Overrated vintage instruments and your own experience with them

[Blazer]

I'm sure we all know the stories of "This-brand-was-at-their-best-in-this-period-because-of-them-using-those-materials-and-using-these-kinds-of-pickups-making-them-better-than-that-brand-that-was-going-through-a-very-bad-period-because-of-management-issues-and-poor-quality-control" with which the guitars of a brand are being sold for high prices and everybody praises them into heaven.

But let's talk about the instances where we found out for ourselves that most of that actually is a load of hot air. And the instrument failed to live up to it's reputation.


In my own case it involved an Ibanez Les Paul Copy from 1977, it had the works: the post-lawsuit headstock, the correct square butt-neck, the super 70 humbuckers and was original down to the tiniest screw. The kind of guitar everybody says was better than the real thing, a collector's dream...

...a complete nightmare.

Because the stock tuners would slip constantly, those fabled "Super 70" pickups sounded aweful, squeeling and mircrophonic, the bolt on neck shifted in the pocket. "Better than a real Gibson" my ass!

In order to make this guitar work I replaced the pickups with Dimarzio Humbuckers and the tuners with Schallers and I used grazy glue to keep the neck from shifting...   ever again! And when I sold it the guy buying it was calling me crazy for having performed all those mods, in his opinion I "Defaced a work of art", in my opinion however I made a usable guitar from that piece of shit.

Nope for me that guitar was a wake-up call, most of those claims they make are false.

[Freuds_Cat]

I'll go along with you in part on this one Blazer. I remember a Cherry burst Ibanez les paul that I had back in the 80's that was also a close relative of junk, but then I have since tried a few of similar ilk that have been rather impressive.
Kind of like a Fender really. Some are fantastic and some are absolute soulless bits of wood thrown together to a rough plan.
Not sure that any given brand name is the culprit to be honest.

Daion are a classic example. My best mate has owned a Daion Performer (Strat) since new (23years). He has also owned a lot of Fenders and many other brands but that Daion is still his best guitar. Towards the end of that companies life they were bought out (I think by Ibanez but dont quote me) The later guitars were quite awful. I picked one up in a hock shop and it had a plywood body, poorly made but with one of the original necks that was just excellent. Later again I saw others that had necks that matched the bodies in their lack of quality.

[Pilgrim]

Most of the vintage instruments I've handled were actually very good at delivering what they were designed to.

But - I remember back in the late 60's having some kind of hollowbody Beatle bass copy.  IIRC, the body wasn't bad and the neck was OK, but it buzzed and hummed and generally seemed to be a pretty tinny, loose instrument.  The pickups sounded terrible, even to my highly uneducated ear. I suspect it was an early Japanese clone that was poorly conceived and built.

Fortunately, it is lost in the mists of time.

[Barklessdog]

Guild B302 fretless. Deadest sounding bass ever

[rahock]

In the 60's I lusted for a Gibson EB2, because the two best local bass players had them. I was playing a customized EBO at the time and I was certain my ticket to greatness was going to be a sunburst EB2. That and a Vox Super Beatle was all that I needed to make history.I was a pretty delusional  fifteen year old at the time .I finally picked up an EB2 and it was an absolute piece of crap. It didn't have the sound, didn't stay in tune and in general it didn't do anything right except look pretty. When I got a chance to spend some time with a Super Beatle, I realized they were nothing to write home about either. I got rid of the EB@ in about two weeks.

I had a similar lust for a Rickenbaker (forgot the model). It lasted about two weeks also. It had dead spots in about half a dozen places.

Also had a real bad jones for a pear shaped Hofner that was the prettiest thing ever, but I wasn't stupid enough to buy this one. I saved up enough money to buy it, but when I pulled it off the wall at the store and plugged it in the love affair was over. All it did was make the most lifeless sounding dead thud you can imagine. I wound up buying a 70 Precision that I still have

Rick