Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: The Sandman Date: 06 Feb 25 - 04:40 AM Jack, why do you hate guitars |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Rusty Dobro Date: 06 Feb 25 - 03:40 AM Two entries here: firstly, my brother found me a Mugen twelve-string for £2 at a car-boot sale. It’s an early Japanese Martin copy, and after a new set of strings and a cog for the tuners, I really cannot imagine that the Martin would sound or play any better. Secondly, not the cheapest, but I found a Martin D18 at the back of a music shop. It was covered with dust, had professionally repaired damage to the back, and showed signs that someone had opened a can of beer too close to it (at least, I hope that’s what it was!) It sounded completely dead, but I took a chance and bought it as it was half the price of a ‘respectable ’ one. Luckily a set of new strings and a set-up brought it to life, and it has been much admired ever since. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Jack Campin Date: 04 Feb 25 - 07:29 PM Got one from a charity shop for £3 about ten years ago. Restrung it and kept it for about a year before giving it to another charity shop. Nothing wrong with it but it reminded me how much I hate guitars. Bought a bansuri for the same price about the same time. Now THAT is something worth keeping. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Bat Goddess Date: 04 Feb 25 - 06:27 PM My parents bought me a $19.95 guitar from Treasure Island (discount arm of JCPenney) that played like a truck back in my mid-teen years when I was teaching myself to play. Next summer I got myself a job so could invest $40 in an f-hole acoustic that had a slightly warped neck. But the BEST buy I ever got on a guitar was at a yardsale around twenty-five years ago. It was a brand new Chinese-made "Mark II" acoustic and came with a case that wasn't padded. The kid had paid $200 for it and then got it home and realized he'd have to learn to play it because it didn't automatically confer that skill upon purchase. It's got really nice action and a sweet tone, and a neck that's perfect for my small female hand. He sold it to me for $50. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST Date: 04 Feb 25 - 04:01 PM the best value guitar i ever bought was a Vintage it cost me 200 about 15years ago and i prefer it to the Fylde which cost8 times that in the 1980s |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,PHJim Date: 04 Feb 25 - 02:52 PM About a half century ago, I saw an ad in the Buy& Sell paper for a "192? Martin guitar, worth $1000; asking price $200. Modernly decorated." A bit worried about what "Modernly decorated" meant, I hopped in my car and headed to Toronto to buy the guitar. When I got there, I saw a guitar with beautiful slab-cut Brazilian back and sides and the ugliest paint job I'd ever seen on the front. It had once had a huge pick guard screwed to the front, but the holes were now filled with what looked like drywall mud. The bridge was not original and had been pulled off by the heavy guage strings that were on it. The photo below shows what someone who didn't know the value of this old O-21 did to it. tragically modified Martin )-21 from the twenties I offered the guy $50 for it and he said, "Yes," without taking a breath. I traded it and a bunch of other stuff and some cash for my 1962 D-21 about two weeks later. The owner of the guitar shop, Ed Dick, told me that he had repaired the guitar and it was now owned by a musician, Wendy, who lived in B.C. I sent her a photo of what the guitar looked like when I got it and she sent me back a current photo. She loves the guitar in its present condition. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Mark Ross Date: 04 Feb 25 - 02:40 PM $14.95 in 1964 at G.Schirmers in NYC. Sold it a year later for $15. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: gillymor Date: 04 Feb 25 - 12:16 PM I once traded a Pendleton sweater to my brother for a Terada Martin copy. I got a family deal on that one. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: The Og Date: 04 Feb 25 - 10:28 AM a $10 Stella ...yellow |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 04 Feb 25 - 08:55 AM Of the guitars I've bought, the cheapest iirc was an early Japanese twelve-string, bought second-hand so the lass could go on holiday. Had I realised how badly the neck was warped (think: someone tried to wring a banana out like a towel), and that the truss rod nut was seized solid (brass on steel), I wouldn't have wasted the twelve quid. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Johnny J Date: 04 Feb 25 - 07:37 AM My first guitar was the cheapest. £20 in the late sixties. Things were cheaper then and the guitar was actually OK although not special. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,Fred Date: 04 Feb 25 - 04:57 AM I take back what is said about the Kay I had. Yes it was hard to play but it must have had something going for it because I kept it for it because I kept it for five years when I didn't have to. Cheers Fred |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,PHJim Date: 03 Feb 25 - 05:56 PM In 1960, I paid $75 for a 2 year old Goya M-26. It had a flame maple back and sides and a solid spruce sunburst top. I sold it about five or six years later and always regretted it. I found another 1958 M-26 about 25 years ago. It was more than $75, but still very reasonable. I still have it and play it as often as I do my Martin and Gibson guitars. Goya M-26 - Made in Gothenburg Sweden in 1958 |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Tattie Bogle Date: 03 Feb 25 - 05:26 PM I bought a steel-strung Hohner for £75 in the early 1990s: it did me well and had a nice tone. Eventually gave it away to a friend's grandson for the cost of a new set of machine-heads. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,The Sandman Date: 03 Feb 25 - 04:53 PM 6 pounds, for a classical guitar that was left handed, but wrongly stringed right handed, back in the sixties |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: John MacKenzie Date: 03 Feb 25 - 04:00 PM £5 for a nylon strung Hohner |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,Fred Date: 03 Feb 25 - 02:59 PM Ray, even though mine was hard to play, I stuck with it, it wasn't until 1965 that I had enough to look at guitars costing more :) Fred |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: gillymor Date: 03 Feb 25 - 12:51 PM It was a small plywood Harmony that played okay. I traded a full ounce of potent Columbian pot for it, about $20 worth. It got me started. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 03 Feb 25 - 12:48 PM Most of the guitars I've had were given to me. Does that count :-) ? |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,Ray Date: 03 Feb 25 - 12:40 PM Yes, Kay was a brand sold at Woolies but don't knock it. I remember the late great Cyril Tawney playing one. As for “cheapest guitars”, it really depends when you bought it. I paid £37-10s for a red label Yamaha FG180, my first Martin cost me £190 and I once missed a ‘74 Epiphone Texan which went for £40. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,Fred Date: 03 Feb 25 - 11:44 AM I remember it well. It was a £30 acoustic bought at Woolworths in 1960. Looking back, it was cheap and nasty, impossibly high action añd couldn't be tuned. I was going to be a star, but that didn't work out! Iim pretty sure it had a sticker on the headstock with the letter "K" Fred |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Don Firth Date: 01 Nov 12 - 09:33 PM Air guitar? Don Firth |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Wesley S Date: 01 Nov 12 - 09:31 PM Back in 1969 I paid right around $225.00 for a 1967 Martin D-18. I still have it. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,999 Date: 01 Nov 12 - 09:11 PM Nice to meet another dish washer, 'cept in my case it was pots. It was doing that that allowed me to buy Stella II, and talk about a nice guitar. D-28 with beautiful sound, equally good on bass and treble and all places in between. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Fossil Date: 01 Nov 12 - 09:00 PM Back in 1958, when I was 15 (you do the math...), worked a summer job driving a dishwasher in the cafeteria at Trentham Gardens, Stoke-on-Trent, UK. With the proceeds, I paid 15 UK pounds for a Hofner Verithin President guitar at the local Exchange and Mart shop. A beautiful blonde guitar with a cutaway, it got me into music lessons, later into a trad jazz band then (having fitted it with a pick-up) a rock group. Long gone now, of course, but I'd love to find another one. But I wouldn't get it for 15 nicker, I know that! |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Henry Krinkle Date: 01 Nov 12 - 03:19 PM I recently bought two of those Squier Strat and amp packs. One for $50. One for $60. They cost about $250 new. I got $100 trade in credit on an American Deluxe Strat with one of the guitars last week. And sold one of the amps with a cable for $45 this morning. So now I have about $650 in a super nice teal green American Deluxe Stratocaster with a nice hardshell case. I had bought a nice Gibson Les Paul 1960 Classic from the same guy a week earlier. He needed money. I love nice guitars. =(:-( D) |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Rusty Dobro Date: 01 Nov 12 - 01:35 PM My brother found me an old Mugen 12-string (Martin replica) at a car-boot sale. I spent £15 on strings and a couple of machine-head parts, and it plays like a dream - big sound, stays in tune, low action and no buzzes or rattles. Although I tune it down two steps, the bridge still lifted eventually, but the luthier tells me his repair will last for ever. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity Date: 01 Nov 12 - 01:25 AM I ain't sayin'!! GfS |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,DrWord Date: 01 Nov 12 - 12:55 AM ca.1950 Regal tenor guitar, rusty strings and beyond repair banjo-style tuners: thirty bucks. Tuners and strings were another twenty, and I play it almost daily. Best yard sale buy ever! And I even like the mustiness of the khaki cardboard case :) I prefer THIS thread, too, Betsy. keep on pickin' dennis |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Uncle Phil Date: 31 Oct 12 - 10:47 PM I have an all-mahogany baritone uke that someone gave me to secure a $15 loan about 40 years ago. I still play it pretty often, mostly late at night when guitar playing might wake up the house. - Phil |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,songbob Date: 31 Oct 12 - 10:29 PM Let's see. My fist guitar (1961) was $15 (brand new), and I've bought a few junkers in yard sales. Then there was the "guitar, $30" in the local shopper paper that turned out to be a 1932 Martin 0-18 (sunburst!). It took some work by a friend to set the neck and make it more playable (it wasn't so bad, but it did need the work). I even bought a Martin 000-28 for $150 or so one day. It sounded tinny and actually pretty bad. I took it home to change the strings, and as I loosened the 6th string, the tone improved. I checked the tuning -- it was five frets high! I didn't even change the strings; tuning it to standard made it bloom. I took it to the Alexandria Folklore Center and put it up for sale at $300 and sold it that day. (This was around 1967, so the prices look so much better than today's). But the top is the 1943 Martin 0-18 I still have, which came as a gift. Of course, resetting the neck (and replacing the bridge, which I'd planed too thin) cost $835, so the earlier 0-18 was the best buy. Bob |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Tattie Bogle Date: 31 Oct 12 - 09:03 PM Think it was about £12 at late 60s prices for a classical nylon strung guitar. Moved to a £25 Eko Texan in 1970 ( a lot of money then!) |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Betsy Date: 31 Oct 12 - 01:46 PM I like a success story Midchuck !!! |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Midchuck Date: 31 Oct 12 - 07:40 AM Strictly speaking, I didn't buy it. The lady, my wife, was volunteering for the setup of the big annual rummage sale our local Humane Society puts on. Volunteer workers got first chance to buy stuff. She came home with a mostly-plywood dreadnought from one of the big Pacific-rim builders - Ibanez, IIRC. People donating merchandise were supposed to price it themselves, and this had been donated with a marked price of US$5.00 - maybe three Pounds, British? It was very dirty, strings were rusty, etc. One assumes bought by a parent for a child who said they wanted to learn and then never did. I cleaned it up, changed the strings, adjusted the truss rod, sanded down the saddle a little, and sold it for $75.00 at our yard sale, and we went out to dinner. P. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Jim Carroll Date: 31 Oct 12 - 07:29 AM Back in the late 60s a mate of mine was passing a car saleroom in the centre of Liverpool when he saw a guitar hanging in the window of the office. Apart from the fact it was badly hand-painted it looked in reasonable condition, so he asked what they were wanting for it. The salesman told him that it was given in part exchange and he had no idea what to ask for it - they settled on £10.00 for the black, hand-painted Martin. Jim Carroll |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,Desi C Date: 31 Oct 12 - 07:24 AM I bought one in my youth for £40 in a mail order catalogue, It wasn't worth half that. First proper guitar was an aria Electro acoustic for £110, decent enough guitar, still got it for sale |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Henry Krinkle Date: 31 Oct 12 - 06:58 AM We're happy bragging about our indulgences. We deserved them for all the sacrifice and hard work. And our expensive guitars inspire us. =(:-( )) |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Betsy Date: 31 Oct 12 - 06:05 AM I've enjoyed reading THIS thread. I say THIS thread as I ( as I'm sure you could also) could have easily have made bold disclosures of expensive guitars I have, in another thread in Mudcat.I find that the stories here are extremely human , modest, nostalgic and good natured, and and avoid the vulgarity of bragging about expensive guitar purchases which we have made. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Henry Krinkle Date: 31 Oct 12 - 03:56 AM At least you didn't do it to something really nice. =(:-( )) |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: BlueJay Date: 31 Oct 12 - 03:20 AM Bought an old Harmony at a garage sale for five bucks. Action wasn't bad, and it sounded OK. My brilliant thinking led me to believe that I could turn it into a cutaway, so I took a saw to it, planning to turn the leftover upper side indide out, and thus completing the body. To my chagrin, I discovered that the body taper did not allow for a proper fit, so I just left the upper bout open. It still played and sounded pretty good, and sold it at a yard sale for about five bucks. It was fun while it lasted. Thanks, BlueJay |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Henry Krinkle Date: 31 Oct 12 - 01:53 AM $53 was alot of money back then. People would work all week for less than that. If ukes count I bought a pineapple uke for $5 or $10 in the early 90's. =(:-( )) |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Don Firth Date: 31 Oct 12 - 01:39 AM I had a Harmony 173 for awhile during the mid-1950s. I got it after I bought the Martin 00-28-G classical, to use for knocking about. The 173 was a darn nice guitar for the money. $53.00 as I recall. I had a number of guitar students who started on Harmony 910s. Good, serviceable instrument, especially for the money. Don Firth |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: musicmick Date: 30 Oct 12 - 11:25 PM My first guitar was a United Elitone, with action like a pasta slicer. My first good guitar was a new Harmony 910 (retailed for $35 in 1957) It played beautifully and the wood was so tough, I could have used it for a canoe paddle. It was the smaller of Harmony's classical guitar. The larger, more luxurious, model, the 173, was great, too. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: vectis Date: 30 Oct 12 - 07:31 PM I bought a Spanish reject direct from the factory for £3.50 when I was 16 and learned to play on it. Terrible instrument but sturdy, except for the neck which moved when you tried to tune it. Sold it for £10 a few years later. Bought a classical for £3.50 about 10 years ago which plays a lot better than my old Spanish junker and sounds a whole lot better too. |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST Date: 30 Oct 12 - 05:54 PM Ooh, had loads of cheapies over the years but the cheapest was a blue 3 p/u Futurama. strat shape but with switches rather than a selector. It had a perspex/glass top to it which I suspect was to protect the dodgy vinyl over chipboard body. I paid £6 for it from an old school mate and traded it in for a Japanese LP copy in about 1974 for - guess what ? - £6! Wish I'd got it now... Ian Gill |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Don Firth Date: 30 Oct 12 - 04:16 PM When I first got interested in folk music around 1952, I went looking for a guitar to learn on. A friend had just bought himself a Gibson f-hole orchestra guitar (he was into jazz) and offered me his old guitar for $5.00. He said it might need a few repairs. Well—it was a real cheapie to begin with. And he, in a wall-eyed fit of some kind, had taken a woodburning set and burned a cartoon onto the soundboard. A stereotypical Mexican peon, complete with a big sombrero and serape, taking a siesta while leaning against a cactus. Burro patiently waiting in the background. Garish! Gawdawful. But I got it for a mere $5.00. If the cartoon wasn't bad enough (I figured maybe I could throw a tarp over it), it only had five strings. One of the tuning keys had broken off. It turned out it would cost me more than I had paid for the damned thing to have new tuners put on. I took it down to Myers' Music on Seattle's First Avenue (where all the pawn shops are) to see if I could trade it in on something serviceable. The salesman took one look and said, "Get that thing OUT of here!!" But he sold me a little Regal plywood guitar for $9.95, plus $5.00 for a fiberboard case, and threw in a free copy of Nick Manoloff's How to Play the Guitar complete with a handy-dandy patented Nick Manaloff "Chord Wheel," a sort of cardboard slide rule with which you could dial a key and it would tell you what chords to use. Handy! I learned all about the Circle of Fifths from that gizmo. But he still wanted me to get the guitar with the busted tuning key and the cartoon out of the shop quickly and unobtrusively. I later sold it for—$5.00—to a friend who said he thought he could fix the tuning key, and since he planned on keeping it in his bedroom while he taught himself to play, he didn't mind the silly cartoon. The Regal turned out to be not bad to start on. It was actually tunable, the intonation was right on, as were the frets, amd because it had a medium-low action, it was easy enough to play. Sounded like it was made from old apple crates, but wotthehell, it was good enough to start to learn on. I sold it about a year and a half later—for $5.00—and bought myself a Martin 00-18. $110.00 complete with a fifteen dollar fiberboard case. Don Firth P. S. Belt sander! That would have taken care of that silly cartoon. Why didn't I think of that? |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Leadfingers Date: 30 Oct 12 - 03:25 PM Realised that all the songs I really wanted to sing were NOT Trad Unacc songs , so bit the bullet and bought a battered Classical stle but with steel strings from the NAAFI manager at RAF Steamer Point in Aden for a WHOLE English pound ! Th Top was comming away from the tailpiece , but gaffa tape , then later Araldite sorted that out . Learnt the basics on it and sold it back in UK for a fiver !! |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: blinddrunkal Date: 30 Oct 12 - 10:03 AM In 1966 I bought a Balliol Apollo from Mazell's in Manchester for £5.00 - my weekly wage was £4.19s. so that wasn't really cheap at all! A couple of years ago I bought a new Epiphone 12 string for £100 including soft case - my weekly wage was £400. - now that was cheap! I still play the old Apollo - but only with a slide! |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: Nick Date: 30 Oct 12 - 09:04 AM Tatra Classic - in 1960's. It was a present but I think £10. Bought a spanish guitar from Majorca a few years later for about £7 |
Subject: RE: What is the cheapest guitar you bought? From: GUEST,buddhuu sans cookie Date: 30 Oct 12 - 08:00 AM Dunno. All my guitars are cheap. |
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