Well thats one hell of a pretty guitar. This whole discussion leaves me asking the question, "what chance does the smaller independant builder have?". Especialy when people aren't prepared to pay the going rate for parts let alone any labour costs. My oh my what a terrible world we'd be in if we were limited to fender or gibson. No Tylers, no Suhr's, no Trussarts.
No guys offering this at a very reasonable price
http://www.southwellguitars.co.uk/business/courses.shtml.

I know at least one person who has next years christmas present planned.

Take a look at this fella. Operating from his garage in my hometown. This is what we stand to lose with the current attitude of not paying.
http://www.ethosguitars.co.uk/index.htm

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No no and no

No joke! one look at xhefri's site has me wanting a Andy Summers 61 tele spec clone, but with that tele deluxe contoured body and a foto neck.

It would def be next christmas though as I just bought a JEM and still have yet to finish my own mahogany cut top build.

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

Soon to be the Sippi's guitar emporium. How many are you up to now? How did the CBG turn out.

I gave up on trying to find a oilcan for a reasonable price. I'm planning on using a chocolate tin

and making a shortscale kid's guitar or even some weird form of electric banjo.

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No no and no

LOL Hardly an improrium as I am constantly culling lower end models for higher quality sticks. At the moment holding steady at 5 (I recently harvested some parts from the G&L and sold the rest off). As of now the CBG is sitting in parts in my shop (no heat or ac in there and is far to cold to work in right now) the box is routed but my mahogany tone block from the 1st (which I planned to reuse in the 2nd is a wee bit to thin for the slightly larger box), so I'll have to mill a new one. Same story with the cut top.

I see alot of potential in that tin. The 1st thing that crossed my mind was, "that thing begs for a dobro cone!" but that may just be me.

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

Its roughly the same diameter as a resonator cone. That is a stonkingly good idea though. I've wanted a res for years now. Something to muck about with funny tunings on. I wonder if the 12" tyre of a old Austin Mini would house a cone?

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No no and no

Ceri; Very true. This has become a hobby for me and on occassion I may get one or two that turns a few bucks which I promptly put back into more parts. I enjoy the process and gravitate towards the design creation in order to come up with something cool. At the same time I learn something new each time I start a project. I have worked with guys like Jhefri when I have an idea that is beyond my means. (he knows his wiring)

Sometimes its just finding a cool body and then putting the rest of it together. Sometimes its making something I can't find elsewhere. An example is my Hendrix Monterey Strat. I didn't want another Squier or MIM rendition. I didn't want to pay someone in advance and wait 2 months for them to build it for me. Yes, it can be costly to advance the parts money but I've been fortunate to be able to turn over projects to pay for the next. I wanted a Monterey with all USA parts and a 62 Reissue neck. I wanted a body that had the artwork not painted on top where you could feel the brush strokes. Even though that's the way that Jimi made it, I wanted one with a finished body that looked factory to the touch. The last one had C/S 69's so electronics vary and I get a chance to hear what the different combinations sound like.

I hope to pay more attention to this forum as it's clear there are plenty of knowledgeable people to run ideas across or get answers for things I don't know. (that's plenty)

Worth a look see!

I know I've said this before, but things like that oil can are fairly easy to find and could be had on the cheap in my neck of the woods. Thus reducing your expense to just shipping, which could also be traded for things you have handy. If ya take the notion, get a shopping list to me and we could at least see what kind of expense we may be looking at.

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

If I had to guess, this guitar looks like it would really be as sweet a player as it looks!

- C

Only reached $665.00 a long way off $1300. In reality only 4 or 5 people put in a serious bid. Oh well.

Hey Dr Paul,

Just reading your post, I noticed you are located in Australia. Why are you looking at the USA to buy a guitar? I got my Deluxe in the exact same colour in Melbourne for $2k AUD in 2006. You could get a similar guitar (allbeit a little newer) for a similar price in Aussie.. you just need to go thru ebay with a fine toothed comb.

or even NZ. The currency conversion will work in your favour whichever way.

My strat was new, bought from GC I think- then went to Aussie by a guy who buys guitars while on business and sells them as a hobby in Aussie. At the time 2006, C Tangerine was the most hideous colour out and they wanted to get rid of them... hence the price. I have seen various other models in NZ- Montego Black, Olympic Pearl go for same dollars (NZD$) over here- very recently.


this was my purchase:

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Hey thanks for high jacking the thread but Dr. Paul and I worked out a deal. I closed the auction early hence the low bid amounts. I was trying to work it so when I closed it early it would list as sold to the highest bidder, but I guess that's only possible in the last 12 hours.

I took the neck off and sent some additional photos of the neck pocket and the neck heel as well as replaced the back trem plate to a three ply black one as was suggested to match the battery compartment. I added the photos to the Photoshop site I posted in the listing. I have more photos available than the 12 eBay allows. I'm buring a DVD of all the photos that I took of the project to include in the case. We both are happy to have come to an agreement and thanks very much to you all here on the forum for providing good honest information. I think he will be very happy when he receives the guitar.

Congrats to both of you! It certainly is a fine looking guitar!

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

Update-

I was looking os because i couldnt find what i was after in oz. THeres only a couple of overprices stuff on ebay, and one or three on gumtree, which is a hideously small sample.

must admit, i didnt think of looking at new zealand at all

As mentioned, basically i just decided i needed to get that guitar. You know how sometimes you just decide that that is the one?

I checked out a whole lot of sites, with guitars from 12-2400us and just kept going back to this one and thinking i would prefer this to any others.

Few random thoughts.

I really like the look, and the gold (which i think usually looks hideously ugly) just looks so absolutly fcckn awesome. Matching strap sets it off as well

If someone is going to put together something cheap, they would use cheapies, if they go to the trouble to get good stuff (try to find gold locking tuners on the net- not easy) I just assume that they are putting together something high end and quality

Not many strats are made like this, especially with roller nuts. Proper case is also a killer, these retail for $220Australian

Interesting comment someone made about the price of parts,and what should the price be? More for the labour or less because its second hand? I tend to think about the same, or a touch more

If we accept the prices that were posted previously (not by the seller, by an impartial forumite btw), then add a bit more for the strap, body, n tune and case (as pointed out by the seller), then the parts would be about the 1500ish mark. Now, obviously, the seller has not purchased all of these individually at these prices. Ie he may have bought two smashed guitars, one with a broken neck, and the other with the electronics dead, and melded them together with some new stuff that was going cheap, but happened to match his vision for the guitar with some new stuff as well. I would imagine there would be many builders who would just keep buying stuff that is discontinued/ cheap /broken but still has some quality that will match with something for the future.

So, we settled on a price, which will turn out to be about 2k australian after everything -postage, gst, customs, etc.

For what i could get in oz for 2k, i would much prefer this one, hence, why i bought it

Ironically, i am a noob guitar player (9months), and really wont know just how good or bad it plays!. But ill keep you posted as to what my guitar teacher thinks about it!

No-one is hijacking any thread, don't get defensive. I only stated what I purchased for same money in Australia- showing what could be found if anything popped up if he had the paitence to wait.

I feel I personally got an excellent deal on mine considering what it actually is, $2k AUD- although mine is nothing special, dime a dozen at the time- they still are really I dont entirely agree on the landed price he agreed for it- but Im going to hold that to myself out of respect for our new poster.


Good luck Dr. Paul, it's a nice one & I hope you post pics when you recieve your guitar for us all to see- forum rules mate!!! lol

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