Well the reports are rolling in from all corners of the country on the vintage guitar show in Texas this past weekend . I was overwhelmed at the amount of e mails i got Sunday about the show and so here is a few highlights from the show.

First at least 30 people told me they sold a lot  for guitars at the show and that they all brought a good price for this market. lest start with what i heard for the Gibson market .1959 Es-335 were selling for $30,000-$38,000 , 1957 paf gold tops were selling for $75,000 – $85,000 1954 Les Paul  gold tops were slow but a few sold in for  30,000 that were clean . The burst market although down was still ok i heared 4 burst were sold ranging from $225,000 -$350,000. As expected the $1000- $3000 guitars were wiped out if they were straight and clean the all sold and people were scrambling to find more. So the Gibson market was rocking and most dealers I talked to were happy. Well that’s a relative statement because as you know th are  all miserable, hahahhah or lets just say moody.

The Fender market was a bit more hit and miss.  1954 Stratocatsers  were selling for $55,000, 1952 telecaster  were bringing $45,000 -$55,000 this is all  great news. The super rare custom color stratocasters were still bringing great money like fiesta red coral pink Sherwood metallic green etc. and some for what i thought were record prices. A dealer friend of mine sold his 1960 fiesta red stratocaster  in 9+ condition for $68,000 !! I heard a 1959 blonde stratocasters  with gold hardware sold for $65,000  again I feel strong for this market .Most clean bakelite stratocaster  were selling between $38,000-$42,000 the later being super clean. Fender Telecaster in general were a bit slow again unless in some wild color. I heard from most dealers that candy apple red, white and lake placid blue colored fender were a bit slow.

The other models such a Rickenbacker , Gretsch and Martins did well if they were super clean with no issues I do not have exact prices but i did hear for instance that  a few Gretsch duo jets sold and of course any clean martin were gone if the price was right . Again i dd not get any exact example so i do not want to speculate but again no ones was complaining.

So the general mood was positive and traffic at the show was great. Again it was not 1997 but guess what it never will be again !!!. It is a rare thing to get a good vibe from almost 90% of the people i talked to so i feel better as far as the market moving even further in a positive direction. Those of you know if it was a bad show I never hold anything back and have said many times if a show was horrible but this one seems to be a good one for everyone. If you need any otehr info on teh show e mail me at THE PARTSDRAWER thanks

Jim Pasch

We are happy to announce that we have been invited by 300guitars.com one of the leading guitar sites on the Internet to write a bi-monthly column the vintage guitar and vintage guitar parts. We are honored to have been asked by Bill Penn and the crew and will be contributing information each month to help the guitar enthusiast.

300guitars.com  has a monthly following of  100,000 people per month and is growing monthly. We have been watching this site grow over the years and feel that it is not only a good site but one that we can hands down recommend. We have been asked by many sites due to our reputation and popularity to write for them but we Will not write for a site we do not believe in. This is a site i am confident is both useful to the public and an honest site.

We obviously have a large drawing power and the fact that we are teaming up with another heavy hitter on the Internet will i believe benefit the public and each other. We focus on solely used guitars and parts and bill does both new and vintage so it is a good marriage of old and new.  bill has years of hands on experience and most important;y he is a player and loves guitars !!! that is the real caveat for me. He is a working musician and is not in this for the money. I have known him for about 18 years and i believe in what he is doing so that is why i will be taking allocating time for this article on his website.

We will will be submitting article staring in a week and you can look for the article around the 15th and the 30th of each month or there abouts. These article will also have a link directly to me and i can personally answer any questions you may have directly an i am confident due to the volume that within 48 hours i Will be able to answer every one’s questions personally and efficiently. The good thing is if I cannot answer a specific question i have the resources to direct you to the person who can. Over the years i have made many friends and connections many who specialize in one thing or another .

I look forward to hearing from all of you and thanks once again for all your support over the years

Jim Pasch

QUESTION

I was visiting a friend this weekend and he had an American made Fender Baja Sexto Baritone guitar. He bought it he said around 1991  This is an incredible guitar looks like a tele with a along neck . Do you ever see these and do they still make them. I searched everywhere on the next today and cannot find any for sale.

REPLY

Wow nobody has asked about these in years. I forgot all about this model. Well I will tell you these are cool as hell guitars and I have not had one for sale since 1994 . I was Lucky enough to get a few of these from a famous band that fender original made them for and i believe fender only made them from the custom shop for a year or two. I will be honest I do not have any production totals or when they actually started making them.

The baja Sexto was a Fender telecaster with a long neck plain and simple / the ones i had were in a the standard butterscotch finish with black pickgurd  and maple necks. At the time I owned a recording studio and this was a cool addition to the arsenal and everyone who visited the studio was amazed with the guitar and it was a great conversion piece as well. I cannot tell you on how many recording we used it . you can really get creative with this beast.

If my ,memory  is correct the fender custom ship in japan may have reissued these or there was a knockoff model around. The fender custom shop japan has always done a nice job so if i remember they re good instruments also. since then fender has issued a baritone guitar in the shape of a jaguar but let me tell you not even close to how cool the original telecaster Baja Sexto was.

I can understand why perhaps Fender did not continue this model . The fact that it is a baritone guitar limits its market share and in reality how many people really need one. So from a shear business standpoint it is understandable on the decision made. But the guitar junky in all u=of us always wants these gems for our collections and creative glimpses. True we are not the marketing force they need to survive but never the less we are real and we buy guitars!!! So I feel fender should offer this gem in there custom shop and let the few in the know enjoy the instrument.

The bad news is i have not has one for sale in over 20 years and have not seen any for sale in any private collection either. The fact is those that have them keep them and use them and cherish them. My advice is to write or call fender custom shop and for all I know they may eve have an old one lying around they are dying to sell.one of the employees may even have one I  would say that is your best bet .If you have any further questions please feel free to e mail me at  THE PARTS DRAWER just fill out the questionnaire and i will answer within 48 hours.

Jim Pasch