Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: lbpesq on September 22, 2021, 01:07:47 PM
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My Stratocaster turns 60 today. I'm the third owner. Bought it with a case and Crybaby for $125 back in 1974. I always meant to strip the paint and re-finish it in a dark wood to look more like an Alembic (even back then!). Thankfully, my lazy ass never got around to it. I just restrung it and will play it at rehearsal tonight.
Bill, tgo
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Having just been reunited with my own Strat, let me be the first to wish many more years for both of you! :)
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I love honest vintage finishes. Can't stand fake 'vintage' custom shop finishes for some reason.
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Happy birthday!
I've said it before & I'll say it again, Bill - if you ever want to double your money, I'm ready, checkbook in hand. 8)
Peter
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I love honest vintage finishes. Can't stand fake 'vintage' custom shop finishes for some reason.
I’m with David, fake is yucky.
Bill your Stratocaster looks like it could tell many stories. 8)
Paul (Don H. was the jazz band director for the high school I attended, he taught for at least 20 years. He had a 62 Fender Precision, I played it for 2 years, some other amazing bassists also played it - wonder where that bass is now?)
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Such a great guitar Bill! Happy Birthday Strat!
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Bought it with a case and Crybaby for $125 back in 1974.
whooo!
reminds me of my first good bass (the second bass that i owned), a 1975 made-here-in-the-USA-Fender P that i bought brand new in 1976 with hang tags and everything for $350. Played hundreds of gigs wearing that bass. it's probably worth a small fortune now. i miss that bass :-(
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Bill, I think you did good by never getting around to it. I refinished a 1962 Fender Duo Sonic I picked up in the mid 70's that was worn, nicked and chipped similar to your Strat. I had it done in a dark stain and at the time I thought it was an improvement in the looks. As I look back I wish I hadn't done the refinish as it lost a lot of mojo. Live and learn.
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Beautiful. Strats are my favorite skinny stringed guitars!
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How nice can a 60 year old look? Beautiful.
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That was a good deal even in 1974 dollars! Up here in ‘74 a Strat went for $565.00 and a Tele rung in at $440.00. But of course there was no such thing yet as a vintage electric guitar, yet. Beautiful!
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I bought a brand new Fender Tele in 1971 for $283 bucks. I couldn't afford the case, and I made $15 a month payments on it. I still wish I had it simply for the fact that it would be worth around 3K today. The guitar itself was not nearly as good as one I now have that is a mutt. The neck was not attached perfectly straight as well but was kinked a tiny bit off to the side from the factory. I didn't even notice until a guitar repair person a couple years later pointed it out to me (I had him put a humbucker on it).
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My Strat wasn't that good a deal. Back then it was just a used guitar. And the guy I bought it from made a profit! He had bought it for $100 from some rich kid who got it from his parents and never really played it much. I jokingly told him if he ever wanted to sell it for $100 to let me know. I lost touch with the guy for a few months and then he showed up on my doorstep with the guitar and said he needed money. I had $75 to my name, so I borrowed $50 from a friend and wound up broke with a Strat. Of course I was 19 years old at the time, so being broke was SOP.
Bill, tgo
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SOP?
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Standard Operating Procedure.
(Water Treatment Plant Operators such as I, live and often die by these... probably less serious implications for teenage Bill, tgo who may have overspent a little on his Strat...) ;D
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I paid $275 for my Jazz Bass in 76'. I only paid $50 for the Duo Sonic. A friend of mine bought a Guild Bluesbird from the same person whom we both knew for $125. The person we bought them from had agreed to take them in payment from a customer who failed to pay on time for a product Bill is intimately familiar with both personally and professionally. The previous owner didn't play guitar and sold them to us for what he was owed. He set the prices based on the their size figuring the little guitar was worth fifty bucks and the big one $125.
All this talk made me decide to see what vintage Duo Sonic guitars are going for. Even though it was not close to pristine I really regret refinishing it seeing the stratospheric asking prices on the different sales sites. As I've said before we didn't look at instruments the same back then. They were tools to be used and sold or modified if they didn't work for you as is. But if we had only known ......