Look what I got!

[mrblanche]

Yes, another cheap guitar. But it came in a very interesting box.

I took a quick look around, and I saw this:

This is the famous "low-buck cat toy" I demonstrated some time back. It's just about frolicked to death.

Now it's replaced with this:

All the surfaces are double or triple-layered, so maybe it will hold up longer.

 

[weldrwomn]

Your cat looked really thrilled in the first picture

It looks like the box evolved into a really neat kitty playground though - I bet it will be thoroughly enjoyed

 

[trouts mom]

Oh yeah Trout would love that!

 

[carolpetunia]

Ingenious! But... I wanna see the guitar, too!

 

[mrblanche]

OK, you asked for it.

Actually, it wasn't originally a cheap guitar. Whoever bought it originally paid about $20,000 for it...but they got a free car with it!

Here's a VW ad for it:


I paid $71 for it. They've been going for a lot more than that, but this one has the VW car ID plate removed from the back of the headstock, so it's not worth as much as a collector guitar.

 

[ldg]

Very cool! The guitar is too.

You didn't throw that other box away yet, did you? You should put it on top of the other one, and line up the holes - just keep growing it!!!!!!!!!!!!! We used to make huge 3D mazes.

 

[starryeyedtiger]

Awww man!

I got all excited thinking you were going to say you got a new kitty!

(Awesome guitar though!

)

 

[coolcat]

Hey Mike!..

nice shoots!

Originally Posted by WELDRWOMN

Your cat looked really thrilled in the first picture

you stole my thoughts...

..I´ll going to say the same...

Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

Ingenious! But... I wanna see the guitar, too!

but you right now show it!..

seems prettig good!...

Originally Posted by LDG

Very cool! The guitar is too.

 

[mrblanche]

Sterling is the quintessential veg cat.

And he could afford to lose about 3 pounds, too.

 

[carolpetunia]

Gorgeous guitar! Isn't it neat how guitars not only make music, but are also just beautiful to look at?

I imagine you bought it primarily for its place in history, but... how does it sound?

 

[mrblanche]

It's actually a great-sounding guitar.

Here's a funny thing about electric guitars.

If you go back and check serial numbers, Fender and Gibson didn't make all that many guitars in their "glory days" in the 50's and early 60's. Those guitars today go for thousands (up to $100,000!) of dollars.

Most electric guitars, probably including this one, are made by just two or three companies with factories in China, Indonesia, and Korea. They make thousands of guitars every day.

Just as Ford lowered the price of the Model T by making essentially the same model in huge numbers over a period of 15 years, these few guitar manufacturers have gotten very good at making very good guitars for not very much money. A strat copy that comes off the Samick or Cort line and is given a J. Turser, First Act, or even Fender (often Squier) name is probably every bit as good a guitar as the Fenders built in those "glory days." And the odds are good that ten years from now, it will probably be in better condition than a Fender built in the 60's.

What I'm saying is that for $150 you can buy a better guitar today than Fender sells for $600 and probably a better guitar than a $30,000 Fender built in 1962.

Now, you can buy some fantastic guitars in the U.S. (and Japan--they make some really great ones we never see) and pay $4,000 for them. Gibson and a number of other companies make some gorgeous ones. Joe Walsh plays a Carvin. Joe Satriani, George Benson, and Steve Vai play Ibanez. You can buy a David Gilmour Fender new from the factory for about $5,000.

But for the average player, a $200 Ibanez RG120 or a $125 J. Turser can be just as good.

And First Act, who made this particular guitar, makes $7,000 custom guitars for some of the big names, too.

 

[grogs]

Originally Posted by mrblanche

Sterling is the quintessential veg cat.

And he could afford to lose about 3 pounds, too.

Hey, send Sterling up my way for a while and I'll put him on the Tiny weight loss plan. She used to be a veg too, but this evening she was tearing around the apartment chasing after Thufir for a good 10 minutes. The poor guy kept looking at me as if to say, "Can't you do something about this crazy girl who's chasing me around?"

Nice looking guitar BTW. I'm more of an acoustic guy though. I have one of those cheap Korean guitars you speak of. I bought it in Seoul as a matter of fact. It's an Ovation acoustic/electric knock-off. Reed-Mann I believe. It was easier to just pay $75 for a guitar to mess around with in Korea than to try to lug one over from the States. I decided to keep it and bring it home after every thing was said and done. It doesn't have the sound my full sized acoustic guitar has, but it fits in my lap better and it's more compact.