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Post by Ragtop on Apr 23, 2022 13:39:41 GMT -5
Is it just me, or have used acoustic guitar prices gotten CrAzY?
Actually, I know the answer to my tongue-in-cheek question- why, yes, they have!
I've kind of been looking for a D-18GE. Eighteen months ago you could buy them all day long for $2400, in VG-EXC condition. Now you can't touch them for less than $3200, it seems.
A little guitar store down in Salida had one on its website, so I drove down to have a look. It played nice and sounded terrific, but had dings and dents and scuffs all over it. Badly treated, it had been, which makes me wary. The price was $3k, best price I've seen, but given its condition it would automatically become my beater guitar. And who needs a three-freakin'-thousand-dollar beater guitar?
Also, it seems that the recent buying flurry I noticed in the past 18 months or so has cooled off. They just ain't moving these days. I think I know why- THE PRICES ARE TOO HIGH!
Ok, I'm done.
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Post by Lefty Rev on May 5, 2022 16:03:11 GMT -5
Agree - we both know why this all happened. Part of it was lots of people stuck at home with time on their hands, so they decided to finally learn to play guitar (or relearn/get serious about it) and went out and bought instruments. A lot of those were probably entry level, but some older folks with some mean$ spent bigger bucks, deleting store stock.
Meanwhile, companies like Martin either closed down for awhile (at Martin I think it was 3-6 months), or at least slowed down production - Martin is still 12-15 months behind with filling dealers' orders!
All of this is keeping prices up (almost no dealers are discounting right now - and if they are, it's minimal). Kinda crazy, when the money has dried up for a lot of folks, too (no more "stimulus" payments automatically landing in your bank account - unless you're a ne'er do well milking the system, but I digress...).
So, yeah, it's frustrating. I just bought a used Martin in a private sale (no Reverb or other site involved) and he gave me a "pre-Covid" deal. But for the most part, prices are nuts, and its not a good time to sell because people still try to beat you down!
Okay - that's all I got.
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Post by Ragtop on May 7, 2022 6:41:13 GMT -5
Shortly after my rant above, I found an all-mahogany Taylor at Gryphon. I haven't had a Taylor for a long time, had it in my head that I didn't like their necks. But this one suits me just fine.
It is a 2013 Taylor 516. Gryphon thought it was mislabeled, but it is actually a custom job. A 516 with a mahogany top, tortoise binding on the body and neck, an abalone rosette, and custom fret markers. No "CE", which I'm happy about as I'll put a K&K in it.
A very nice guitar, plays and sounds terrific. I think Gryphon had it underpriced by quite a bit. So disregard my rant about high prices!
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Post by hushnel on May 8, 2022 11:43:08 GMT -5
Sounds like a good score, I’ve always leaned in the other direction with Taylor, though I know they are great instruments. I’ve used the K&K in the past, for the old Guild fretless acoustic bass and a garbox Guitar I built for a friend, Albert Castiglia. These transducers we’re different sizes and my curiosity had me search for information concerning transducers. It was interesting and based on crystals that create voltage under pressure. Then I did a search of the highest rated transducers. I discovered that transducers are transducers none any better than the other, at the component level. The transducer that goes under the saddle of an acoustic instrument is the same material that triggers red lights at an intersection. With the discs they come in different diameters relatively tiny for a violin larger for a bass. More research and I found sources like the link below. It’s a fairly simple process. In my career as bio-med tech wiring these up was child’s play, now they come basically prewired, some insulation and a decent phone plug output and your done. Attachment to the inside of the top at the apex vibration of the saddle and they work as well as the prefab, which still has to be installed. The only modification I did on the Guild was drilling the lower bout strap button hole for the phone plug assembly. Check to make sure the strap button block is sturdy, I haven’t seen one that wasn’t. I also avoid too much modification to the instrument, on my recent transducer builds I take all the signal at the phone pluge then EQ and volume at a SansAmp type stomp box. A search with find various wiring schematics. Transducers |
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Post by Ragtop on May 10, 2022 5:16:30 GMT -5
Hush, thanks for that. I've done 10 or so K&K installs, and they all went fine. I would have my local guitar tech drill out the hole, because I don't have that special drill bit (forget what it's called), and they are expensive. And my tech would usually do it for free, as it took 2 minutes.
I used to buy the K&Ks from Shoreline Music, which was 4 hours from me. But they are gone now, unfortunately, so I buy them off of Amazon. And I use the blue Loctite gel superglue.
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Post by hushnel on May 10, 2022 9:56:39 GMT -5
I’m a bit of a tool freak, any excuse. I’m familiar with the drill, they cut a finished hole in one shot, a top shelf hole saw, I have the set going up to the door knob size. I go a little overboard when making the sound hole disk too, to kill the feed back on acoustic instruments. I have tapered reamers as well.
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