It has a wood solid body and black laquer finish. I know this because the laquer has severly checked and flaked off in some areas. Denny
Those are cool, isn't that an Ampeg amp next to the Fender? I can't read the name but it looks like those bass amps that Ampeg used to sell...???
Thanks! It’s a 1961 B-15 Ampeg that I bought from Chuck Flynn about 20 years ago. Those amps are what you hear on a lot of Motown bass recordings. It’s really good for light finger picking. Only like 25 watts or so.
My brother in law had something to do with that deal. He was working for a traveling antique buyer at the time. It was a 1960 Les Paul if I remember correctly?
Yeah, B-15, that's it...those are great amps, they do have a tendency for the tubes to get noisy...but that's typical for old tube amps. I used to have a small Polytone amp, was similar in size but newer electronics in it...but my main amp was a Walter Woods. I wish I still had one of those...I consider them about the best small bass amp built. I actually purchased 10 or 12 amps from Walter which I sold to Japan about 25-30 years ago. For that matter, I wish I had a B-15...
That must have been a different deal. The guitar I was talking/typing about was a '58/'59 Explorer, one of the rarest vintage electric guitars. The Les Pauls had a lot more made, but also very expensive at this point in time.
The most expensive vintage electric guitar, AFAIK. Remember, there is only believed to be about 50 of these guitars built. When they built these in the 70s, they changed the name to the Destroyer. The original korina Explorer, there were only about 50 built AFAIK.
Schooled..... I was in burst heaven until you layed that on me. I’d assume the Korina V’s are stupid money too then?
Yes, indeed they are. Same kind of deal, they made reissues in the '70s, but I think there were something like 350 of the Vs built. I can't remember exactly off the top of my head. An original V is worth more than a sunburst. That said, the sunburst is one of the most sought after guitars by many people.
... I found this B-15 sitting at the curb for the next day's trash pickup last year ... Brought it home ... crossed my fingers and plugged it in ... I couldn't believe all the tubes lit up and it worked like a charm! ... I listed it on CL the next day and it sold within hours ...
Honestly man, I think a lot of the problem is that dollar-for-dollar, guitars of the years for which the HAMB is relevant are significantly more expensive than their automotive counterparts. I mean lets face reality, I can buy a pretty nice 59 Ford for $15,000.00, but a 59 Les Paul is going to cost more than most homes in America. Pre-CBS Fender stuff costs a fortune, too, though on a much lesser scale. The only early guitars that I feel like you'd actually want are Gretsch, where you can still get a decent Pre-64 Nashville, Country Gent or Anniversary for under 10K.
Joe, You hit the nail on the head there. Unfortunately I never had imagined myself that vintage guitars would appreciate at the rate they have over the past 30 years. It is all supply and demand so if people are willing to pay the prices, I 'spose they're worth it to them. For some reason people aren't willing to pay the prices on vintage cars and trucks, and I would even say that sales are TOUGH on any of them, take a long time to find the right buyer and they don't hold their value very well either. It seems easier to sell a $250,000 sunburst Les Paul than a $25,000 completely restored and immaculate car/truck. The other factor on guitars is that it's not easy to get a good handle on all the various vintage guitars, because we don't have so much data on them to reference, so much of it is learned by taking apart and re-assembling guitars. No shop manuals, no details on what parts go where...it's all learn as you go...so the folks who have been doing it for some time have an advantage over the newbie. Don't kid yourself on those Nashvilles, Country Gents and Anniversaries, especially the Country Gents. Any guitar the Beatles played has been collectable for 50 years. I wouldn't mind having a White Falcon though...But look how you talk about buying a $10,000 guitar which you reference as being affordable...I mean, seriously, $10k is a lot of money for a guitar, IMO... Again, supply and demand, if people are willing to pay the prices they must be worth it to them.
Jimmy, Some of those Stella lap steels are pretty cool. There was some made in the late '30s and had similar horseshoe pickups on them as the Rickenbacker fry pans, I sold a lot of fry pans. The fry pan is generally considered to be one of the first lap steels that had a pickup. Those Stellas were made out of Bakelite mostly. During the 40s and 50s there were tons of Bakelite lap steels.
I actually have a rickenbacker b7 Lap steel. I have had it for quite a while but have never plugged it in to see what happens. Its been a couple of years since I’ve looked into it but remember getting conflicting information online when trying to ID the year. I’ll fish that out and post some pics Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Here's my '59 Tele, which I bought around 1977 for $225 from Fullerton Music, when I was about 18 years old. I played this guitar live for years, took it out to many, many parties, gigs, rehearsals, was my daily driver so to speak. I still have it, but it's a closet queen these days, I don't take it out of the house except for special occasions. I have about 6 Tele's now, my favorite model of guitar.
Here's my old Mustang, I've had this one since the early 70's, before I bought the Tele. I need to get this one fixed back up and in playing condition. Here's the case for it. I applied this poster to it when I was a stupid teenager, about 1973 - 1974 probably. I thought it was cool then. Now it's been on these so long I hate to take it off, it's kind of a period piece now. Here's the Mustang and the Tele with the old Peavey stack I used with that first band I was in, hahaha. One more while I'm reminiscing, here I am at a house party with the band, I was definitely under age, enjoying a Budweiser or 2.
OK, how about Dan Electro? Any Dan Electro fans? I love these guitars, incredibly cool, great sounding, great playing, cheap ass formica guitars. All the cool kids played Dan Electro. This model is called the Convertible. Sounds great acoustic or plugged in.
Somebody above mentioned Harmony guitars, here's my late 50's Silvertone, made by Harmony. This is the model with the famous P13 pickups. This is the quintessential jump, swing, west coast blues guitar, nothing else sounds like this. Here's a shot of me using it on a gig. Damn that guitar kicks ass!
I had a lefty '66 "Beatle" bass Hofner. Hated it. The dot markers were on the other side of the neck. I just couldn't get used to it. Sold it and went back to my MIJ Fender P bass.
Yeah, I had a pile of old Fenders, Gibsons, a Gretsch or two and 60's Fender tube amps. Sold it all and the money went into my Hot Rods.
Man you have a lot of really cool guitar's. Tele's are also my favorite guitar. I had a 57 for about six years back in the early 80's, everyone was always trying to buy that one. My Mustang must be close to the same year as yours, as the case looks almost the same (minus the sticker). I'm sure they used the same case for many years. I love the Dan Electro guitars and basses, my uncle has owned one since the late sixty's. I like the look of the lip stick pickup's. That silver tone is just plain cool.
OK, here's another Silvertone, this one made by the Kay guitar company. Sears bought guitars from several mfgr's, Harmony, Kay, Dan Electro, and others, and relabeled them with the Silvertone brand. Somebody along the way removed the Silvertone name plte from the head stock, but I've tracked down what it is via research over the internets. Similar to Kay's model popularly known as the Speed Demon, only with a few unique twists. First of all, it is a hollow body guitar, not chambered, completely hollow; but they did not add the usual "F" holes in this model for some reason. That is unusual. Also, they did add the fancy binding on the body. And the Volume/Tone controls on this are very unusual, with 3 Volume controls (1 for each pickup) and 2 Tone controls, which I really can't quite figure out how they're wired up. Guitar wiring isn't very difficult to understand, but without pulling it all out of the body to see what they've done, I can't quite figure it out, the Tone controls do not operate like any Tone controls I've ever used, it's really weird. Both controls work on all 3 pickups, but they do not just roll off the treble like the usual Tone control does. It's weird, I can't explain them, but I just twist them until I'm happy with the tone and go with it. The pickups are pretty common Kay "Speedbump" pickups, single coils, they sound sort of like a fat Fender pickup. Not quite as hot as a Gibson P90, but hotter than a Strat or Tele.
Speaking of Kay's, here's a 40's era Kay archtop, all mahogany body and neck. This one sits by my desk and gets played more than any of them. It could stand to have new frets and a new nut installed and a good setup performed, but I play the hell out of it like it is. This is like an old survivor Model A jalopy banger rod. Not very fast, not fancy, not worth a ton of money, but just plain fun.
Here's an early 50's Fender lap slide. I used to play around with this quite a bit, but haven't had it out of it's case in years. Hard to fit a lap slide into a live performance. It needs new heads for the tuning keys, the old bakelite plastic disintegrated.
The Jalopy Journal
