pro guitar thief

[Seamas]

+1.  A basic pro level trombone will cost you about ten grand.  This is for a basic one.  a nice one goes up from there.

And if you think that vintage Gibsons are outrageous, then you should check out what a vintage Cremona Amati violin goes for.

We guitarists have things very good - especially with respect to the cost of gear.

And while certain "vintage" guitars are fetching big bucks for the nostalgia (like vintage furniture), there are things like Pre-war Martins that fetch huge bucks because the materials are far more scarce  and the type of build was difficult to mass produce.
Sure you can get something similar from a boutique builder, but that builder is gonna have to pay serious cash for woods that are subject to CITES, etc. You might have to pay almost as much as the vintage one.

 

[Seamas]

Steinway or Bösendorfer concert grand pianos ... Nuff said. To afford one of those you need to sell both your house in the city and the one in the Hamptons ...

And by the way - check out this sunburst Steinway :icon_jokercolor:

I used to go to a dentists office that was upstairs from the Steinway showroom next to Carnagie hall. I SOOOO wanted to go in there (I think it is appointment only).

Years ago I read a great New Yorker article about the process of buying one. Basically they cater to the buyer's every desire in a piano.  (lest you go buy a Bösendorfer)

 

[TenThumbs]

it becomes "not a question of how to steal the king's trumpet, but where to blow it."

Wait - they stole the guitar and Elvis's trumpet?!?!?!

 

[drysideshooter]

+1.  A basic pro level trombone will cost you about ten grand.  This is for a basic one.  a nice one goes up from there.

And if you think that vintage Gibsons are outrageous, then you should check out what a vintage Cremona Amati violin goes for.

We guitarists have things very good - especially with respect to the cost of gear.

I've never known a horn player that ends up with a pedal fetish though.  That can get to be an expensive addiction.  My wife and I went to a BB King tribute in Seattle last week and the lead guitarist didn't use a single pedal.  Plugged straight into the amp. Man that was nice to see.  And hear.

 

[Cagey]

I've never known a horn player that ends up with a pedal fetish though.  That can get to be an expensive addiction.

They're also not usually the attention hores guitar players are  :laughing7:

But, that doesn't mean sfx pedals are a Bad Thing. They can be used to expand the palette, add shading, mood and ambience, much like a painter mixes colors and adds shading and perspective to enhance realism. You don't necessarily need to do it, but sometimes it's desirable.

 

[bagman67]

I agree with you, Kevin, that the use of effects pedals can really broaden the range of tones available and provide some interest to the sounds you make, both for the audience and for the player.  For me, though, I've been playing with nothing but preamp- and power-tube distortion and amp reverb for so long that any time I plug into effects, while I can make noises that are objectively pretty cool, they don't sound to me like me, if that makes sense.  It's disorienting.

 

[Cagey]

Makes perfect sense. But, sometimes you have to artificially create effects. It's pretty rare you get to play in a large auditorium, so a little delay can be fun. It's also not often you get to wrack a Marshall stack to suicidal levels, so a little "amp in the box" unit can help. Dynamic tone control is physically tough no matter what, so a wah pedal lets you use another limb to do that. Not everybody owns (or even wants to) Leslie speakers, so a Deja Vibe is a help. Sometimes the acoustics are bad, so a little EQ box comes in handy.

Of course, you'll notice all that stuff is really for the bedroom/garage player, so they can sound like their heroes who actually do get to do all those things.

 

[bagman67]

Yep, I'm  hip.  I mostly play through my Fender Mustang III (v 2.0) these days, and it has all manner of crap I don't bother with.  I usually dial up a Princeton emulation, and add an spring reverb, maybe some overdrive a little vibro-stank if I want to wade into the CCR swamp.  That's about as exotic as it gets.

 

[Seamas]

I typically play accoustic accompaniment with a singer songwriter who is usually playing guitar (sometimes piano).
I'll make use of a number of effects if the song needs it. If the song needs a bass part rather than another guitar, I'll use an octave pedal and play a bass line. I play a lot of slide, so compression and a little delay can really beef up the sound. Occasionally I'll do something unconventional, distortion, whatnot (my accoustic has a Fishman rare earth soundhole pickup, sounds surprisingly awesome when overdriven). Sometimes a nice trobbing tremolo on whole note chords are all I need to do. That said, more often than not, I am playing dry.

 

[aarontunes]

I've never known a horn player that ends up with a pedal fetish though.  That can get to be an expensive addiction.

They're also not usually the attention hores guitar players are :laughing7:

But, that doesn't mean sfx pedals are a Bad Thing. They can be used to expand the palette, add shading, mood and ambience, much like a painter mixes colors and adds shading and perspective to enhance realism. You don't necessarily need to do it, but sometimes it's desirable.

Beg to differ. I've yet to meet a trumpet player that didn't always want to have the last word, musically speaking.  :icon_biggrin:

 

[Seamas]

On the topic of expensive instruments, Tubas and sousaphones are very expensive, and are one of the most frequently stolen instruments (unlike a guitar, a brass instrument can even be valuable melted down)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/us/tuba-thefts.html

 

[Cagey]

Seems like the energy cost to melt down something like a sousaphone would be more than the brass is worth. But, I don't know. Besides, criminals aren't generally known for their good sense, either.

 

[Seamas]

You are right, the instrument would surely be more valuable than the raw materials, but some thieves will try to sell any kind of scrap they can.

 

[bagman67]

I'm here to tell you, having represented dozens of meth heads in criminal proceedings, that there is no scam too stupid for a meth head to pull, no score to petty or idiotic, no theft too risky, if the motivation is buying that next rock.  I had a client who broke into the back of a convenience store and boosted a case of cigarettes, and then came around the front to try to sell them to the clerk.  You can't make this stuff up.

 

[Cagey]

How do you even communicate with that level of stupid? You must have the patience of a saint.

 

[TBurst Std]

How do you even communicate with that level of stupid? You must have the patience of a saint.

Like dealing with a 6
Point vintage trem with Old Kluson tuners and a locking nut?

 

[raystankewitz]

I had a few cheap guitars (Squier Teles) a vintage 60's Silvertone bass and my MusicMan HD-130 bass head stolen. The meth-heads left the double stack MusicMan 4-10's behind, though.

Years later (30!) I got the head back when a local pawn shop owner was murdered and the police inventoried the shop. Actually, the cabinet and bare chassis were returned to me. I loved that HD-130 because it was very loud and it was an early one with a tube rectifier.

Interestingly enough, it had been there a long time as evidenced by the dust but there was no record of it in his books. The bass has never surfaced again and the Squiers never turned up locally. I thought I had found one of the missing ones on eBay but as soon as I asked to see the serial number to confirm things, he pulled the item. Local Maryland police didn't want to get involved over a cheap guitar, as did eBay.

I hate thieves.