16 Dec 2005 3:26 am

Several dealers have told me it's all original (albiet partially invisible).

Mark Metdker · Post by **Mark Metdker** » 16 Dec 2005 4:59 am

........wait.........I think I'm gonna be sick!

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Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 16 Dec 2005 6:09 am

Looks like bandsaw modifications by Norm from "This Old House". (He's got too many tools anyway.)

Mike Ester · Post by **Mike Ester** » 16 Dec 2005 6:11 am

Eeeeiiiiiuuuuuuuwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 16 Dec 2005 7:29 am

Well, if I had to guess, that guitar was probably pretty ragged-out before the mods were done. There's a good chance it could have been dented pretty bad, split, refinished (that robs 60% of the value in itself), or maybe had pieces broken off. So the guitar that was finally "modded" may have been worth a small fraction of what a "mint" '57 Tele would bring.

Sure, I see old Fenders, Gibsons and Martins go for big bucks every day, but that doesn't mean the inflated prices are always justified. Truth be known, the '50s produced some pretty mediocre sounding name-brand guitars, and their only real "mojo" is in the eyes of the people who will continue to pay exhorbitant prices for them.

Bill Quinn · Post by **Bill Quinn** » 16 Dec 2005 7:32 am

That strat looks like a wall clock.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 16 Dec 2005 7:54 am

Ever wonder what used instrument prices would look like if Ibanez and Samick and Fernandez had been putting out their current products in the 50's, and Fender and Gibson were the 80's upstarts?

Duane Reese · Post by **Duane Reese** » 19 Dec 2005 9:46 pm

Contemplate this: (no idea if this is the case in actuality, but just contemplate...)

What if this tele met its dismemberment a mere six months ago?

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 19 Dec 2005 10:16 pm

They could have at least used brass eye screws for the strap points.

EJL