swapmeet story

[owlexifry]

so yesterday there was this annual swapmeet event. it’s run by a small independent/luthier’s guitar shop at a local pub (that happens to sit across the road from the guitar shop). so mostly guitar gear oriented. nifty free community event type thing. no bookings needed, just rock up.
i’d never been before, but for once i was actually aware that it was coming up.

i’d never ever sold any of my builds before.
(i really cbf dealing with ebay or reverb, or gumtree/fb marketplace. i can’t get to post office on weekdays, and dealing with neurotic buyers on reverb sounds like a nightmare)
so i thought hey, this event might be a great opportunity to offload some builds that i never use. (mostly overdrives that i wanted to try and didn’t like).

so picked some out, tested and made sure they didn’t have any problems, whipped out my tiny 5w tube combo (8”) amp (for demonstration purposes) and brought a nice candy red squier tele that i never use, and turned up early so i could get a good table spot.
got myself settled in, and eventually all the tables filled up with some sweet guitars, basses, and other cool stuff.
i only had 8 pedals and a guitar to offer, so i ended up sharing a table with some legend that was selling sheet music books.
i grabbed a jim croce greatest hits book for $5.




and to illustrate how small this city is, there was a guy setup next to me, and i had this feeling i’d met him before, and yep turns out i’d been to his house to trade a bass a couple years ago lol


while i was sitting at my table, i looked up and suddenly this was on the table directly in front of me.. this sorta stuff is super rare around here. was so cool to see one in the flesh.


i’d never seen a natural finish casino before. tasty.

saw some cool gear, talked to some gear nerds, pretty cool event.

anyway, so long story short, all four altoids overdrives sold + the army green OD820 clone.
totally unexpected

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Peerless made epiphones are crazy money now. I've had a few of them and they're not really any better than the later Chinese stuff. You get some great ones but I've played some stinkers too. The power of internet hype.

 

[owlexifry]

Peerless made epiphones are crazy money now. I've had a few of them and they're not really any better than the later Chinese stuff. You get some great ones but I've played some stinkers too. The power of internet hype.

ohh right, i had no idea.
i usually just assume korea = more desirable.
i’ve got a korean explorer i grabbed before they got silly expensive and it’s surprisingly one of the nicest playing guitars i have, it’s a shame cos the shape is really impractical.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

ohh right, i had no idea.
i usually just assume korea = more desirable.
i’ve got a korean explorer i grabbed before they got silly expensive and it’s surprisingly one of the nicest playing guitars i have, it’s a shame cos the shape is really impractical.

In terms of internet sales and hype then Korean is definitely more desirable but if I take into account the instruments I've played and owned then MIK definitely doesn't guarantee a better guitar than MIC.