DougGuy
It's really about a value you cannot possibly try and rationalize with a calculator. Without this 6th sense of appreciation for the out of the ordinary because it's unique, we'd have never had a tenth of the stuff that makes our culture what it is. Drag cars, surfboards, guitars, art, written composition, there are so many things that scratch an invisible itch and I think the Reeder custom is reaching that part of the OP.
This is a neat story.. Doesn't have anything to do with this revolver, but it's along the same lines and maybe it will help some of you understand that it isn't about practicality at all, it's about something that is just cool, and that coolness alone gives it value that cannot be measured in dollars.
Allen Collins, the Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist, played a Gibson Firebird guitar with some different mods done to it that gave him "his" sound that you hear on all their classic records. One of the components of the "Allen Collins" sound, was a certain off the wall very obscure German made tremolo that he installed on this old Firebird. It is likely he got it really cheap or maybe even free, but for whatever reason, that's beside the point. For many years even people who knew him fairly well, roadies that toured with the band, his proteges, nobody knew exactly what make or model this tremolo was. Here is a photo of Allen, with the tremolo unit on the Firebird guitar, see red arrow...
I got curious and started googling weird guitar related keywords, and I FINALLY hit on an image of a German made jazz guitar from 1962, that came with the SAME tremolo installed! I had finally figured out WHAT it was, and who made it. More googling, and I sent some emails to some vintage musical instrument dealers in Germany with photos asking about any of these tremolo units. Lo and behold, I actually came up with 2 of them, at a fairly exorbitant price, but I had two of them in my hands none the less!
As scarce and rare as these pieces are, I couldn't just slap it on a guitar just to see what it sounded like, it was so cool it needed a "project" guitar all it's own that would put it in the PROPER light, on a PROPER guitar that would be my "Allen Collins Tribute Firebird" guitar.
A couple or three thousand dollars later, here it sits, a Gibson Custom Shop Firebird I guitar, with the elusive German made Hopf tremolo, complete with the exact same tremolo arm with the white plastic tip (that came from a different guitar than the tremolo came from) that pretty much replicated Allen's main Firebird that he used from Skynyrd's beginning all the way up to the Fox Theater shows in 1976..
Overall this guitar cost more than the Gary Reeder custom revolver by a goodly amount. I play it almost every day. It is my go to instrument when I want to play. I cannot assign a value to it, the creativity that it sparks is unmeasurable. When I let my fingers play and never think ahead of what notes I want to play, and just jam, I don't really think about what I am going to do next and until I hear the sound coming out of the amp, I don't have a clue what it's going to sound like.
And I first thought wow that's a lot of money for guitar parts! Ya right..
|
   
   
|
|
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Rifle 57
