Trade-me Madness

[DaNextSlash]

Dirty old Graham Hughes eh? He started about the same time as me in the same suburb. Mostly did teles with Saligna tops and secret chambered Tawa backs.

Hahaha he was my music teacher in Intermediate... Didnt show me any flashy stuff or any shred...got bored of the guitar in like a week...

If only I took it seriously then....I'll be able to rip some nasty licks out now...but alas..

[ash]

Except your username might have been DaNextBradPaisley or something.

Did you get to see any of his New River Telecasters or anysuch?

[JD]

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Music-instrume ... 534445.htm

Now down to only $489 from $800!
Wonder how long it's going to take to get down to the ten dollar pot plant holder price it's really worth?

[Rog]

THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE FAB FOUR
By Andy Babiuk*

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John Lennon, African guitar player

The band’s equipment was primitive, but that was one of skiffle’s requirements. Lennon’s guitar was a Gallotone Champion, which he ordered from a newspaper ad. There is a much-repeated story that Aunt Mimi bought Lennon his first guitar for £17, but that is not true. Mimi did later buy Lennon a guitar that involved her parting with £17, but it was not his first.

Lennon’s biographer Ray Coleman described how Lennon first tried to coax his aunt and then his mother into buying him a guitar. Mimi wouldn’t because she thought it would affect his studies. Undeterred, Lennon ordered a guitar and had it sent to Julia’s address, figuring that way he would run less risk of being scolded by Mimi. This was the Gallotone Champion. In 1964 Lennon recalled, "I was about 14 when I got my first guitar. It was a beat-up old Spanish model which cost about ten quid. It was advertised in Reveille magazine as ‘guaranteed not to split’." The Gallotone Champion flat-top acoustic guitar was crudely constructed, about three-quarter size compared to a regular model, and made from laminated woods, unlike the solid material employed for better instruments.

The South African-based Gallo company had been started when Eric Gallo opened his Brunswick record shop in Johannesburg in 1926, but gradually Gallo began to expand as they took on the South African distribution and manufacturing for big labels such as Decca and CBS, and in 1946 became Gallo (Africa) Ltd. Various subsidiary businesses began, and in the late 1930s Gallo set up a small factory next to their Johannesburg premises to build Singer-brand guitars, banjos, ukuleles and mandolins. Around 1946 the instrument factory was moved to a larger, more modern facility in Jacobs, an industrial suburb of Durban. At about the same time the company changed the name of its record imprint to Gallotone, and after a complaint from the Singer sewing machine company the instrument brandname was also changed. For more than two decades Gallo built stringed instruments for the South African market and conducted a large export business. The operation shut down in about 1969, although Gallo continues in the music and video business today.

Inevitably, Gallo’s guitars found their way to Britain, where they were marketed through a number of outlets to supply the demand for cheap beginners’ instruments. The Champion was the cheapest Gallotone; around 1955 it was being offered at a wholesale price of £2/10/-. This means it probably would have retailed in the UK for around £6 (about $17 then, and in the region of £90 or $125 when translated into today’s buying power). The general sound and playability of the Champion reflected its low price. Inside the soundhole was a label that did indeed claim: "GUARANTEED NOT TO SPLIT", and some versions added: "Specially manufactured to withstand all climatic conditions." Even, presumably, the heat of the South African sun. Like many budget guitars of the day, it was probably torture to play.

[rocklander]

I know it's just a typo, but this one really reminds me of the Holy Grail
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Music-instrume ... 774777.htm

what is your favourite colour?

[Some Bozo]

Stevie Ray has risen from the grave and is endorsing fake fender necks...
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =151682955

[JD]

Didn't even get to see that one! Withdrawn by TM.

[Some Bozo]

Didn't even get to see that one! Withdrawn by TM.

I'm sure it'll be back again. These reptiles usally keep trying.

[rocklander]

here's one for the propeller heads... so name the signatures then?
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Music-instrume ... 879382.htm

[JD]

Price is good.
Edit: Here is an amusing review of this guitar or one like it. The guy punches it as part of a torture test! Ow.
http://www.musicyo.com/featured_product/us/fp101.asp

[rocklander]

Stevie Ray has risen from the grave and is endorsing fake fender necks...
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =151682955

is this the same one, now with signature and spaghetti removed? looks very similar from memory...
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Music-instrume ... 075451.htm

[Michael]

Stevie Ray has risen from the grave and is endorsing fake fender necks...
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =151682955

is this the same one, now with signature and spaghetti removed? looks very similar from memory...
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Music-instrume ... 075451.htm

The other guy was selling books too, but I don't think they were the same books.

[rocklander]

anyone else tired of all the guitar picks appearing in the 'used' section? *sigh*

are all these picks you are selling used? the price seems a bit tough for used plectrums

I'll wait to see their answer I guess...

[JD]

I get annoyed by all sorts of things like that. For a while there somebody was putting guitar key chains in under something like "small guitar"...that one got me a lot!

[Crazy Horse]

The "Used" filter is awesome but plenty of people peddling sh*t that no one wants are saying things are used and then listing them as new (which they are) in the title. I am tempted to just click buy now on a bunch of them and never email them but of course that would require me to sacrifice my own TM account, or create a whole new one...I do think we all have a responsibility to tell these dickheads to change their crap over to new, where no one looks...