I want to love estate guitars for all kinds of reasons. My first estate guitar is my flame natural Gibson ES-335. Because lefties are hard to come by, the wife and I took a road trip to Kansas City for an estate sale of a lefty guitarist. There were about 10 great guitars there, and I had to compete with 3 store representatives bidding over them. I missed out on an R9, an R8, and a disassembled LP Standard because they went too high. I let the dealers have the acoustics, but I really wanted the 335, and I did win it. Being able to play it before bidding showed me how perfect it was, and I respect it at least as much as its first owner did. As a bonus, we had a great night on the town before returning home the next day. On top of that, the wife got into the whole guitar buying thing, and went on more trips with me after that, not to reel me back in, but to take part. Just awesome.
But not all estate guitars are within an overnight trip, so complications arise. When you can't check out the guitar in person, you have to depend on reliable descriptions. Those come from honest player/owners, but you often can't get good descriptions from people who inherit the guitars. In at least several cases, I have bought guitars from surviving parents, and those have not gone well.
My first round with uninformed owners was over a 2002 Limited Edition Takamine Whale acoustic electric. The ebay seller did not convey that he was selling his late son's guitars. On top of that, he tried to come off as knowing the guitar well and listed it as being in "new" condition. What arrived was a seriously weathered guitar with over-dried areas and rusty steel parts. The battery was rusted into the preamp, and the frets were too pitted to play reasonably. The seller then told me it was his late son's guitar. It might be that since he didn't play, he could not see how far the condition was from his description, but suffice to say we strongly disagreed on what "new" meant. As bad as I felt for him losing his son, I was not going to take a bath on a badly described poor condition guitar. It was heartbreaking on both ends, and the return was a nightmare. So much so that I swore off ebay for over a year. But you have to take the good with the bad so I got over that.
A few years later, an auction popped up for one of my dream guitars, a lefty red MIJ Gretsch Billy Bo Jupiter Thunderbird (to each his own, right?). The pictures were not detailed, but looked good, and it was described as "fantastic, barely used". I was the high bidder, but the auction closed without meeting the reserve. The seller reached out to me as the high bidder and tried to get me to buy it for more than my top bid, I said no, but I offered to still buy it at the closing bid price, and he agreed. When it arrived, I found damages that were not pictured. They appeared to be for two causes - first, someone modding a guitar who had no idea what they were doing, and second, someone converting a lefty guitar to play righty, then putting it back lefty. As much as I liked those TV Jones pickups, I again was not about to accept a badly described guitar with undisclosed issues. This seller became highly argumentative, and then I learned it was his son's guitar, and after his son's suicide, he wanted it gone. Sigh. I was as nice as I could be about the return, but was not going to keep an expensive problem guitar.
I understand that someone who inherits a guitar and can't play it may see it as a beautiful instrument and fail to see its flaws. But I hate being the person to have to expose those problems and diminish their perspectives when they're already suffering a loss. I guess my bottom line here is that I am deciding to tell my family that when my time comes, they should sell my gear through a reputable auction house, and not even attempt to save a few bucks. I think that's better for sellers and buyers.
Estate guitars
I have never bought a guitar from an estate. And I have spent 60+ years trying to get some really nice lefty guitars.
As you know that is a more difficult chore than righty's would believe. I have managed to get a few really nice ones.
But only two that I would consider "estate" guitars. Oddly, both are nylon string guitars.
Back in 2002 I was spending much of my spare time hanging around UMGF (Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum.)
I met a guy there (whose name escapes me at the moment) who worked for Martin and he told me that ANY guitar
that Martin has ever had in production, they will special order if a dealer places an order for one or more.
I fell in love with Willie's N-20 (Trigger) the first time I heard it and always wanted one! But Martin had only ever made
three or four hundred N-20's and none in decades. Not 100% true because they made 100 in 1998 to celebrate the
30th birthday of Trigger, but I had missed that. For 20 years I had had an office about 2 blocks from George Gruhn's
guitar store (and had even met Willie & Grady Martin there) where I spent too many lunch hours over the years.
So I phoned George and asked him about putting one on order for me (to my specs) but George wasn't interested.
(George was more interested in finding a used one of the 1998 run and converting it to lefty for me. But that was NOT
what I wanted because those have a 2.25" neck & I wanted something slimmer!)
So I phoned Jimmy Duncan at Southpaw Guitars in Houston, TX and Jimmy was happy to order one for me!
It was November 5, 2002 when Jimmy got the guitar on order. Martin promised it in May of 2003. So I paid Jimmy
half down (apx $3500) and waited. Come May, Martin was saying June or July. Come July Martin was saying
August or September. So Jimmy and I spent a bunch of time on the phone cussing Martin, etc.
During that time, I told him about a guitar I had always wanted since the first time I saw it. It was a Gibson Chet Atkins CE.
At the time Chet was in the process of attempting to retire but one Monday a month he played a show at a little restaurant
around the corner from my office. He always had a guest with him & you never knew who that would be. It was a small place
and the audience could chat with the folks on stage between numbers.
An aside, Chet & Kenneth "Jethro" Burns married sisters. One Monday Chet had Jethro with him as his guest. Someone in the audience
asked if it was true they married identical twin sisters. Chet replies, yes. So the guy asked "How do you tell them apart?"
Jethro quickly replied: "Shucks, I ain't never tried!" From the expression on Chet's face I would have given a week's pay
to be a fly on the wall the first time those two were alone in private!
Anyway, one night Chet had a guitar I had never seen him play & it sounded better (to me) than any guitar I had ever seen him play!
So I asked what it was? A Gibson Chet Atkins CE, a chambered solidbody nylon string that Gibson had just put into production.
The following morning I phoned George Gruhn and told him I wanted a lefty Gibson Chet Atkins CE. George said he would get it on order and call me back.
Well, George called me back and said that Gibson had refused the order. So I said "But you can throw an extra $1000 at Gibson & they will turn it over to
the Custom Shop and they will build it." George replied that he had tried that already and hit a brick wall, the answer was no.
So I drove over to Gibson HQ & made an ass of myself about it until they got a "suit" to speak with me about it.
I was told that Henry had made the decision & there would never be any lefty Chet Atkins CE's. PERIOD.
What I did not know was that this was the time when Henry was trying to bring the Custom Shop from Kalamazoo
to Nashville. Which failed & caused Heritage guitars to be formed.
During the course of our conversations about the Martin N-20 I had told Jimmy about my experience with the CE.
This got Jimmy thinking "I am a Gibson Lefty Dealer, wonder what they would tell me?"
So he called Gibson HQ and was told the production of the CE had been moved to Montana and he needed to talk to Montana.
So, he called Montana and asked what it would take for him to order a CE?
He was told that if any dealer ordered 4 or more, they would make them. So he ordered four.
He never told me about this until the first one arrived & he emailed me about a dozen pictures of it.
I phoned him and asked if it was in FedEx hands uet?
I had it the following day.
A few months later, the Martin N-20 arrived, September 25, 2003 to be exact.
Thank you Jimmy!
Shortly after Montana made the 4 CE's (actually 3 CE's and one CEC) the Atkins estate moved the endorsement back home to Gretsch.
So those are the only ones that will ever be made.
As of 2003, my N-20 is the only lefty N-20 Martin has ever made. So far as I have been able to find out, the count still stands at one.
I hope those two guitars don't get listed on CL once I am gone.
As you know that is a more difficult chore than righty's would believe. I have managed to get a few really nice ones.
But only two that I would consider "estate" guitars. Oddly, both are nylon string guitars.
Back in 2002 I was spending much of my spare time hanging around UMGF (Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum.)
I met a guy there (whose name escapes me at the moment) who worked for Martin and he told me that ANY guitar
that Martin has ever had in production, they will special order if a dealer places an order for one or more.
I fell in love with Willie's N-20 (Trigger) the first time I heard it and always wanted one! But Martin had only ever made
three or four hundred N-20's and none in decades. Not 100% true because they made 100 in 1998 to celebrate the
30th birthday of Trigger, but I had missed that. For 20 years I had had an office about 2 blocks from George Gruhn's
guitar store (and had even met Willie & Grady Martin there) where I spent too many lunch hours over the years.
So I phoned George and asked him about putting one on order for me (to my specs) but George wasn't interested.
(George was more interested in finding a used one of the 1998 run and converting it to lefty for me. But that was NOT
what I wanted because those have a 2.25" neck & I wanted something slimmer!)
So I phoned Jimmy Duncan at Southpaw Guitars in Houston, TX and Jimmy was happy to order one for me!
It was November 5, 2002 when Jimmy got the guitar on order. Martin promised it in May of 2003. So I paid Jimmy
half down (apx $3500) and waited. Come May, Martin was saying June or July. Come July Martin was saying
August or September. So Jimmy and I spent a bunch of time on the phone cussing Martin, etc.
During that time, I told him about a guitar I had always wanted since the first time I saw it. It was a Gibson Chet Atkins CE.
At the time Chet was in the process of attempting to retire but one Monday a month he played a show at a little restaurant
around the corner from my office. He always had a guest with him & you never knew who that would be. It was a small place
and the audience could chat with the folks on stage between numbers.
An aside, Chet & Kenneth "Jethro" Burns married sisters. One Monday Chet had Jethro with him as his guest. Someone in the audience
asked if it was true they married identical twin sisters. Chet replies, yes. So the guy asked "How do you tell them apart?"
Jethro quickly replied: "Shucks, I ain't never tried!" From the expression on Chet's face I would have given a week's pay
to be a fly on the wall the first time those two were alone in private!
Anyway, one night Chet had a guitar I had never seen him play & it sounded better (to me) than any guitar I had ever seen him play!
So I asked what it was? A Gibson Chet Atkins CE, a chambered solidbody nylon string that Gibson had just put into production.
The following morning I phoned George Gruhn and told him I wanted a lefty Gibson Chet Atkins CE. George said he would get it on order and call me back.
Well, George called me back and said that Gibson had refused the order. So I said "But you can throw an extra $1000 at Gibson & they will turn it over to
the Custom Shop and they will build it." George replied that he had tried that already and hit a brick wall, the answer was no.
So I drove over to Gibson HQ & made an ass of myself about it until they got a "suit" to speak with me about it.
I was told that Henry had made the decision & there would never be any lefty Chet Atkins CE's. PERIOD.
What I did not know was that this was the time when Henry was trying to bring the Custom Shop from Kalamazoo
to Nashville. Which failed & caused Heritage guitars to be formed.
During the course of our conversations about the Martin N-20 I had told Jimmy about my experience with the CE.
This got Jimmy thinking "I am a Gibson Lefty Dealer, wonder what they would tell me?"
So he called Gibson HQ and was told the production of the CE had been moved to Montana and he needed to talk to Montana.
So, he called Montana and asked what it would take for him to order a CE?
He was told that if any dealer ordered 4 or more, they would make them. So he ordered four.
He never told me about this until the first one arrived & he emailed me about a dozen pictures of it.
I phoned him and asked if it was in FedEx hands uet?
I had it the following day.
A few months later, the Martin N-20 arrived, September 25, 2003 to be exact.
Thank you Jimmy!
Shortly after Montana made the 4 CE's (actually 3 CE's and one CEC) the Atkins estate moved the endorsement back home to Gretsch.
So those are the only ones that will ever be made.
As of 2003, my N-20 is the only lefty N-20 Martin has ever made. So far as I have been able to find out, the count still stands at one.
I hope those two guitars don't get listed on CL once I am gone.
Gandalf the Intonationer
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