NGD - Custom Time Again!

[slowhand84]

Scores like this are why I will never stop singing the praises of GC Used from the mountaintops...that place is just a straight up goldmine!

Paid $399 at GC last week for this thing, from a builder out in Utah...company is called "Joe's Guitars". Apparently he's been building since the 1980s and this particular model is about $2,200 new.

It was dropped off early this morning, soon as I pulled it out and saw a $200 G&G case I knew I probably made a good decision...and indeed I have. What a beast!

Specs include a beautiful mahogany body (hollowbody construction with a 4" tone block), a pretty stunning 1/4 inch flame maple top, Duncan pickups (will found out which in a bit), maple neck with rosewood fretboard, Gotoh Japan tuners, etc. Even has a push-pull pot for the bridge pickup.

Because of the construction the guitar is super light (probably a little under 6 lbs) and the way it's shaped make it super comfy both sitting and standing. Fretwork is flawless, and it doesn't even need a setup as action and intonation are spot on. Just going to oil the board and change the strings and away we go.

Here come some pics, they really don't do the top any justice.

[slowhand84]

[Flatline]

That looks great!

[TVvoodoo]

Damn that is a beauty my friend. You should actually have your own "Guitar Hunt" blog or something on what you are doing.
or maybe "Poach" would be a better term

[mickey]

Looks to me like its mother took thalidomide during the pregnancy.

[slowhand84]

Looks to me like its mother took thalidomide during the pregnancy.

Well it's mother was some dude out in Utah, so naturally it's going to be a rough start . I'm sure the body shape ain't everyone's cup of tea, but I love funky weird shapes so it's a winner for me. I'm naming it "The Persistence of Memory", or "Dali" for short

Here's a few more pics attempting to do some justice to this monster top:

[UrenragK]

I dig that, great score!

[RiverDog]

Gorgeous! You're killing it my man.

[slowhand84]

Thanks folks! Addin' a few final pics here now that it's all cleaned up. Sounds and plays amazing!

[slowhand84]

Few final shots, found some custom wood knobs I had lying around that fit the guitar much better:

[slowhand84]

Damn that is a beauty my friend. You should actually have your own "Guitar Hunt" blog or something on what you are doing.
or maybe "Poach" would be a better term

I would be a liar if I said I’ve never thought about it hahaha. Thank you sir, hope you’re doing well!

[Mossman]

Cool! I like the body shape, but I'm not crazy about the slanted neck pickup. It just makes the guitar look weird.

[slowhand84]

Cool! I like the body shape, but I'm not crazy about the slanted neck pickup. It just makes the guitar look weird.

Yeah I don’t disagree with you on the “weirdness” factor of the neck pup slant but it does seem to have an effect on the tone a bit...maybe a little more balanced? Hard to explain but there seems to be some reason behind it. This is also 24.75 scale, which is sweet.

All in all, if I had to pay the full $2200 new price this wouldn’t be the thing I’d buy, but at $399 with this absolutely absurd build quality and specs it’s a no brainer even if it is a little Dali-esque .

[Mossman]

Cool! I like the body shape, but I'm not crazy about the slanted neck pickup. It just makes the guitar look weird.

Yeah I don’t disagree with you on the “weirdness” factor of the neck pup slant but it does seem to have an effect on the tone a bit...maybe a little more balanced? Hard to explain but there seems to be some reason behind it. This is also 24.75 scale, which is sweet.

All in all, if I had to pay the full $2200 new price this wouldn’t be the thing I’d buy, but at $399 with this absolutely absurd build quality and specs it’s a no brainer even if it is a little Dali-esque .

Yeah, I'm sure there was a tonal reason for slanting the pickup. I was actually waiting for somebody to say: "oh, so that's what makes the guitar look weird??"

I like it, though... There's a fine line between "unique" and "ugly", and I don't think that guitar crosses that line.

You'd think GC would have taken 30 seconds to find out what they had, before slapping a $399 price tag on it, though... But I think all they let them do is look up closed ebay listings, and I doubt they found another one of those guitars on there.

[slowhand84]

Cool! I like the body shape, but I'm not crazy about the slanted neck pickup. It just makes the guitar look weird.

Yeah I don’t disagree with you on the “weirdness” factor of the neck pup slant but it does seem to have an effect on the tone a bit...maybe a little more balanced? Hard to explain but there seems to be some reason behind it. This is also 24.75 scale, which is sweet.

All in all, if I had to pay the full $2200 new price this wouldn’t be the thing I’d buy, but at $399 with this absolutely absurd build quality and specs it’s a no brainer even if it is a little Dali-esque .

Yeah, I'm sure there was a tonal reason for slanting the pickup. I was actually waiting for somebody to say: "oh, so that's what makes the guitar look weird??"

I like it, though... There's a fine line between "unique" and "ugly", and I don't think that guitar crosses that line.

You'd think GC would have taken 30 seconds to find out what they had, before slapping a $399 price tag on it, though... But I think all they let them do is look up closed ebay listings, and I doubt they found another one of those guitars on there.

Yeah basically that's it, if they can't find a sold listing anywhere (think they check Reverb too?) I think they just arbitrarily price it at whatever they feel will get it sold quickly. With this situation though as with every other GC score I have to wonder why someone would accept chump change for an instrument of this quality. I get sometimes folks want a quick n' easy sale, but I just can't imagine leaving that kind of money on the table. Custom stuff is admittedly sometimes hard to sell, but I can imagine if this was posted on CL or Reverb at even double what I paid it'd have sold same day no problem. Given that I paid $399, the previous owner got $200...ouch.

[mighty_duck]

HNGD
That top is truly a work of art!
Another steal for your collection

Yeah basically that's it, if they can't find a sold listing anywhere (think they check Reverb too?) I think they just arbitrarily price it at whatever they feel will get it sold quickly. With this situation though as with every other GC score I have to wonder why someone would accept chump change for an instrument of this quality. I get sometimes folks want a quick n' easy sale, but I just can't imagine leaving that kind of money on the table. Custom stuff is admittedly sometimes hard to sell, but I can imagine if this was posted on CL or Reverb at even double what I paid it'd have sold same day no problem. Given that I paid $399, the previous owner got $200...ouch.

Lots of things come to mind.
Estate sale?
Bitter ex-girlfriend?
Stolen?
Needed drug money quick?
Brain damage?

[slowhand84]

HNGD
That top is truly a work of art!
Another steal for your collection

Yeah basically that's it, if they can't find a sold listing anywhere (think they check Reverb too?) I think they just arbitrarily price it at whatever they feel will get it sold quickly. With this situation though as with every other GC score I have to wonder why someone would accept chump change for an instrument of this quality. I get sometimes folks want a quick n' easy sale, but I just can't imagine leaving that kind of money on the table. Custom stuff is admittedly sometimes hard to sell, but I can imagine if this was posted on CL or Reverb at even double what I paid it'd have sold same day no problem. Given that I paid $399, the previous owner got $200...ouch.

Lots of things come to mind.
Estate sale?
Bitter ex-girlfriend?
Stolen?
Needed drug money quick?
Brain damage?

GC does extensive checks for stolen gear (there’s a hold time before it goes up for sale, etc.) so that’s definitely not the case, but the rest of it is certainly plausible. Either way I’m glad to be there to scoop some of these up .

[Mossman]

Yeah basically that's it, if they can't find a sold listing anywhere (think they check Reverb too?) I think they just arbitrarily price it at whatever they feel will get it sold quickly. With this situation though as with every other GC score I have to wonder why someone would accept chump change for an instrument of this quality. I get sometimes folks want a quick n' easy sale, but I just can't imagine leaving that kind of money on the table. Custom stuff is admittedly sometimes hard to sell, but I can imagine if this was posted on CL or Reverb at even double what I paid it'd have sold same day no problem. Given that I paid $399, the previous owner got $200...ouch.

Drugs and alcohol will make you do things you wouldn't ordinarily do... And time is of the essence.

[slowhand84]

Yeah basically that's it, if they can't find a sold listing anywhere (think they check Reverb too?) I think they just arbitrarily price it at whatever they feel will get it sold quickly. With this situation though as with every other GC score I have to wonder why someone would accept chump change for an instrument of this quality. I get sometimes folks want a quick n' easy sale, but I just can't imagine leaving that kind of money on the table. Custom stuff is admittedly sometimes hard to sell, but I can imagine if this was posted on CL or Reverb at even double what I paid it'd have sold same day no problem. Given that I paid $399, the previous owner got $200...ouch.

Drugs and alcohol will make you do things you wouldn't ordinarily do... And time is of the essence.

Yeah I just find it hard to believe given how many of these I’ve grabbed that there are that many guitarists who own high end customs and also have those issues to that extent...but who knows.

[glasshand]

Yeah I just find it hard to believe given how many of these I’ve grabbed that there are that many guitarists who own high end customs and also have those issues to that extent...but who knows.

Just the other day I was looking at a used guitar in a local shop - all Warmoth stuff I think, really nice: beautiful flame top, natural "binding", compensated nut, matching headstock, etc. etc. And the saleman and I were wondering what made someone get what was obviously a very custom piece to their own tastes, and then go sell it. But I suppose there's always drugs and alcohol, to say nothing of loss of job, etc.

[slowhand84]

Yeah I just find it hard to believe given how many of these I’ve grabbed that there are that many guitarists who own high end customs and also have those issues to that extent...but who knows.

Just the other day I was looking at a used guitar in a local shop - all Warmoth stuff I think, really nice: beautiful flame top, natural "binding", compensated nut, matching headstock, etc. etc. And the saleman and I were wondering what made someone get what was obviously a very custom piece to their own tastes, and then go sell it. But I suppose there's always drugs and alcohol, to say nothing of loss of job, etc.

Yeah I mean custom stuff can be sold for the same reasons as non-custom stuff...tastes change, you want something else, etc. It's not always some kind of depressing reason, a few of the guitars I've gotten from my local GC and I know the manager there....there was one guy who brought several customs in because he was moving and just didn't have the space for the extra ones so he got rid of 'em cheap.

[mickey]

Sometimes people order customs and do not like them when they arrive.
My Agile Harm was one of the semi customs and I am the third owner.
I think it was less than a year old when I got it.
I do not know the whole story but I like it.

[honyock]

Sometimes people order customs and do not like them when they arrive.
My Agile Harm was one of the semi customs and I am the third owner.
I think it was less than a year old when I got it.
I do not know the whole story but I like it.

I knew you wanted it more than me, but the original owner would only take Paypal so I ended up with it. I figured it deserved more play time than I was giving it.

[slowhand84]

Sometimes people order customs and do not like them when they arrive.
My Agile Harm was one of the semi customs and I am the third owner.
I think it was less than a year old when I got it.
I do not know the whole story but I like it.

Yeah that’s true, there are a lot of folks who jump on the custom thing without really having the right idea of what they want so when the guitar is born it’s not what they had in mind or it doesn’t perform the way they expected. Like anything else the more knowledge you have going into it the better the end result will be.

[glasshand]

Yeah that’s true, there are a lot of folks who jump on the custom thing without really having the right idea of what they want so when the guitar is born it’s not what they had in mind or it doesn’t perform the way they expected. Like anything else the more knowledge you have going into it the better the end result will be.

That's very true too. In my time I've built a couple guitars, and some of them turned out great, and some of them to be not quite what I'd hoped.