Deal Alert: Bassists REJOICE!

Ok, so on my latest round of pawn shop visits, I found a couple good deal for anyone interested in buying a bass:

Note the 2 basses in the front. Starting with the (very) white one:

- Squier Affinity series Precision PJ bass: These basses are seriously so freaking cool. PJ basses just have a ton of tonal variety from the mix of split and jazz pickups. These sell for $180 new everywhere and the asking price on this one is $130. However, I'm positive you can probably offer $100 and take it home. I played it. It's quite nice. Apart from a couple small finish swirls on the back, this thing looks brand new.
- (this one's the wow bass) USA-made Peavey Fury Bass: I haven't ever read a bad review about these basses, except for comments that they're relatively cheap, in the $100-200 range. This one is $69. Yes, there are chips and a fairly large (~1.5" gouge) dent in the upper horn, along with the stupid stickers. But you can remove stickers and have a great sounding, American-made bass for stupid cheap.

Both of these basses are at Pawn King in Urbana, IL (see my review of shops below). The Peavey just went on clearance as it hasn't sold since the shop opened. Pretty sweet deal there.

Posted with permission from Pawn King. The 2 basses behind it are a Rogue 4-string PJ and an Ibanez Gio 5-string. Yuck to both, but just my opinion.

~C

So bored...and Local Pawn Shop Reviews!

Seriously. I am. I've been looking for the next flipping investment and it still hasn't panned out. Even though there are 4 pawn shops in the local area, none of them have anything flip-worthy. A few good guitars to be had, but the price isn't perfect on them.

I'll probably be doing another gear review here in a bit, but I'm also thinking about a new feature. Since I do find some decent deals at pawn shops that are good pieces of gear to own, but not necessarily to flip, I'm going to ask the pawn brokers if they'll let me photograph some items and share them with you, the readers. Obviously, at this point there aren't many of you, but if doing this adds value to the website, I think you might keep visiting.

In the meantime, here's a quick rundown of the pawn shops in the local (Champaign/Urbana, Illinois) area, in case you were curious:

1.) Pawn King: This is the newest shop, so new that it isn't on Google Maps yet. It replaced one of the worst excuses for a pawn shop I've seen...just my opinion. I didn't like the old place, as they had horribly priced guitars and were not willing to negotiate...along the lines of asking over $200 for Squier Standard and Affinity guitars, often over even the new retail price.

At any rate, the new store (here labeled "Gold & Diamond Exchange) is probably the most professional-looking pawn shops I've seen before. Well laid-out, clean, with a helpful staff.

In terms of musical selection, there's not much to be had, but the Ukulele Flip I did not too long ago happened there. They occasionally get good gear, and it's reasonably priced. After talking to the person there who deals the most with musical instruments, there was a prior employee who made some bad purchasing decisions, like buying a Japanese-made generic brand hollowbody for $200, which will never sell for its asking price of $400. There's a few pedals there, and a couple instruments worth looking at -- a Fender MIM HH Stratocaster in light-blue color, which you might be able to get for under $300 if you negotiate, and a Peavey Bass that's quite solid and just needs a good setup, which they're asking for $125. Good deal. I recommend you visit!

2.) Leonard's Pawn Shop: If you were to look up "pawn shop" in a dictionary, this is what I would picture. A room with glass cases, items strewn on the walls, and fairly gruff-looking employees. But don't let those looks fool you. This place is my go-to when it comes to finding pawn shop deals.

I'm not perfectly familiar with the names of the 2 employees there, but one of them is Leonard, the owner, and I believe the other guy, the one most commonly working there day-in, day-out, is the one I deal with the most.

They have a pretty wide selection of guitars, to be honest. They're the ones with the Gibson '97 double cutaway Les Paul that looks gorgeous and is ridiculously overpriced. One thing to note -- they're always running a 20% off Musical Instruments sale, so remember the prices are always lower than the tag. Smart advertising. You can get Squiers here for under $100, and the occasional good deal. I'll go into details about this deal, but I once got a MIJ 80s Telecaster here for about $125 that I ended up, through flipping, netting about $350 for. That helped me fund my first telecaster build, and I still had over $125 remaining, so it was a zero-sum effort.

Take note of what's on the walls and keep it in your mind. If you see an item has sat on the wall for a long time, you can likely pounce on it for barely more than they paid for it. Don't be afraid to ask them what they paid for it. They might not tell you, but if it's been there awhile, they may share with you so you can make a reasonable offer so they can make a small profit and get it off their shelf. The guy who I deal with there is a really nice guy, and often asks me questions about gear he gets in. There's an array of instruments and amps here, for all price points. Not all of them are incredible deals, but there are lots of keeper instruments to be had if you're willing to pay what they're honestly worth.

3.) Gold Rush II: Not entirely sure where the "II" comes from, as I never saw another Gold Rush, but this is another good shop worth visiting.
Good selection of guitars. I've seen high-end American-made instruments here and some of the cheapest of the cheap. They know their stuff, too. You can tell their prices are well-researched, as there aren't great flipping deals here, but very good deals for instruments to keep. My Ibanez ART100 flip started here at Gold Rush, and this is one of the points worth making about the shop: your best deals if you're looking to flip from here are going to come from brands that aren't Gibson or Fender. They know how to price those instruments, but will occasionally under-price Peavey, Ibanez, and other instruments due to lack of information online about the instruments. When I saw the Ibanez for $85 at their shop, I knew I was onto something, and when I haggled it slightly lower due to some finish/hardware issues, I knew I had a flip coming. I didn't expect I'd love that guitar, which I ended up doing, but it still turned out to be a great flip, albeit the one I miss the most. So there's plenty of deals here, and this would be the first place I go if I'm looking for a specific guitar or a specific brand. Just recently, they got an influx of amps and effects pedals, so they're worth visiting. They tend to over-price their pedals, so be warned. Do your research.

4.) Pawn Stop: This one is a ways away from the other 3, but is a reasonable pawn shop to stop by. I wouldn't call this one "sketchy," because they do have quality stuff, but if you're one who's uncomfortable going in a shop that has bars on the windows and doors, you may not like what you see.
So the real saving grace of this place is that they have a lot of instruments. Not a lot in terms of amps or effects, but they have more than nothing in those regards. The instrument wall in the back has a decent range of low- to mid-priced guitars, probably maxing around the $400 range. Not that they don't have higher-end instruments there from time-to-time, but it's not the norm like it is for Leonard's and Gold Rush II.

Very good deals to be had here. I've bought quite a few items for flipping from here...though the specific flips elude me right now. Their tagged prices are reasonable for ownership, and you can usually haggle prices that are flip-worthy. For example, there's a MIM J-Bass there right now with a tag of $250 that I'm positive someone could buy for about $175-180 if they haggled the right way. Easy $300 sale for a tidy profit, and a decent bass to own, for sure. Plenty of cool guitars including the old 80s shredder guitars that have no headstock. Would be fun to own to channel my inner "Bill & Ted" but those guitars are more pricey than I'm willing to shell out.

Also check out their movie selection and tools. They have plenty of both, and the prices on those are awesome.


"Honorable" Mention

5.) The Pawn Shop in Rantoul: Even though it's 20-25 minutes away from the Champaign-Urbana area, I will add this to the list as it's a relatively local shop I've visited. Worthwhile to visit, but I don't think I'll be going back anytime soon.
"Why?" you may ask, and here's my response: their prices are ridiculous, and hard to negotiate. The one saving grace of this shop is that it has the most impressive collection of modern and vintage instruments and amps I've seen in a pawn shop. They have an entire room dedicated to the audio arts, and a couple small rooms for trying out instruments.

But their prices are ridiculous. I get it, they have a bottom line and overhead to pay, so they need meat on the bones. But I didn't find one single item in their inventory that was priced at anything below about retail+10%. If they were a music shop, I might understand, but they have old tube amps with brands that no one recognizes that they're trying to sell for $300-700, and I doubt they'll move anytime soon. I'll gladly buy-to-own a vintage tube amp for maybe $200 but more likely $100-150, but it's ridiculous to expect people to shell out a ton of money on amps that simply aren't worth it. The sticker shock alone makes me cautious.

I did buy one item from them, at what I would consider a reasonable cost but nothing near what I'd expect from a pawn shop. I won't name it, since my negative review and the item could "out" me, but suffice it to say I was able to sell the item for the same price I bought it for, so it still wasn't an incredible deal. If I lived in Rantoul, yes, I'd probably visit daily and enjoy myself. But for the cost of gas and the effort of trying to haggle with someone who believes that the overpriced junk should stay overpriced is just not worth it to me. So I'll pass, unless business finds me in Rantoul for some other reason.


So there you have it. I was expecting a shorter writing, but opted to provide as much detail as possible. Enjoy!

~C

Now the DOD has sold!

Just yesterday, the DOD sold for my higher asking price on Reverb, at $65 + $10 shipping.

So let's put it all together:

Purchase Price: $65 shipped for both
Sale Price: $220 shipped for both
Net: $155 profit

After the ebay and Reverb fees, I'll end up with about $145 profit. Not too shabby!

So....once again I do not currently have any active flips. I've been going to pawn shops looking for the next one, but haven't seen anything worthwhile. I'll update you once I do, and do some gear and tech reviews in the meantime.

~C

Half of a Flip Done! Maxon AD-80

Well, the Maxon has finally sold...

I was getting impatient. Some nibbles on Reverb and no real interest on Craigslist, so I cranked the price from $115 to $135 and put it on eBay.

Remarkably, it sold, within 24 hours. Wow! eBay still has the wider market. Probably a "duh" observation but it does prove an important point:

• Maximize the markets you use. If one market has higher commission (fees), reflect it in your price. You may be surprised at the results.

I surely was!

Buy Price: $25

Sell Price: $135

Net: $110

Not bad! I should add that this pedal did need work, and it amounted to cleaning the pots, nothing more. I took a risk on buying a pedal without knowing the issue fully, but in my calculation, I could sell a nonworking AD-80 for more than $25, even if I couldn't fix it. Either that, or I had a good enclosure and some decent components for $25.

So that's half the flip. The DOD 280 is seeming like a tougher sell, but I think it'll come through. I had a potential buyer in Brazil ask me about shipping to his country and seemed interested, so maybe that'll hash out. Not a huge profit there but I've played the 280 and had a "meh" viewpoint on it, so it'll go, and I'll count the Maxon as a win.

Keep your eyes out for those good deals!

~C

Gear in Review: Menatone Blue Collar

I'll admit, I'm currently getting rather impatient as I wait for the Maxon and DOD pedals to sell. I've got my eye on a new pedal (which I won't share at this point as I'll talk about it if and when I get it...) and to afford it, I need to unload those pedals. I'll still net a small profit, but occasionally I need to get something for myself, you know? :)

At any rate, in the midst of my boredom, I'll share another pedal review. And this one is my go-to dirt, which makes it a worthwhile review. I don't think this pedal will ever...EVER leave my board.

Menatone Blue Collar

Brian Mena has something of a cult following among a lot of circles. He doesn't make many pedals, but he's fairly famous for preferring point-to-point soldering over PCB wiring (though he occasionally does PCB) and still managing to fit his circuits in reasonably-sized enclosures.

I first fell in love with Menatone listening to reviews of the King of the Britains pedal. Something about British growl got to me and I kept looking into Menatone, trying to figure out what I wanted. Some amazing pedals, but the one that many were talking about was the Blue Collar. Having recently gotten my main guitar, a Fender Standard Stratocaster in the limited black paisley finish, I was drawn to the reviews that emphasized how well the Blue Collar was highly paired with a single coil guitar like a Strat. I saw some reviews (like here and here), and knew it was really what I was looking for. Capable of getting mid-gain-ey but not over the top, fairly clean if needed, but definitely gritty, it was perfect, at least on paper.

I found a good deal (I think I bought it for $120) and jumped on it.

The day it arrived, I had about an hour to use it, and I plugged in just the Blue Collar to my amp, so I could see how it sounded without any other coloration. In a word, I was impressed. This pedal sounded great!

I don't think it's limited just to single coil guitars, as it could fatten up any sound, but having a presence knob and the ability to add some sparkle by increasing the tone, it really is quite compatible with a Strat. In hardly any time at all, it became my go-to, kicking off the Behringer Vintage Tube Monster (reviewed earlier) and beating away any other dirt pedals I came across, until I found a Klon clone pedal that runs in to the Blue collar to add extra dirt, but the Blue Collar is my always-on pedal. It is my tone.

I highly recommend anything from Brian Mena in the Menatone line. I've seen a lot of praise over the Red Snapper, and that might be a neat pedal to pair with the Blue Collar (a la the Fish Factory custom pedal). You should look into their pedals if you're looking for your tone.

Brief Tips on Flipping

So, over my time flipping guitars and gear, I've gained a bit of experience and reached a groove with which I'm comfortable. As always, your mileage may vary, and your approach can certainly be different, depending on the funding you have, the gear in which you're interested, and the risk you're willing to take. At any rate, here's a few rules I follow:

1. Your paying/trading price has to leave you a fairly considerable profit margin: This might go without saying, but if you pay $580 for a $600 guitar, you're probably going to lose money or make
   
   no profit, reason being that you may have to pay for travel (gas), shipping (and packaging, and insurance...), fees if you're using a website, etc. I typically will only invest in something if I can make close to double what I pay. This allows me to flip with a low asking price if I want to sell quickly, or if I want to maximize profits, I don't have to worry about breaking even after the bits get taken off  the top. Plus, this adds justification to the sale. Like my below flip of the Martin Ukulele, it required me to pay $100 (actually, $80) out-of-pocket, but I was all but certain I could make at least $100 more off of the sale, and I surely did. I would only drop that kind of money if I was sure I could make a considerable profit, otherwise, that money's better in savings.
2. You should buy something you know something about: again, this seems like a no-brainer to me, but you'd be surprised the people I see buying gear about which they know practically nothing. Looking up the price of a guitar on eBay or elsewhere is not a sure-fire way of knowing the price of an item. Look it up: what materials are in it? In what country was it made? Even more important, what do other musicians think about it? The Ibanez flip I recently did involved a guitar I didn't know much about (ART100) but forum searches showed that there was a decent following for the guitar. That made it worthwhile, again considering the price I paid and the potential money I could get off of it. I more than doubled what I paid because I recognized a good investment.
3. You need to know your way around inspecting and running tech on what you buy. It would be a mistake to buy a Fender MIA Telecaster if the neck was warped, or worse yet, not original to the instrument. You need to know your way around these instruments. How to inspect string height, action, intonation/setup, fret wear, electronics, etc., and how to run the gear through its paces -- what to listen for, what to adjust. A lot of the problems with instruments might lower the resale value, but they can often make for strong negotiating chips when buying gear. I bought an 80s MIJ Telecaster at a huge reduction because the wiring was all messed up. I saw the back and knew it would be an easy soldering job, but the pawn broker knew that most consumers wouldn't buy something that made no sound, regardless of how easy the fix would be. They'll sell it for just a tiny profit at that point.
4. Buy things you wouldn't mind owning: every once in awhile, you make a great buy on a well-loved item but no one pulls the trigger on buying it from you. This often happens for the higher-end gear, like a MIJ 52 Fender Telecaster reissue I got on the cheap. I ended up getting practically no profit off of it because people wouldn't buy it at the typical price others bought it at. It was frustrating, but it's the truth of the matter. Unfortunately, I didn't have room for that extra guitar so I took it for a small profit. That was a real way of showing me this fundamental rule. I loved the guitar but really only got it for making profit. If I had figured it'd be ok to keep, I'd have an amazing guitar for not much investment. The recent pedals I bought ($60 total for a DOD 280 and a Maxon AD-80) follows this rule well. They haven't sold now a week after putting them up for sale, but if they end up on my board, it's pretty great. Both pedals have a strong positive reputation and sound great.
5. Buy lower-priced items rather than big-ticket items: In my experience, it is really hard to unload the higher-priced items, especially locally. I might be able to sell a guitar for $200 or $250 to the occasional buyer around my area, but anything more than that is really tough. Most folks looking at higher-priced items are in love with trading rather than buying outright. A lot of gear forums are the same way. Don't get me wrong, you might get a buyer, especially if your asking price is below what most people ask, but then you're losing potential profit and spending a lot of time on little gain. Now, if someone tried to sell me an American Stratocaster for $100, I'm sure I would take it and try to resell for $500. That doesn't happen, though, at least not to me and not that often otherwise. People might recognize that price as a good one but may want to try to trade their way into it rather than paying the money, which makes it tough. Plus, big ticket items cost more to ship and insure, store, etc., so keep that in mind. I make a fairly good amount of profit getting items in the $10-$100 range and selling for substantially more. You're welcome to pursue the higher-priced items, but the profit margin is typically lower because the sellers know what they have, even if they're pawn brokers. I saw a great 90s Gibson LP Double-Cutaway that was gorgeous at a local pawn shop...their asking price? $1200. But you can get MIM Fenders for around $150 every day and make decent profit for little effort.

I hope this helps. I enjoy the activity but wanted to share the lessons I've learned. Feel free to ask any questions you may have!

Fixing the Maxon AD-80, and an Important Lesson About Upkeep

So, a few days ago the Maxon AD-80 showed up in my mailbox, along with the DOD 280 pedal. Here are the real pictures:


Both in pretty good condition, and not too shabby at $65 shipped.

Unfortunately, the Maxon didn't work correctly out of the box. There are 2 output jacks, see here:

(ignore the chunky fingers.)

See how one jack has the word "amplifier" and the word "dry" by it? Yeah, that's messed up. Truth be told, what it is trying to say is that the right jack is fully dry, and if you use both jacks into separate amps, it'll put the dry signal in one jack and the wet signal in the other, but if you just plug in to the left jack, you'll get the wet and dry signal. Get it? Got it. I made that mistake and thought it wasn't working at all. Moving on...

Plugged into the right jack, I could see what the seller was saying about it being out of whack. After all, I would turn the blend knob and barely get any delayed signal. But here's the big giveaway:

It crackled when I turned the knob.

Any experienced pedal tech knows what the crackle means. And it comes down to the mechanics of the potentiometer that the knob turns.

A potentiometer is basically a variable resistor that is controlled by a small metallic sweeper that moves with the potentiometer's shaft (which is then connected to the knob), which increases the distance from a static metallic sweeper to the mobile sweeper, hence increasing the distance and therefore the resistance. Ok, with me so far? Good.

Over time, especially when the knobs are not regularly turned, the inside of the potentiometer oxidizes, gets dirty, and whatever else, causing the connection between the mobile sweeper and the pad controlling the amount of resistance to go bad. In most cases, it just kills the connection entirely, effectively "turning off a switch" between the 2 lugs of the potentiometer (or 3, but that'll be covered later). Sometimes, the connection is so weak that it has its own resistance or doesn't send the signal well, causing discrepancies in the audio. Any time a pedal tech turns a knob and hears a crackle, their first thought is "dirty pot." Seriously!

There are a number of products with their own cheering (or booing) sections on how to resolve the issue, but the main issue is to clean and lubricate the connection so that it will continue to operate properly. Since most pots are fully enclosed, oil-based lubricants/cleaners are best, because they will pick up the particles as they are cleaned off and won't rust/oxidize the insides. My go-to is typically either Liquid Wrench or WD-40. I know there are a lot of techs who are against using WD-40 as it causes some chemical reactions and may (emphasis on may) wear out the pots more quickly. However, I'm not dealing with a Klon Centaur or any multi-thousand dollar digital effects pedal, and potentiometers are cheap and replaceable, so I go with an easy fix that works and has never failed me.

UPDATE: I was doing some research to support that WD40 is an effective contact cleaner, and while I believe it is, and folks seemed to support that, products like DeOxIt tend to have less corrosive and more lubricative ingredients, lessening wear and improving life (see here here and here). I'll probably get it eventually if I do more pedal tech, but I won't hesitate to use WD40.

A short application of the WD40 (which was also a great adhesive residue remover, I'll have to write that down...) and the pot was moving smoothly. Plugged it back in and it worked perfectly, no issues at all. Really great sounding pedal. Very warm and organic. Provides a bit of lushness similar to analog choruses at the right setting.

Consequently, I've fallen in love with the pedal, but the chance for quick profit is tempting. I've put it up for sale on Reverb and Craigslist and I'll leave it there for a couple weeks and see if there are any bites. If yes, great, if not, I'll keep it. The DOD is up there too. I definitely bought that to flip it, but I've always wanted to own one for a brief time just to see how the opticals work.