New guitar?

[anniv 63]

I was just looking at Normans Rare Guitars on You Tube last night, and as usual was amazed at
the number of Vintage collectibles Norman Harris the owner has picked up and stored over the years.
His philosophy is that its like obtaining a rare painting or work of art, as an investment- well I wont
disagree on that.!!!
I would really expect however that his bread and butter earnings for the shop come from everyday
run of the mill sales, so as a general retail principle 80% of everyday sales come from 20% of your stockholding
that will be the likes of normal guitar stock,amps, sundries etc.
If he was to require additional working capital at any time then he would probably release and auction some of
these collectibles.
It also made me think of normal music shop/ on line retailers who dont have this luxury and may have to re finance
from banks particularly at the current crisis time.
I did see last week that one large chain had 536 new lines of stock listed, so if these are going by the above stock/sales
ratio it could create capital/ cash flow issues?
Yes worrying times, too many people trying to re invent the wheel, and many of us have all we need in gear!!!
What do others think on this matter?

Mike

[RUSSET]

Going back to the chat about Squier CV guitars, I have just found out that the actual body wood is now Poplar, not Pine as I originally thought. Anderton's have just had some new CV FSR (Ltd. Edition) Strats & Teles in & they cost £349. The pickups are still Alnico, but sadly these models are in Shell Pink, & Black with a Black scratchplate (Gilmour...ish).

Tony.

[bor64]

Norman Harris is a force on his own.
He has several warehouses filled with large crates with multiple dozens of guitars a crate.
Back in the 70/80's a pre-cbs was hard to find and custom coloured ones were very rare...
Now we know better, because Fender made really 1 million guitars before they changed to L serial-numbers.
There were times during the pre-cbs period, they managed to make about 100 guitars a day.
The book about Norman's personal collection, is stunning and they guaranteed the colours are exactly the same as in reality.
The stash of thousand and thousands guitars in his warehouses are a kind of Aladdin's cave.
When Norman checks out...they will flooded the market.
I can only hope by then...peeps are still interested in old guitars.

Cheers Rob

[Tigerdaisy]

I found the opposite with the Vintera. I ordered a Jaguar and was really excited about it, but when it came I found it was nothing like the real one that I once owned, there were alterations for the sake of alterations and it didn't sound great either. I went and tried the new Classic Vibe Squier version and it blew it out of the water in every department - at less than half the price.
The current Classic Vibe Strats are some of the best sounding and playing Strats that I've seen and they don't break the bank, same goes for the Teles and I have old USA models of all of them, maple & rosewood.

Yes, re the Classic Vibe Strat- I've owned more Strats than I can count at this point, both US and Mex and having just purchased a Classic Vibe Strat I have to say that genuinely it's the first Strat I haven't been inclined to swap the pups out for something better, that's not to say I won't swap out some of the features like the string tree and put some locking m/c heads on and maybe even a more substantial trem assembly.

[RUSSET]

Hi Tiger,
Yes. I still find the Squier CVs are quality guitars & very good value for money. Having had my Mex Vintera F.Red '50s Tele for a few months now, having had time to assess it, I am convinced it is a slightly better guitar. It does have a better quality, & I paid about £660 for it. It does have that early 50S/60S tone, & the hardware is very good. The only disappointment is that the neck is like a very fat D profile & feels rather 'clubby'. However, you do get used to it & tend not to notice after a while. Some say that a fat neck gives more wood to aid sustain. Who knows ?

Other guitars I have bought over the last few years are not in the 'Shads' vein, but are a couple of Epiphones that are surprisingly good these days. I would rate them as the Epi equivalent of Squier CVs. I bought the ES 339 & the Casino Coupe, which are slightly smaller bodied versions of the ES 335 & Casino. They both cost in the £300-350 range, & are very decent guitars. The ES 339 has coil tap pots on both pickups, & the pickups themselves are both Alnico magnet types. Again both are very well made, good sounding guitars at a great price.

Tony.

[Stu's Dad]

I acquired an Epiphone Wildkat last year. It's the first Epiphone original in donkey's years, and I've been having loads of fun with it.

Len