My wifes granddad had a 96' Lotus Strat copy and a small Crate amp that he used to play at church. Well the church was broken into and his stuff was stolen. I can't find any record of a Lotus brand made by Fender but we are looking for what it would be worth now. I think he paid like $500 for it new. Now it seems that these aren't made anymore and my mother in law has found that some of these Lotus models are worth alot more now. The church was insured for theft and he will be getting a claim amount of $800 to replace his rig. Does anyone have any info on the Lotus brand and it's worth so i'll know he's not getting worked over or taking a big loss. Also i need some ideas of some good replacement guitars and amps that would fit the $800 mark for both. I appreciate any help and opinions on this.

There was a small music store not too far from me that specialized in rental orchestral instruments, and they decided to add electric guitars... becoming a Lotus dealership (which was not a Fender brand... these are cheap Asian copies).

My son took violin lessons there for a while, and so I stopped by all the time, and always picked up one of the Strat copies because I liked the odd gradated finish....



It was almost alright, kind of a rough neck with major fret sprout, a bad vibrato system, and fairly weak, thin pickups. He kept it on the wall at it's list price of $450, and it hung there for over five years, along with all the other Lotuses, until the store finally closed

Those are the only examples of these guitars I have ever seen. If your relative paid $500 for one he got stung, and if an insurance company is giving him $800 for a stolen one, then the insurance company is getting really stung. The last one of these to get listed on eBay went unsold with a BIN price of $175, and was then relisted and STILL went unsold with an opening bid of $100.

No big loss here... he should thank his lucky stars that the insurance company doesn't own a Blue Book.

BTW, I found the picture above in a thread on the Kramer Forum under the heading, "The Worst Guitar You Ever Owned."

Thanks Slapchop for the info. I've tried to play it a few times before it was stolen and it was like you said rough and weak and worthless in my opinion. I didn't think it was worth too much just wanted to be sure. The old man is pushing 90 and he really doesn't want to replace it because he has 4 or 5 other guitars. I think he's really out to get something to pass down to me hopefully. I'm going to encourage him to go Fender or Squire for sure. He's been wanting a real Strat and now is the time to go for it. Are the MIM Strats much better than the Squire strats or is there much difference? I know for sure we won't be affording any thing American with $800 unless it's broken or a great clearance sale and both of those seem impossible.

Or used. I don't think you have to buy new with insurance money, so you might look for a nice used MIA.

6twang sorry to hear that some lowlifes and you cant get any lower than robbing a house of worship made off with your father in laws gear. And just because it was not a high end guitar sometimes you cant put a price on things that might have value in other ways. There had to be a reason he played that guitar in church since he has 4 or 5 others he could of used and at 90 God bless him I dont think he was playing out besides what he did at church.A lot of the guys rave about the highway ones which are an American made strat that goes for $699 but I think there have been sales on musicians friend on fridays or GC where you can grab one for $500. So I would deffinetly look into it as I stated the guys on the forum seem to have really good things to say about them. Good Luck

Thanks Straycat I will keep that in mind on our search for Guitar replacement.

6twang
My condolences to your wife's Grandfather. Man I hope I'm still pickin at 90... . Get that man whatever he wants. God has a way of taking bad circumstances and working it to His good.

6twang
That stinks! Let's go rob a church? Well, the good news is there is karma.
I was in G.C. yesterday and saw 499.00 Strats MIM. Line6 is giving away the old amp line. My guess, 800.00 could buy as good or better than was stolen.
Good luck,
John.E