Sold: B&G Little Sister Private Build

DB1

Well, my New Year's Resolution was to not buy any guitars, and I've done quite well so far, having only bought about sixteen guitars and three amps. So, I need to make a bit of room. Oh yeah, and some cash would be nice.

So, here are three beauties that are as cool as opening the fridge door and finding Steve McQueen in there eating cucumber-flavoured ice cream, although perhaps not as startling.

Just a couple of things though - as any fule kno, I don't like posting guitars, so you'll have to brave our Kenny the small ginger lord , or 'dog' as he's also known (fear not, he'll do anything for a biscuit, as will I) and visit the house under social distancing rules, which basically means a lot of disinfectant and rubberwear. I have enjoyed this aspect of the lockdown.

Of course, as any fule also kno, I'm happy to drive and deliver within more than reasonable distances. I'm in Stafford, where men are men and so are the women. I just want to get the guitar to you safe - and, just as important - make sure you like the guitar first. So, no PayPal either, just bank transfer purleez. Also, meetings in laybys, public conveniences, deserted parks, notorious dogging spots and even - at a push - motorway service stations are fine. Particularly the public conveniences, of course.

Oh, and one other thing - I've got these on eBay (the £1 offer) and they're more expensive than they are on here, because I want to give the members of the forum a better deal, as that's what it should be all about. I think I've priced these really well, so can I ask for no traders or intentional flippers, because if I wanted to do that, I could do it myself.

I know that all of that makes me sound like a miserable old git, but I'm very friendly, and I don't bite, predominantly because I have a loose upper denture.

So....

Edit 1) and 2) are sold.

1) Gibson ES-165 Herb Ellis from August 1991. It doesn't carry the Herb Ellis name on the headstock, as Gibson didn't introduce it until November of that year. This is a pretty early model, then. I bought it only a couple of months ago via a forum/eBay combination of discussion. I think it looks beautiful, personally, and it's got some pretty pronounced lacquer checking, more than I've seen in a guitar that isn't 50 years old. I've tried to show it in one of the pics - I've got more pics, but didn't want to clog the thread up with too many photos. It look great, plays great, sounds great with a low action and a fairly slim neck for an ES175-type guitar. It's even got an instruction manual with it, which I found particularly useful.

Why sell then? Well, I'd been angling for an L-5 and one came up, and it really is 'the daddy', so - much as I'd like to - that's got my pitiful attempts at jazz covered. Price for this ES-165, £1500 which is what I paid, and I thought that was an exceptionally good price, so I'm passing that on. We can have a chat about fuel if it's really long distance stuff.

2) TV Jones Spectra Sonic Supreme - crazy name, crazy guitar. It's lovely, and only about two months old. You might well know the history of these guitars - they were made by Gretsch until around 15 years ago, if I remember rightly. Short story - licence passed to Mr TV Jones who now manufactures them, and they're produced at the Terada factory, which means that build quality is as you'd expect, i.e. very, very good. It's unmistakeably Gretsch-like, perhaps not surprisingly, but more Jet than 6120 territory. Great for jazz, blues, rockabilly (who'd have thought it?) and pop, I'd say it was a D neck, not too deep, just very comfortable to play.

Well, it got me fired up for Gretsches again, and I ended up buying a 6120 Vintage Select 1955 thing, which has me covered for that, erm, 'Great Gretsch Sound', so I'm trying to deduplicate. I paid £1850 for it a few weeks ago, they're currently advertised at £1839, so I'm going to take a £500 hit and offer it at £1339, which ain't bad for a nearly new bundle of joy like this. Of course, if you think it's too much, then you can lol me.  If you think it's too little, you can offer me more. Now lol me. Oh yes, and you get TV Jones stickers with it.

3) My B&G Little Sister Private Build. As you can see, it's the non-cutaway P90's model. This has appeared on the forum before at about £1000 more fairly recently. This one would be about £4500-£4600 new in this spec, which is a frightening amount of cash, so save a couple of grand and buy this one. If you want to, obviously. It's in excellent condition (it's 4 years old) it has it's B&G case, CoA,  no knocks, no dents, no income tax, no VAT - you get the picture. That apparition in the pickguard is my hand. It could have been worse, I suppose. Smaller, but worse.

It's not something that I want to sell, but I do need to make a bit of cash up, and I have an ES-330 that does the hollowbody (the Little Sister has a centre block, to be accurate) and P90's very well, and - again - deduplication is the key here.

This one's £2500, which looks more than fair to me. Hope it does to you too. Edit - price drop to £2400

Any thoughts, etc, questions, just drop me a line and I'll do my best to be helpful (smarmy, even) and fill in any missing information.

Cheers

mattacjones

Loving the steve mcqueen line

McToot

Advert of the year so far, based both on content and (IMO more importantly) delivery. 

Torn between a Wow and Lol. Went for the latter but strictly in the best way. 

richh

Great guitars, and Dave is a good guy to deal with having had 2 lovely Gibsons from him in the past.  Very good prices too!

Kristo

DB1 said:

Well, my New Year's Resolution was to not buy any guitars, and I've done quite well so far, having only bought about sixteen guitars and three amps.

This is brilliant. :-)

JezWynd

Cracking guitars DB.

DB1

Thanks, that's kind of you. 

I should add that I'm not totally opposed to taking a p/ex with the Little Sister. I really shouldn't, but I know that £2500 is a good chunk of money to fork out. Well, it is for me anyway. Trouble is, there's not that much that I want now. I suppose 335-ish stuff, hollow body P90's, a decent Tele. I'd prefer the cash, so I've priced it (and the others) so that anyone buying shouldn't lose money at a later date, but it is a fair lump of money.

Oh, and @JezWynd - long time no speak and hope all is well. @richh - thanks for the kind endorsement. You're a man of impeccable taste.

bodhi

Ooh, that Spectra Sonic...

melod

I am secretly hoping that @DB1 is going to put on sale my future dream guitar as he is a very nice guy to deal with.

Maybe one of the remaining 16 guitars

These are great too btw.

pearlwhite67

Loving that Herb Ellis..

DB1

melod said:

I am secretly hoping that @DB1 is going to put on sale my future dream guitar as he is a very nice guy to deal with.

@melod - I'm intrigued.

Iamnobody

I was admiring that Spectra on eBay earlier. If I wasn’t currently in a no more buying under any circumstances period I’d be up the M6! Good luck.

DB1

I'm a Selly Oak boy (boy? Ha!) myself so happy to travel down, Steve.

It's a cool piece of kit though.

Iamnobody

DB1 said:

I'm a Selly Oak boy (boy? Ha!) myself so happy to travel down, Steve.

It's a cool piece of kit though.

I really like the aesthetics - I’ve never played one. I can’t do it though for various reasons that I won’t pollute the thread with. I don’t think you’ll struggle to sell it...

DB1

Gibson ES-165 Herb Ellis now on hold, for a most discerning forum member, pending the usual.

The TVJ and Little Sister have some interest, but still here at present.

StruanRobertson

Oh man. That TVJ is really very cool.

Good luck! 

DB1

Thanks @StruanRobertson - interestingly, one sold on eBay yesterday priced at £1650 or best offer. The seller very kindly took the time to message me after it had sold and thought that I'd priced mine too low - it's £1450 on eBay and £1339 here. I've tried to pitch it as reasonably as possible, but it's a useful pointer in case anyone's wondering about resale prices.

Fishboy7

Ooff, All three of these are totally up my ally

steviebee74

PM’d (thanks). 

DB1

Thanks @steviebee74 - replied of course. Here's a link to the spec of the TVJ, by the way.

https://tvjones.com/spectra-sonic-supreme/

I've had this conversation with another forum member who was asking about scale length.  It's 24.625", which I was really surprised about because it feels far more like a Fender scale length to me.

Still, what do I know?

'Nothing!' comes back the cry.

camf

That Spectra Sonic is beautiful, but way too far away, or else I'd be bringing dog biscuits tomorrow.