Electric Guitars On eBay

I had a few requests from people for an enhancement to the menu system.  They wanted some indication if a menu item had subcategories beneath it.  After a little thought, I implemented a simple enhancement that will bold any menu item with subcategories.  Seems to work well and it does provide an improvement in exploring the content of the site.  Thanks for the suggestion!

After putting it off for to long, I finally got around to upgrading the XML engine of the site to use eBay’s new modified schema for accessing auctions.  It turned out to be less work than I first envisioned and I think the code is a lot cleaner too.

Don’t forget to check out our sister site for guitar effect pedals.

I get a lot of traffic to the Tokai section of guitarAmpInfo.com, so I thought I should brush up on a little history about the company. The following few paragraphs are a bit of what I found.

In 1982 the western guitar market was shocked into submission. Never before had it seen instruments of such quality from a Japanese builder. Tokai had come to town and had changed the entire perception of the guitar world forever!

Their arrival brought about a knee-jerk reaction from the world’s existing major manufacturers - including a hefty lawsuit from Gibson. However by this time, Tokai had firmly established itself as a builder of unquestionable reputation and precision. Unlike many of its competitors, Tokai founded by Tadayouki Adachi in Hamamatsu in 1947, still remains a genuine family concern. Now headed by its current President, Shohei Adachi, Tokai still retains the philosophy of absolute commitment to quality.

The majority of its current workforce are the same skilled craftsmen who created the now highly collectable eighties classics including the Tokai “Love Rocks” line.

I’ve included a separate section for Tokai Les Paul models, Tokai Stratocaster copies and Tokai Vintage models and of course the popular Tokai Love Rocks line.

For more information on specific Tokai models, check out this great Tokai Guitar User Forum.

Washburn Guitars got their start in Chicago way back in 1883. The set the trend for using artist endorsements and originated the first large bodied acoustic guitars. In recent years, Washburn has found a way to produce high quality instruments overseas which drives the street price down but delivering an amazing amount of value.

Washburn Guitars cover a wide range of models, from jazz hollowbodies to the over-the-top guitars for metal players. The Washburn Dimebag Darrell, Washburn Nuno Bettencourt and Washburn Oscar Schmidt sections cover all the main Washburn signature models although the Dimebag Darrell models are now out of production. The Washburn HB series is a high quality line of hollowbody guitars, closely modelled after the Gibson 335 and Gibson 345 designs. Another line of hollowbodies, the Washburn Jazz Models, are more traditional jazz boxes.

The Washburn BT models are a more budget-priced line, now out of production, but represent a good value of beginner players. For intermediate players, the Washburn Idol Models contain some incredible values and a wide array of models for most musical styles. Players looking for higher models should look at the Washburn Custom Shop models.

Two more sections, the Washburn X Series and Washburn Anarachy Series, are pure rock and roll guitars with multiple options and configurations.

Hamer Guitars started in 1974 in a vintage guitar shop in Wilmette, IL where a group of musicians acquired, restored and sold vintage instruments such as ‘59 Les Pauls, and 50s and 60s Stratocasters. Frustrated with the sound and workmanship of instruments currently manufactured by Gibson and Fender, they decided to take things into their own hands, making what would become the first Hamer guitar - a Flying V bass.

When Jol Dantzig, one of the founders of Hamer, took the unique bass on the road for a string of gigs, people began asking about it and where they could get one. Although none of them had considered building guitars for other people, when fellow Illinois native, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick asked for one, they just couldn’t turn him down. After Rick’s request, orders began to pour in from Mick Ralphs of Bad Company, Martin Barre of Jethro Tull and Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash. “The reaction was incredible,” explained Danzig. “We had ten orders before we even had a name for the company”.

The progression from guitar repair to guitar building was pretty natural and the fledging Hamer Guitar company was on it’s way. Personally, I remember seeing Cheap Trick in Dallas in 1979 (Sweet opened the show - man those guys were good…) and have the vision of Rick playing his checkerboard Explorer imprinted on my brain. Gimmick or not, that was one cool guitar - sounded great too.

In breaking up the Hamer section, I start off with the Hamer Archtop, Hamer Custom (which includes Custom Shop models) and Hamer Diablo. Next is the famous Hamer Explorer and then a special section for a Hamer Goldtop models followed by the Hamer Monaco and Hamer P90 models. The last section is for the budget line models, Hamer Slammer.

Rickenbacker is one of the oldest brand names in the manufacture of electric guitars. The firm is headquartered in Santa Ana, California, and all of its production takes place there. Rickenbacker is the largest guitar company to manufacture all of their guitars within the United States, which is a key factor in their consistently high quality and prices.

Rickenbacker guitars are noted for their distinctive jangle and chime. They are very trebly instruments and, unlike most electric guitars used in rock and roll, are often played cleanly, without distortion. Because of their tone, the guitars are favored by jangle pop, power pop, and British Invasion-style groups. Though there are exceptions, most hard rock, metal, and punk outfits eschew Rickenbacker guitars because they are not as well suited to tougher, grittier sounds as are other guitars; Rickenbacker basses, however, are a staple of the hard rock genre.

One interesting application of a “Rick” is by Joe Walsh of the Eagles, who uses them almost exclusively for slide guitar with a generous touch of distortion - typically through a Dr Z Mazerati amplifier.

For this section, I’ve included the most popular models including the Rickenbacker 360, Rickenbacker 330, Rickenbacker 620 and two section for Rickenbacker basses - the Rickenbacker 4001 and the Rickenbacker 4003. I’ve created two special sections for Rare Rickenbackers and another for Vintage Rickenbacker. Lastly, which will probably irk a few people, I’ve created a section called Rickenbacker Lennon, which includes the 325 Rickenbacker (3/4 guitar with a very flat fret board radius) and the Rickenbacker 350 (also played by Lennon at various points).

I’m in the process of overhauling this site, so I decided to start with some mods to the Music Man Guitar section. First off, the search strings were only keyed for “music man”, which I added “musicman” - this is a very common way to search for these guitars that I had missed in the initial build.

Secondly, I wanted to rope off all the licensed Music Man guitars - the OLP models - into their own section and remove them from the main Music Man section. I don’t know how good these guitars are, but I do see them everywhere.

Lastly, I’ve noticed quite a few more Music Man Albert Lee models for sale lately and I figured it was time to give them their own section as well. I’ve heard great things about this guitar and I’d love to get my hands on one to play - I really like the angular shape and the 3 P90 pickup option. For Music Man amps, vintage of course, be sure to check out www.guitarampinfo.com.

I just got Wordpress installed over here on electricGuitarBay.com after successfully launching my first Wordpress blog over at guitarAmpInfo.com - which has been a lot of fun.  I hoping this will be as fruitful…