Peter Kellett does anodization - the process of increasing the thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts. In short it makes metal pretty! And that is how he got his introduction to working with Fender’s Custom Shop.

That story and many, many others are contained in a Modern Guitars interview from January 2007 - click on this link for the full story.

Peter has between 100 and 150 guitars in his collection and he names his Deserted Island 5:

• A set-neck Strat
• A Gibson SG Custom Shop
• A ‘65 Strat
• One of the first 20 anodized Strats
• and a ‘58 Mary Kaye

He also touches on how he tries to prove the authenticity of guitars which he buys - this is a key area for dbTwang as we move to develop a trusted marketplace for guitar collectors. There are no easy solutions to it - but a number of interconnected actions and services that together will come close to an ideal market.

keith

From a blog called Voices comes a wonderful post which illustrates the passion that can run in a family about guitars. The poster (a female teenager who remains anonymous) introduces her Dad and says that some of the guitars have appeared in movies such as “The Color Purple”.

The collection includes an Alvarez, a Martin which is 130 years old, a Musser and a Gibson Southern Jumbo.

The full post with good clear photos is linked here.

keith

dbTwang.com -  building the web’s favourite community for guitar collectors

Came across this post today - from the IG BLOG (guitar-life) came a great piece on the previously referred to Guitar Collection investment Fund.

IG picks up on the inspiration of the Vintage Guitar 42 Guitar Index (since 1991 it has never gone down) and on the reputed interest from a number of institutional investors.

Nice one IG

keith

dbTwang.com -  building the web’s favourite community for those who share a passion for guitars.

Joey Robichaux thinks so. He is an avid guitar collector and in the blog post linked here he gives guitar collectors some advice:

• Concentrate on American made
• Don’t ignore the less desirable decades - the value of 70’s and 80’s guitars is going up!
• Consider the “student” lines from Gibson and Fender (Fender Mustangs and Gibson Melody Makers for example)

You can read the full article here.

keith

dbTwang.com -  building the web’s favourite community for those who share a passion for guitars.

Stan Denski is a blogger who lives in Indianapolis and a couple of days ago he wrote a long and detailed post on a musician called Michael Bloomfield. In it he quotes George Gruhn as making the above statement.

An excerpt from the post:

Old Telecasters were $50 until Mike used one with Dylan and on the 1st Butterfield LP. Then Les Paul gold tops which could not be given away for $100 became hot when Mike switched to one for East/West. After the covers of Supersession and the 1st Electric Flag LPs, Les Paul Sunbursts, a singularly unpopular guitar, began their rise in price from $200 to the $400,000 they fetch today.

For much more on this follow this link to the full post. Thanks to Stan for the time it took to write that

keith

dbTwang.com -  building the web’s favourite community for those who share a passion for guitars.

For anyone living in the Boston, US area (specifically Nashua - link to Google Maps) there is an exhibition coming up (Aug 9 to Sept 27 2008) which features photos of a guitar collection which includes an original National Steel, a 1971 Les Paul Deluxe and a 1968 Gibson Thunderbird.

For more information see this page from the Nashua Telegraph.

keith

dbTwang.com -  building the web’s favourite community for those who share a passion for guitars.

In an earlier post (linked here) we mentioned a newly announced Guitar Fund - set up to invest $100 million into rare and vintage guitars. A couple of days ago another person joined the management team for the fund - David Noble.

David is a semi-professional luthier apparently (see the coverage linked here)  and he is also an experienced guitar collector. He joins a management team which already contains one luthier (founder Tommy Byrne) as well as an advisory board with Elliott Randall and Robbin Thompson (both musicians).

keith

dbTwang.com -  building the web’s favourite community for those who share a passion for guitars.

While the core dbTwang service will always be a guitar collection database there are a number of areas which we see naturally evolving as we service the core guitar collector and enthusiast market. One of these is the maintenance and repair of classic and antique guitars.

From a Southern Utah website called thespectrum.com comes a write up about a guitar repair business run by Dan Worthington. Dan (who along with his wife Marcia) is an accomplished musician collects guitars and his business evolved from his passion. He turned a hobby into a full time occupation and has established himself with a strong reputation in this space.

For more read the full article in thespectrum - linked here.

I could not find a website for the business - however Dan has a page on the Southern Utah Songwriters Association site - linked here. Recommendations for other guitar repair businesses welcome

keith

dbTwang.com -  building the web’s favourite community for those who share a passion for guitars.