Swap Meet Score

I bopped over to the monthly swap meet this past weekend hoping to find a few unusual trinkets I could use to decorate or enhance a cigar box guitar.  Nothing to cart home!

But, I ventured into the vintage tool arena hosted by my friend Tim, and lo and behold he had a Fender F-35 acoustic guitar propped against the wall for sale.  I checked it out and discovered that it was in excellent condition for a guitar made in the '70s.  Neck is straight, frets show no wear, tuners like new, no strings, but who cares, 'cause that's a simple and necessary fix, missing pick guard, but again that's an easy thing to correct, very light surface scratches on the top and back, sides show no wear, a few indentations on the neck underside from a capo, and ordinary wear from playing, and the bridge shows some wear from inside case scuffing.  Overall condition is 8 out of 10.

In the meantime our friend Ken came over to the booth (he is an artiste extraordinaire) to see what we were up to.  I negotiated Tim down to a reasonable price and bought the guitar.

Could have sold it twice on the way out, but that's no fun, I had to take this thing home to set it up to play.

Ken did fix me up with all the ivory and ebony I can ever use for fretboard inlays.  He really is a talented guy.  One of Ken's fascinations is to create 'piano men' from discarded grand piano parts, for guys like me to expand our imaginations in the creations of funky art, which Ken displays at museums and art shows around the country.  It's really a big deal!  I've created two displays and plan to do another.

Strings and pick guard were installed, and I polished the surfaces before firing this thing up.  It plays and sounds great, because the action is comfortable and the body is a mini-jumbo (according to the Fender Guitar Company website), and as near as I can determine the guitar was built in 1973. Unbelievable condition for a 40-year-old instrument.

It's going on eBay for sale, so if you want a really nice guitar take a look, or contact me soon and we'll make a deal.