One Man's Trash....

Jeremy Steele · Post by **Jeremy Steele** » 2 Jul 2003 4:20 am

A couple of years ago I was strolling down Bleecker Street in NYC when I found an old Kalamazoo Epiphone classical style guitar someone had unceremoniously dumped in a trash can. Upon rescuing it, I discovered that all it needed was a bridge, which I got from StewMac, glued on, and thus transformed someone's garbage into a great guitar. Ever find anything "by the side of the road" that you were able to turn into music?

Jack Francis · Post by **Jack Francis** » 2 Jul 2003 5:55 am

Yesterday a friend found a guitar at a garage sale.
A turqouise 1964 Fender Strat in a case with all of the paperwork. The lady said that it was her son's and that he had died in Nam.
$50

Pat Burns · Post by **Pat Burns** » 2 Jul 2003 6:27 am

..he should be ashamed of himself..

Tony LaCroix · Post by **Tony LaCroix** » 2 Jul 2003 8:31 am

Aw, man. I HATE those stories! But they force me to get up early saturday mornings and hit garage sales.

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 2 Jul 2003 9:28 am

i found the I Ching in the dumpster
kept it ever since
i also found a real cheap Ukelele that needed tunings pegs
put some on and since there's always one my kids messin' w: it
last but not least, true story:
a man who was found dead in his appt after the odor had alerted the neighbours,
had been prior to his death using one of the rooms as the garbage can. A pile of Garb was to found there.
When the cleaning crew came to remove it all they found 80 000 $ in it

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Steel what?

[This message was edited by CrowBear Schmitt on 02 July 2003 at 10:29 AM.]

Bill Moore · Post by **Bill Moore** » 2 Jul 2003 9:53 am

It's wasn't in the trash, but I once found a Sho-Bud volume pedal for sale at a flea market, it had been taken apart, and all the pieces were in a box. Paid 4.00 for it, put it back together, and it worked fine. The guy selling it had no clue what it was.

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Bill Moore...
my steel guitar web page

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 2 Jul 2003 10:12 am

The band I was working with once followed Willie Nelson at the Trianon Ballroom in Oklahoma City back in the 1950's (or maybe it was the 1960's), and I found his steel players volumn-control still on the stage where he had left it the night before. It was forwarded to the steel-player.....some guy by the name of Jimmy Day!

www.genejones.com

Paul Graupp · Post by **Paul Graupp** » 2 Jul 2003 12:11 pm

An air policeman named "Kentuck" and I were were returning from a mail and fuel run to K-18 which was our supply base for the mountain top radio relay site we were assigned to. It was in Korea and the year was 1952. We stopped for a relief break and he saw a guitar in a burned out house that wasn't hurt by the fire.

We took it back to the mountain and found four keys were working but we had no strings for it. It the field wire we used for a telephone from the top to the base camp, we found steel strands that were used for strength in the wire while the rest of the strands were too soft to help us out.

Kentuck took off the fretts that remained and put four strings on it tuned to E-B-G#-E.
He used an old Ray-O-Vac olive drab D cell battery as a bar and a piece of wood he shaped into a pick.

Then he proceeded to fashion a new steel guitarist by showing me how to play SGR.

And now you know the rest of that story....

Regards, Paul

John Bechtel · Post by **John Bechtel** » 2 Jul 2003 12:34 pm

Sometime in the early '70's, I went outside my home to find an old original Tweed Fender Bassman amp. w/4-10" Jensen Speakers sitting out in the trash-heap, waiting to go on the trash-truck. It had actually been there for a short time in the weather. It did not work when turned on, so; I loaded it up and took it to a friend's electronics repair-shop, for a check-out. All it needed was a new fuse and socket, and I had one speaker re-coned. In '79–'80, I took that amp along, all the way to Honolulu and used it for 6 months there until I sold it along with a D–10 Non-Pedal Sho-Bud to a fellow there in Hawaii. As far as I know, it's still there. The rest of the time that I lived there, I used my Fender T–8 custom and a New '80 Fender Twin Reverb w/2 JBL K–120's!

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“Big John” wknsg®
Franklin, D–10 w/9 & 8
Peavey, Classic 50 – 212
Goodrich, Match Box
Enhancer, E–LG
Ibanez, AD–9 http://community.webtv.net/KeoniNui/BigJohnBechtels

[This message was edited by John Bechtel on 04 July 2003 at 10:34 PM.]

Peter Siegel · Post by **Peter Siegel** » 2 Jul 2003 1:21 pm

Not quite finding in the trash but... About 1975 I found a Fender 6 string lapsteel, number 421, Titanium yellow, in the original tweed case, totally clean, for $50.00 at a flea market. I still have it today. I have no idea what it is worth today but it is a sweetie.[This message was edited by Peter Siegel on 02 July 2003 at 02:23 PM.]

Chris Bauer · Post by **Chris Bauer** » 2 Jul 2003 2:42 pm

I used up several lifetimes of my quota for once-in-a-lifetime deals in '72 when I got my '54 Martin 000-18 at a rural auction for $7.00.

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 2 Jul 2003 6:17 pm

A trash guy at work wanted to sell a guitar for $150. The pickguard was gone and it needed a new jack. The hardshell case was a little used.

I pointed those things out and said I'd give him a hundred. He said OK.

It was a 1970 Les Paul Goldtop.

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 2 Jul 2003 9:41 pm

One of my friend's father is an Egyptologist. At a garage sale in a box of cheap jewelry, he found an Ankh. They wanted 50 cents, he gave them $20. It was the real thing and over 3000 years old.

One of my former bandleaders was at a swapmeet out in Palmdale, there was a guy selling microphone boxes with mics in them, $15 for the big ones, $10 for the small ones. He had sold all the big ones and had one small one left that had a KM84 in it.

Wayne Brown · Post by **Wayne Brown** » 2 Jul 2003 9:46 pm

i was living up in campbell river bc. about 10 years ago and i would make a run to the dump about twice a week to drop off old junk and check for older outboards (you would be surprized at the motors people would throw out (but thats another story ) anyway one day i did my run and while chaining up a 175hp johnson fast strike to take home for parts i noticed a old guitar case ...so not giving it much thought i threw it into the back of my truck ...and there it sat for about 3 days ..then as i was cleaning out the truck i happened to open up the case and what i saw made me fall flat on my backside ...there in the case was a mint d-45 martin with mother of pearl inlays and all her glory...and to this day i still have it

thanks
wayne

P/S sorry it's NOT for sale or trade[This message was edited by Wayne Brown on 02 July 2003 at 10:47 PM.]

Chris Bauer · Post by **Chris Bauer** » 3 Jul 2003 3:00 am

Yikes, Wayne - you're the first person who's ever made me wonder if I paid too much for my Martin!

Tony LaCroix · Post by **Tony LaCroix** » 3 Jul 2003 6:10 am

NO! STOP IT! I can't TAKE anymore!

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 3 Jul 2003 10:07 am

Not exactly a 'trash' story, but I was working in a music store in Fort Worth in the late 70s or early 80's (I forget when.. it's kind of a blur) and a guy came into the store with a '55 Fender Strat. Dead stock, original tweed case, everything, but lots of playing wear. Sunburst, maple neck...

He had bought it for $200 bucks from some other starving guitar player, with the idea of consigning it at the store to make a profit. Remember that at this time Les Pauls and Marshalls were the hot setup, but we didn't sell a lot of Strats.

So we take this guys Strat in on consignment and put it on the rack with $450 bucks on it. 3 weeks go by, nobody really gives it a second look, people walking right by it every day. So the guy comes in now and tells me he used his rent money to buy the Strat, thinking he'd make a few bucks before his rent was due. Now he needs his rent money.

I had been thinking about having a Strat to plonk around on, but I really wasn't that interested in his '55 because 'it was really beat-up'. I had played it a little and the well worn neck was pretty comfy, and it sounded pretty good, but it was so 'old'.

He offered it to me for $250 and I countered with $225, thinking to myself I was a fool to pay that much for such a 'used' guitar. He accepted my offer, so I cleaned it up and did a good setup.. needless to say pretty soon that guitar was my 'main' player, and I watched the prices over the next few years go through the roof..

I finally sold it in the late 80's for an obscene amount of money and a very nice refin '62 Strat that I still play.

Here's the guitar on stage.

Paul Graupp · Post by **Paul Graupp** » 3 Jul 2003 5:22 pm

chas: I hate to ask because it shows my IQ in a bad light but what is an ANKH ??

And what might it's worth be........

Regards, Paul

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 3 Jul 2003 7:01 pm

An ankh is like a cross but with a tear-drop shaped thing on top. It is an ancient Egytian symbol for eternal life.

Dean Dobbins · Post by **Dean Dobbins** » 3 Jul 2003 10:10 pm

Gene Jones:
Trianon Ballroom- that was upstairs over
a vacant lot, wasn't it?
Played it one time in my life, and had a
ball! (By the way, I'm a transplanted Okie).

Rich Paton · Post by **Rich Paton** » 4 Jul 2003 12:46 am

A huge Telefunken stereo console left in an alley, which I probably wrongly assessed as too complex to restore...but yielded a bunch of good TF 12AX7's and four 7189's (super El-84's).
In 1999 swapped a motherboard, Pentium 150
CPU, & 16 MBytes EDO ram...for my early '63 Blonde Tolex Bassman head. Just needed the pots & jacks cleaned, & the ancient 5881's sound better than new Groove Tubes. The guy I traded with was a TV repairman who had the amp in his garage for 17 years without powering it up. Its owner had never picked it up after a repair (in 1982).
1999 value of computer parts...maybe $200. Current value...can't give them away.
Current value of Amp...? No matter, it's not for sale right now. OR?

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 4 Jul 2003 3:29 am

Dean..you are correct, but the Trianon has been gone for many years....a victim of urban-renewal!
www.genejones.com

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 4 Jul 2003 4:44 am

I found two Neuman U-47 mic's in orginal wood boxes in perfect condition at a junk dealer. He said he got them at a military auction. I bought one for $150.00 and a few years later, I sold it on Ebay for $4500.00. I tried to buy the other one, but he wouldn't sell it. On my last effort to buy it, whether it's true or not, I don't know, but he said he took it all apart and tried to make a ham radio mic out of it. When it didn't work, he said he hauled all the pieces off to the trash dump! Talk about that empty feeling in the pit of your stomach, I felt like crying! I didn't tell him what he had done. I figured it would just make him feel bad and maybe make him mad at me. I didn't want to screw up my relationship with him in the event he had things in the future I might be interested in.

Rich Paton · Post by **Rich Paton** » 5 Jul 2003 9:55 am

Wow, that U-47 would be just thething to record the D-45?
You reminded me of how this kid who had been working cleaning up the remains of a barn fire. Comes by with a nearly functional CONN Strobotuner, says hey I know you're into electronic stuff. Is this thing worth $20? The question was never answered, since I whipped that bill out in a mach-3 blur. It needed a new pair of 6AQ5 tubes and a few drops of oil on the motor bearings.
A few months later he comes back with an old leather camera bag, smoky looking & smelling but intact. Inside was an old Zeiss Contax twin-lens reflex camera and a full gaggle of lenses & gadgets. Wiil you take $100 for the works? I said. He was excited about that ...but I couldn't let him give it all away for gas money (in 1991 $20 was gas money).

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 5 Jul 2003 1:56 pm

Paul, David got it. What's it worth? I don't know, but all that King Tut museum stuff isn't cheap.

How about the reverse of this thread. My brother in law, in a fit of stupidity, one of the things he excelled at, gave away my Civil War sword and a mid 18th century Arabian musket with a hand tooled barrel. My brother, in a similar escapade, auctioned off my Victrola with a stack of brown, cut on one side 78's......

Gotta go catch an airplane.....