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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 10:54 am
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I've been playing strats since before "bowling ball strats" existed and had never heard the term before.

It's cool to learn something new.

Cheers,

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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 10:59 am
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Slight hijack of this - I believe the guy who did the bowling ball Strats and Teles for Fender in 1984 is the one who later did those swirled guitars for Ibanez - the JEMs and the Universe 7-strings - and Steve Vai. I believe the name was Herc (don't know if that's his first name, last name, or only name like Sting or Maddona :lol: )

Cool piece of history; I've seen a lot of oddball guitars in my day but I never did wind up seeing a bowling ball Fender in person, only in photos. Looking forward to seeing boofie's photos of his once he gets it back.


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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 11:18 am
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John C wrote:
Slight hijack of this - I believe the guy who did the bowling ball Strats and Teles for Fender in 1984 is the one who later did those swirled guitars for Ibanez - the JEMs and the Universe 7-strings - and Steve Vai. I believe the name was Herc (don't know if that's his first name, last name, or only name like Sting or Maddona :lol: )

Cool piece of history; I've seen a lot of oddball guitars in my day but I never did wind up seeing a bowling ball Fender in person, only in photos. Looking forward to seeing boofie's photos of his once he gets it back.



yes its the same guy that ended up going to ibanez after fender said thanks for the 200+ ones you did we wont be needing any more. His name was Darren Johansen. They still show up on the used market from time to time. I know of a blue strat and a gold tele for sale right now (both overpirced in my opinion) and I did see a red one in a store a several years ago. outside of that the only other ones I have seen for sale I didnt see in person. Only online ads.


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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 1:05 pm
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boofie wrote:
John C wrote:
Slight hijack of this - I believe the guy who did the bowling ball Strats and Teles for Fender in 1984 is the one who later did those swirled guitars for Ibanez - the JEMs and the Universe 7-strings - and Steve Vai. I believe the name was Herc (don't know if that's his first name, last name, or only name like Sting or Maddona :lol: )

Cool piece of history; I've seen a lot of oddball guitars in my day but I never did wind up seeing a bowling ball Fender in person, only in photos. Looking forward to seeing boofie's photos of his once he gets it back.



yes its the same guy that ended up going to ibanez after fender said thanks for the 200+ ones you did we wont be needing any more. His name was Darren Johansen. They still show up on the used market from time to time. I know of a blue strat and a gold tele for sale right now (both overpirced in my opinion) and I did see a red one in a store a several years ago. outside of that the only other ones I have seen for sale I didnt see in person. Only online ads.



Ah - that's right, it was Darren that did the originals; the Herc guy I was thinking of is a guy who did replicas of the Ibanez finishes - send him your RG body and he would do a JEM-style swirl on it. I had a buddy who was really into collecting the Ibanez back in the mid-1990s so all this is getting pretty hazy these days.


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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 4:32 pm
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They still show up on the used market from time to time. I know of a blue strat and a gold tele for sale right now (both overpirced in my opinion) and I did see a red one in a store a several years ago. outside of that the only other ones I have seen for sale I didnt see in person. Only online ads.[/quote]

Just out of curiosity, what are they going for just ballpark? I've seen bowling bal Strats go for $2-3000, which is certainly a different price from your other 2-knob standard Strats!

Other than the ones I saw back then, I've yet to see another in person.


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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 8:58 pm
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The strat is going for 4000$ USD (the seller always high balls) the tele is going for about 3500$ USD. The tele is actualy a pretty crap guitar and has been for sale at that store for about 7 years now I think. It would be an investemnet (I hesitate to use the word investment maybe just purchase is better as I really dont think those guitars are really that valuable as opposed to say a pre CBS strat) becuase of its a rarity not a really good playable guitar. If I remember right the neck was a bit out of whack that might be able to be fixed with a simple truss rodd adjustment or adjusting the micro tilt but if not then it would be not a very good to go playable guitar. one of the pots was trashed and would need to be replaced as well.

stgrange how all three of us are from KC..... you, me and John C. I see him posting on strat talk as well a bit.
Boof


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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 1:49 am
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Yowza! Due to the extreme rarity, I don't think $2,500 or so is out of the question for a nice one of these, but that's crazy money. There are some really, really nice vintage Strats you could buy for 4k with where prices have been lately.


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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 2:45 am
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John C wrote:
boofie wrote:
John C wrote:
Slight hijack of this - I believe the guy who did the bowling ball Strats and Teles for Fender in 1984 is the one who later did those swirled guitars for Ibanez - the JEMs and the Universe 7-strings - and Steve Vai. I believe the name was Herc (don't know if that's his first name, last name, or only name like Sting or Maddona :lol: )

Cool piece of history; I've seen a lot of oddball guitars in my day but I never did wind up seeing a bowling ball Fender in person, only in photos. Looking forward to seeing boofie's photos of his once he gets it back.



yes its the same guy that ended up going to ibanez after fender said thanks for the 200+ ones you did we wont be needing any more. His name was Darren Johansen. They still show up on the used market from time to time. I know of a blue strat and a gold tele for sale right now (both overpirced in my opinion) and I did see a red one in a store a several years ago. outside of that the only other ones I have seen for sale I didnt see in person. Only online ads.



Ah - that's right, it was Darren that did the originals; the Herc guy I was thinking of is a guy who did replicas of the Ibanez finishes - send him your RG body and he would do a JEM-style swirl on it. I had a buddy who was really into collecting the Ibanez back in the mid-1990s so all this is getting pretty hazy these days.


are you thinking of Herc Fede ?


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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 2:47 am
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kcfenderfan wrote:
Yowza! Due to the extreme rarity, I don't think $2,500 or so is out of the question for a nice one of these, but that's crazy money. There are some really, really nice vintage Strats you could buy for 4k with where prices have been lately.


Indeed. Keep in mind those are USD prices after doing a conversion from Yen to dollar so you get hit with the exchange rate as well. and the ones I have seen for sale now are far from what I would call really nice examples.

Boof


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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 7:28 am
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boofie wrote:
are you thinking of Herc Fede ?


Yes! Thanks; as I said I wasn't that into them and was mixing up Darren (who did the originals) with Herc (who either is still or was recently doing the swirl finishes). I became a member of the Jemsite forum when I was looking for some info on the late 70s/early 80s Artist and Musician models several years ago and still check in over there maybe once every couple of months; I'm sure that's where I picked up Herc Fede's name.


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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 1:17 pm
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Here is one from our own French collectors'site
http://www.guitarmotel.com/index.php/th ... ball-proto

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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 1:41 pm
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As I am a really nice guy, see how to do it :wink:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgx8N1mpS6s

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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:37 am
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FedEx came today. It was in better shape than I thought it would be in for a guitar I hadnt played in about 10 years.
Serial is an E3 heal of the neck has nov 84 stamped on it. Obviously the EMGs are not original.

Image

Image


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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 5:36 pm
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Nice! Pretty decent swirl on that one and the condition does look to be very good. Congrats on getting it back. How does it sound with the EMGs? Any Gilmour in there?


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Post subject: Re: What are bowling ball strats worth these days?
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2013 8:43 pm
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no DG EMGs just the regular SA and an 81 (maybe an 85 ) in the bridge. Sounds pretty much as you would expect for any guitar with EMGs in it. On the surface it does look to be in good condition. A couple very small dings on the back that you cant see unless you are really looking for them. Since it had a crack in teh bridge and my cousin fix it up it does seem to have fixed the issue of gradualy going flat and can now stay in tune.

The nut I think I will replace. At some point something happened and I have no idea what but the b string slot seems to be just a tad too low. when adjusting the saddles for the height it get more buzz than it should on the open B but is fine fretted unless I raise the saddle to the point where it seems a bit awkward. but it is do able right now as it is.

the neck has darkened a bit over time since I had the laqor removed from the back of the neck and fretboard. its somewhat noticable in the pics. That is just what happens with time... I thoguht it would be alot dirtier than it was. Overall its in decent condition for a plaer guitar and I see some room to make a few things a little better for stability.


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