a dot brit said:

I'm looking to buy a decent electro-acoustic. I see dozens of eBay listings (UK) for Taylor, Martin, Guild, Gibson, etc.

Most have starting bids of high percentages of their current equivalent retail price. Or have a reserve that' never gets met.

Example: A Gibson J100E Electro-acoustic. Cutaway. 1994. Starting bid GBP 800. There are zero bids and the reserve is not met. 1 day and 11 hours to go. My money says it will run out unsold.

Almost no top name guitars are selling. The laminate-backed and sided Martins you can't give away. Shows what happens when you paint your great brand name on a piece of balsa wood.

Those that do sell are the popular Gibson in the GBP 550 to GBP 750 range. The GBP 3,000 high-grade flamed-maple Gibson SJ200 2001 beauty? Nothing is selling. Taylors and Martins over a grand are not moving at all.

Maybe it's the recession.

Or maybe people have ridiculously high expectations for a second-hand instrument.

. said:

As far as "descent" goes (I'm assuming bang for the buck) I'd keep an eye peeled for one of the mid-90s split-back Takamines with built in controls. The woods from then were pretty good, assuming its from their first run and foray into electro-acoustic.

Yes, that's a good point. Hadn't thought of going East for this purchase.

In fact, I have two superb Made in Japan Fenders from the 90s that had my set-up guy drooling in pleasure over.

The problem is you only really know if something is good enough by playing it and eBay doesn't lend itself to trying out.

I'd like a Furch - Stonebridge in the USA - but they don't appear second hand.

Still, the pleasure's in the chase...

. said:

i would never buy an instrument over ebay, period. if you can't play it, check out its tone, condition and texture in person....you're playing russian roulette. anything in that realm are all hand-made and sound different.

it would be safe to assume that's the reason why they're not moving.

a dot brit said:

I agree.

So I'm limited to looking at those I can get to play.

And you may well be right about why they ain't selling.

The other reason is that a lot seem to be aimed at collectors - non-players - so the listings tell you all about that rare pickup or the unusual guard but don't say anything about playability and tone or even bother putting together a youtube vidoe so you can get a vague notion of intonation.

If you own a GBP3,000 Taylor, you can probably play something, even Kumbaya.

. said:

any of my old guitars i've sold have been through Craigslist. i'm not sure if there is something comparable in the UK, but it affords the opportunity to check out what you're buying in person instead of playing russian roulette. as for a 3,000GBP taylor, what's that, probably $5,000 US? i've never seen a reason to spend more than $3,000 US on a taylor. anything else is show...inlays, etc.. a good $1,000 of that 3k usually goes to the koa anyway. :)

a dot brit said:

I don't sell my guitars. It's a bone of contention with my soon-to-be-ex wife.

Happily, she has no idea what they're worth.

. said:

she may not, but her lawyer may. time to hide the goods.

. said:

. said:

she may not, but her lawyer may. time to hide the goods.

yeah, be careful man the bitch will take pictures and take down serial numbers and hand them over her lawyer.

Heh.

They, along with my royalties, "belong" to a limited company that has carefully depreciated them over the last 20-odd years. So they aren't technically mine and the beneficial value to shareholders according to my audited accounts is nil.

Now the good news: my wife's family are wealthy. She will be writing ME a cheque.



Sometimes it really IS good to be British.

a dot brit said:

Sometimes it really IS good to be British.

Well said, chap

a dot brit said:

Okay.

I declare this thread hijacked.

Well done, everyone.

Have a beer and re-group for tomorrow's thread assaults.

I think you need to change the subject for it to be considered a hijack.

Katalyst said:

I think you need to change the subject for it to be considered a hijack.

TRANNY PICTURES!

. said:

TRANNY PICTURES!