I was reading this post below and thought I would bring it over here. A player finds an old Fender Pro in his grandfather’s workshop or something like that. There’s a guitar similar to the model Tom Waits plays also.
Reminds me of time long ago in a shop I had in Richmond, Va. Lindy Fralin walks in, (this is before his pickup company but I believe he was winding pickups then if I remember correctly) He was in a local band called the BopCats. I hope I have all this right because we are talking 30 years ago… :)
He’s moving in to an apartment and finds a blonde bassman head on the balcony porch being used to put flower pots on??? It was a bit weather worn but it’s a blonde bass head, that’s like winning the lottery!
About that time also a roadie for zz top comes in looking for plexi marshalls, bought on sight, working or not. That was his job in any town that the tour went to, to cruise around looking for plexi’s to buy during the day before a show. Another time I saw this was in Boston at guitar shows.
So you never know what you’ll find if you put in the time looking. There’s a local drummer that I play with sometimes and he does all the yard sales on weekends here in Florida. Every once in awhile he will find something cool. The last item was Music Man 65 watt tube head with the tube driver. Needed some work but sounded great after it was tuned up.
[GEAR] Found this amp in Grandpa’s woodshop. 50s Fender Pro-Amp. from Guitar
A lot of the old 1950s thru 1970s valve/tube amps, are just that. Dusty, rusty, musty dangerous high-voltage old junk that were basically two-tone. You got very thin “clear” tones or breaking-up. That was it, no in-between, no control over the volume if you wanted the breaking-up sound. So-called “master volume” modifications came later but didn’t work very well on the old tube stuff in my experience.
Today’s amps and guitars knock almost all of the old stuff into a cocked-hat, are much safer and much better in every way.
No, today’s fixation with old amps and guitars (and cars and motorcycles) and the stupid prices they command, is much more to do with “look what I’ve got” one-upmanship and antique collecting than that it is/was about great gear.
Just my 2c as someone who used the old gear back in the day…