Is this worth a gamble.

Kerplunk

I'm thimking of bidding on this,https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Commodore-MIJ-Made-in-Japan-1970s-Lawsuit-Jazzmaster-Shape-Guitar-Case/132839473728 , is it worth a gamble.what do you think.Cheers.

fretfinder

Up to you, but is it even worth the current bid of £62? There’s no guarantee that the electrics work, at all. And the screw holes in the body look overused/oversized so might need filling with dowel and redrilling. In which case it’s probably worth about a fiver imho! 

Kerplunk

fretfinder said:

Up to you, but is it even worth the current bid of £62? There’s no guarantee that the electrics work, at all. And the screw holes in the body look overused/oversized so might need filling with dowel and redrilling. In which case it’s probably worth about a fiver imho! 

thanks,i'll give it a miss.

Kerplunk

What about this one,https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-Pacifica-Electric-Guitar/292802813776 .Its only down the road,i can pick it up.

Funkfingers

Only gamble what you can afford to lose. 

A natural finish Yamaha Pacifica 112 is a pretty safe bet. Nicely made. Easy to customise. Worth hanging onto as a back-up guitar if you ever buy something expensive in the longer term future.

fretfinder

 Kerplunk said: What about this one,https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-Pacifica-Electric-Guitar/292802813776 .Its only down the road,i can pick it up.

No idea, it’s an auction so who knows what it will go for. To be honest, if you don’t know enough about guitars yourself to judge whether a random eBay auction guitar is worth bidding for, you’d probably be best off buying from a dealer’s used stock. You’ll pay more but you won’t (or shouldn’t) end up with a lemon, and even if you do you’ve probably got some comeback.

ICBM

It's pretty cool, and in good condition. I would pay up to £100 for it I think - but no more, even with the case. The economic deal-breaker with these is usually the fretting - this one looks OK. Even if the pickups are both dead (not actually likely, Japanese ones were much better than old German ones for example...) they could be rewound and still make the whole thing economical to restore - assuming of course that you're doing the work yourself and not paying an hourly rate to someone. When I rebuild this sort of thing I more or less just stop the clock and don't worry too much if it takes more time than it really justifies. As fretfinder said you will usually find multiple small niggles like stripped screws, which are not a difficult thing to fix but time-consuming.

It would probably be worth up to about £250 fully restored, playable and functional - I know some people will laugh, but I've restored quite a lot of this sort of thing - none quite as odd/cool as this one - and got between £150 and £225 for every one of them.

If you don't know enough about fixing up old junk guitars like this, then the Pacifica is a much safer bet as Funkfingers said - boring, but totally practical. They play and sound fine as they are, and with some simple upgrades they can be made into pretty decent guitars.

Funkfingers

ICBM said:

Funkfingers ... boring but totally practical.

You're too kind.

Kerplunk

ICBM said:

It's pretty cool, and in good condition. I would pay up to £100 for it I think - but no more, even with the case. The economic deal-breaker with these is usually the fretting - this one looks OK. Even if the pickups are both dead (not actually likely, Japanese ones were much better than old German ones for example...) they could be rewound and still make the whole thing economical to restore - assuming of course that you're doing the work yourself and not paying an hourly rate to someone. When I rebuild this sort of thing I more or less just stop the clock and don't worry too much if it takes more time than it really justifies. As fretfinder said you will usually find multiple small niggles like stripped screws, which are not a difficult thing to fix but time-consuming.

It would probably be worth up to about £250 fully restored, playable and functional - I know some people will laugh, but I've restored quite a lot of this sort of thing - none quite as odd/cool as this one - and got between £150 and £225 for every one of them.

If you don't know enough about fixing up old junk guitars like this, then the Pacifica is a much safer bet as Funkfingers said - boring, but totally practical. They play and sound fine as they are, and with some simple upgrades they can be made into pretty decent guitars.

Yes i do like the look of it,i'll keep my eye on it.

robgilmo

That Commodore looks totally cool, I would research the hell out of it before bidding though. There are loads of old Japanese guitars out there and some are more special than others. Ignore the lawsuit nonsense. I wonder why it was stripped down? I see they kept the shim but not the screws..

Kerplunk

Kerplunk said:

ICBM said:

It's pretty cool, and in good condition. I would pay up to £100 for it I think - but no more, even with the case. The economic deal-breaker with these is usually the fretting - this one looks OK. Even if the pickups are both dead (not actually likely, Japanese ones were much better than old German ones for example...) they could be rewound and still make the whole thing economical to restore - assuming of course that you're doing the work yourself and not paying an hourly rate to someone. When I rebuild this sort of thing I more or less just stop the clock and don't worry too much if it takes more time than it really justifies. As fretfinder said you will usually find multiple small niggles like stripped screws, which are not a difficult thing to fix but time-consuming.

It would probably be worth up to about £250 fully restored, playable and functional - I know some people will laugh, but I've restored quite a lot of this sort of thing - none quite as odd/cool as this one - and got between £150 and £225 for every one of them.

If you don't know enough about fixing up old junk guitars like this, then the Pacifica is a much safer bet as Funkfingers said - boring, but totally practical. They play and sound fine as they are, and with some simple upgrades they can be made into pretty decent guitars.

Yes i do like the look of it,i'll keep my eye on it.

i like fixing things,iv'e put my bid in.Time i do have,i'll put it right if i win it.

HAL9000

The Commordore looks like something that comes from some parallel universe in which all possible guitars exist. Not my cup of tea I’m afraid.

Kerplunk

Iv'e been outbid on the commodore at £97.00.

Funkfingers

Now be thankful.

robgilmo

is it missing its trem arm?

Kerplunk

Iv'e done with that one.Thanks people.

rico

Funkfingers said:

Now be thankful.

Quite!

Gagaryn

I quite like it, model is a 1532t, I've seen them badaged under a few different names - Aria is a common one. I like the look of them. I wouldn't pay that much for that one though - actually I might - but wouldn't pay much more. I've seen a few in better condition sell for £150 to £200.

fretfinder

Gagaryn said: I've seen a few in better condition. 

You mean in one piece and actually working?! 

Gagaryn

fretfinder said:

Gagaryn said: I've seen a few in better condition. 

You mean in one piece and actually working?! 

Dunno about the second part. :-)

grungebob

Don’t aria currently make a model exactly like that?


https://www.gak.co.uk/en/aria-1532-retro-electric-guitar/68068