Where to find a basket case HB guitar to set up for slide.

Johnny Guitar · #1 July 8th, 2005

I see a lot of great guitars here, and some pretty cheap.

I have an old Yamaha acoustic six string which I use for slide (it has a slightly bowed neck). I think I'd rather get a new electric guitar to set up for slide. I usually use a 0.009 high E on my standard guitars.

I have a hollow body guitar that I bought at a garage sale for $10 many years ago. Unfortunately, it has a zero nut, so raising the action would be very difficult.

Since I have no money at the moment, I've been thinking of trying to find an old stripped and beat up Gibson or Epiphone since I have a couple of 70s era Gibson humbuckers that need a home. I'm willing to do most (all) the work myself as I've done a bit of building and set up work before.

Any idea where I might find such a beast?

Thanks,
John

allthumbs · #2 July 8th, 2005

why dont you make a cigar box guitar. thats a cheap way to go,you all ready have most of the hardware. Cigcasters are pretty cool. All I can think of is to keep checking ebay and pawn shops for what your looking for.

1four5 · #3 July 8th, 2005

Check this site every day:
http://www.shopgoodwill.com/default.asp
Click on musical instruments.
I've seen everything from Tubas, to pianos, to Martins and Gibsons. Some nice, some total garbage. It's a potpouri, so you have to keep checking. I've bought about 30 instruments from the site, mostly guitars. Just got a beater banjo today. I never go very high, because the instruments keep coming and there is no end. I've probably bid on 500 or so of them over the last year.

allthumbs · #4 July 8th, 2005

looks like you will find something there. To bad they don't ship to Canada. I would go nuts buying junk guitars to break down for parts for my cigar box guitar projects. Just checked, no such thing in Canada.bummer

Johnny Guitar · #5 July 8th, 2005

Yeah, check out that unusual mystery guitar!

I'll keep looking there, thanks for the tip.

On ebay I did see an early 70s Les Paul Custom that was stripped. They want $1100 for it. That's way more than I'm thinking of paying. I did see a few ugly Epiphones LPs on Music Go Round for around $100 to $200.

Frankenstrat2 · #6 July 11th, 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny Guitar

I see a lot of great guitars here, and some pretty cheap.

I have an old Yamaha acoustic six string which I use for slide (it has a slightly bowed neck). I think I'd rather get a new electric guitar to set up for slide. I usually use a 0.009 high E on my standard guitars.

I have a hollow body guitar that I bought at a garage sale for $10 many years ago. Unfortunately, it has a zero nut, so raising the action would be very difficult.

Since I have no money at the moment, I've been thinking of trying to find an old stripped and beat up Gibson or Epiphone since I have a couple of 70s era Gibson humbuckers that need a home. I'm willing to do most (all) the work myself as I've done a bit of building and set up work before.

Any idea where I might find such a beast?

Thanks,
John

Regarding the zero nut guitar- I recall seeing (somewhere in my wanderings) a replacement bridge nut for dobro where you can raise the strings above the zero fret. This would make the guitar a dobro style lap steel rather than a fretted guitar.