Minor Break from Flipping

After a 3rd visit to all of the 4 pawn shops I regularly visit didn't yield anything of value or promise, I'm taking a short break from flipping. Reason being, I don't have the seed money to get started for probably a few weeks or so. Rest assured, I have plenty of money, but it goes to my family and bills; only excess starts flips, and I do not have excess right now.

Part of the reason is that I have started work on building a guitar for my wife, a Gibson-scale Telecaster type guitar that is more like a La Cabronita. The body is about 90% normal size, and thinner, for weight reduction, and will be purple paisley.

You can view my build thread here: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/484827-build-thread-smaller-cabronita-esquire-my-wife.html

I've bought a few necessary tools, and materials, so money's tight. Stay tuned; I'll fill the time with a few gear reviews.

~C

Tips When Gear Theft Occurs, and Lessons to Make it Easier on You

Well, it's just a minor update, from a musical perspective, but I recently had a couple power tools stolen from my garage. It was a couple weeks ago when the theft occurred, but I didn't notice until about a week ago when I went looking for the tools. A neighbor saw it happening so was able to get a description of the burglar, but there's obviously just a minor chance my tools will be recovered.

PS -- this picture's hilarious. (Source)

Everyone I talked to about this had the same question for me -- "did you get the serial number for your tools?" While the answer for one was an easy "no," as I hadn't even opened the tool, let alone recorded the serial number after doing so, the other tool, and my favorite (it was an awesome drill...) did not have a serial recorded for it, even though I've owned it at least a few years. That makes for a quick lesson learned, doesn't it? Luckily the burglar only took the drill and a battery, so I still had the charger and a 2nd battery, plus the case all remaining.

At any rate, since I'm pretty wont to make lists of lessons learned, here's another one for you:

• Don't leave your garage open, even if you're home. This guy must have just run in and out the garage in a few seconds, as no one noticed, but when we talked to the neighbor, it happened while we were in the backyard. Yikes! Kinda scary when you think about it...what would happen if one of us had gone into the garage at the time, or he checked the door from the garage to our house? Speaking of which...
• Don't leave the door from your garage to your house unlocked. Maybe a "duh" piece of advice, but considering people could break into your car and use your garage door opener, or you may have your garage door opened, it makes an easy point of access.

Now, on to the ones that are relevant to you and I, as music gear owners:

• Don't shirk the task of recording ALL serial numbers to all pieces of gear that you own. Make a spreadsheet, save it to the cloud. Update it when you buy any new gear.
• Check out the pawn shops. I was assured by the local police department that they'll be checking pawn shop reports, and it was when I checked in myself with the pawn shops that I saw how tight the system was. Pawn shops report EVERY item they buy or pawn, to a database that police can access. If police are doing their job and checking every so often on that database, they'll find items that got sold that are reported stolen. Pawn shops have to wait at least 3 days after buying something before they can sell it, so there's a window there where police can check and keep an item from getting sold.
• Also, to the point of serial numbers, pawn shops are required to report serial numbers as well. The best way to prove a piece of gear is yours is through that serial. There's a plausible defense that the item is not yours if you don't know the serial. Even though one of my tools was brand new, there's no telling that someone may legitimately sell a brand new one of those tools at a pawn shop, and no guarantee that it's actually mine.
• Check the pawn shops often. I can't necessarily trust the police will have the same diligence I do, and that's nothing against them, but to ensure the item is being checked for regularly, I plan to stop by all the nearby pawn shops every couple days just to be sure.
• Check other avenues of selling gear. I doubt your everyday criminal will use Reverb, but check Craigslist and ebay at the very least. You can sort ebay auctions by location and would get an easy sense if someone's trying to sell your gear on there.

Luckily it was tools taken instead of any of my music gear. Luckily it was just theft, considering my family was at home. Take the necessary preventive steps to avoid giving criminals an easy way to steal.

~C

Unidyne SM57 Update: SUCCESS!

No more hole digging! Time to fill 'er back up!

Great news, after last night I had a chance to look at the "broken" SM57s that had just arrived and discovered, on the surface, that the issue simply had to do with soldering of the wires on the inside to the lugs on the capsule. It ended up being literally that simple for one of the microphones. The "rattling" reported in the listing was just the nuts and washers for the retention of the capsule rattling in the handle. They just needed to be put back on, and all was good as new. That one will be a quick sale!

(stock photo from the 'net, so you can see what the solder job looks like)

The second one was not as simple. I noticed the PCB with the lugs for the capsule was spinning freely, which meant two things: first, that the nut holding the PCB down was loose, and second, that the thin wires coming from the coil of the capsule had broken.

I ended up trying to re-solder the coil wires back to the lugs, but there was barely enough length, and the minute the PCB spun even a little, the wires broke. So I tightened the nut holding the PCB down TIGHT, and then grabbed my hook-up wire. Stripped the vinyl off the outside of it, pulled out a couple copper threads, soldered one to each of the two lugs, then VERY CAREFULLY soldered the thread to the coil wires.

Disclaimer: This is not the easiest thing in the world, as the coil wires are enamel coated and won't take solder until the enamel is removed. You can either get some high-grit (like 240 or above, to avoid sanding through the wire) sandpaper and carefully sand the enamel off, or if you have good temperature control of your soldering iron, you can put it at a temperature that won't damage the wire but will melt back the enamel. I chose the latter, and got the solder to hold. Wired it back up, and...voila! Worked!

Knowing that the capsule fully worked, I went about putting the Unidyne cap on the Shure capsule and soldered the capsule to the Unidyne base (containing the much-touted Unidyne transformer). It works like a charm!

Given the work I've put into the Unidyne, I'm definitely going to keep it, and probably going to paint the body white, just to look cool. In all, this took very little investment, and when I sell the fully-working Shure SM57 that took hardly any work, you can admit that I have quite the deal:

- Bought the Unidyne III for $50, found out it was irreparable
- Bought the 2 Shure SM57s for $50, got them both working
- Moved one Shure capsule into the Unidyne body and cap
- Can sell the other working SM57 for around $70, with a negative net of $30

But wait! There's more!

I have a fully working body from a Shure SM57 and a completely un-working Unidyne SM57 capsule. I might put both up for sale and see if there's anyone interested. Probably sell both for $20-30 which would mean fully recuperating my investment, and still having a Unidyne SM57.

It's been a long ordeal, but I think I see light at the end of the tunnel! Here are the lessons I learned from this complicated flip (although it's not over yet!):

1. Don't get ahead of yourself on thinking you'll make money, especially if you have no idea the extent to which the repairs will be.
2. Don't give up on a botched repair; look for opportunities that will let you get out of whatever mess you're in.
3. When possible, consider alternatives that may cost more, but will result in you keeping or being able to sell a piece of high-quality gear.

~C

Advice from a Left-Handed Guy Playing a Right-Handed Guitar: My Gift to The Upper Bout

So, my bud Brian at The Upper Bout and I were talking last week about guitars (is there really anything else to talk about at a guitar shop???) and we got to talking about how I'm left-handed but I play right-handed guitars. At some point in time, Brian mentioned my blog and (maybe somewhat jokingly) that I should write a post about why I made that decision and think that left-handers should at least consider doing the same thing.

So, without further ado...

Why Left-Handed People Should Consider Playing Right-Handed Guitars

So here we go.

If you are left-handed, you're probably used to having difficulty with some right-handed objects: golf clubs, scissors, 3-ring binders, can openers, and plenty of other things. At some point in time, it becomes a sense of pride that we are lefties. We like to tell people we're left-handed, talk about how we are so much more awesome than right-handed people, tell our share of jokes and lefty-isms ("Left handers use the right side of their brain; righties only use what's left!"), talk about how we're more creative, more agile, or discuss all the things we do that are left-handed or right-handed (for the record, there are only 2 things I do that are right-handed: golfing and batting....well, and playing guitar, which I'll talk about soon, but the rest is lefty).

Around the time I was 10 years old, a relative of mine had just given up learning to play guitar, and so they had one for sale, and only $50. One day, while I was visiting, they brought out the guitar and I tried to learn how to play. Fun! I was hooked. My parents paid the money and I became a guitarist.

Hold your breath.

It was a right-handed guitar.

FOR SHAME!

How could any self-respecting lefty be caught playing a right-handed guitar? Don't I have the same level of pride other lefties to?

Of course I do.

But here's what I believe: Right-handed guitars are EASIER for lefties, and lefties can be better at guitar than right-handed people can.

Here are the main points I wish to share:

1. Guitar was made for 2-handed use. Think about it: it's not as if your strumming/picking hand is the only had doing any work. You need to have good use of both of your hands. Left-handed guitar players need to learn how to use their right hands, and vice-versa.
2. Your non-handed guitar hand (or something like that) often does more work than your picking hand. Right-handed guitar players, especially those playing solos, need to have a lot more finger and hand agility in their left hands to play the right scales, transitions, hammer-ons and slides, while the picking hand, while needing some agility, doesn't require much finger agility, at least not at the level of the left hand. Plus, when you're learning, the hardest part is learning how to fret notes, not pick strings. Why would you want to use your non-dominant hand for the more difficult task when starting out?
3. All things considered, it's easier to get and try out right-handed guitars. Don't even get me started with vintage instruments, but if you walk into a guitar shop, you'll maybe find 1-2 lefty guitars, if you're lucky! Keep in mind, this isn't the reason I'm suggesting lefties play right-handed, but as a lefty who plays right-handed guitars, I appreciate the fact I can sit down in pawn shops, guitar shops, or with people selling guitars on Craigslist and play the instruments they have. I get to try out a lot, develop some preferences, and I'm not stuck playing what's available, or buying guitars online. I've occasionally bought guitars online, but I prefer to play them first!
4. You can talk about how you're a lefty who plays right-handed guitars. Still an incredible source of pride. Better yet, write a blog post that nobody reads and feel really great about yourself!

Final Disclaimer: I will never declare to you that there is a right and a wrong way to play guitar. After all, Jimi Hendrix broke basically every "rule" about how to hold and play a guitar and did fantastically. My only statement is that I implore all left-handed players to at least try out, for a week or two, playing a right-handed guitar before deciding to play a fairly rarely-made instrument type. You may enjoy how easy it is for a smart, creative lefty like you! :)

~C

Maybe Digging the Hole Deeper? More on Unidyne SM57

My sentiments exactly. Update on the Unidyne SM57.

After the horrible failure of a fix earlier (and I know the reason is because I over-confidently said "profit, here I come!), I set the microphone aside, but it called to me.

"FIX ME"

I knew I was going to wait until an opportunity presented itself, but just then, an opportunity presented itself.

2 SM57 microphones, for $50. Both were sold untested, as-is, from a seller who got it from a storage garage auction. Am I really just digging myself into a hole? Maybe not. Hear me out.

According to this forum post and Shure's website on services, even microphones out of warranty are covered. For $55, they will attempt to repair nonworking microphones, or replace them outright. So, if the bad happens and neither microphone works, I've got the option to get both fixed for $110, and so for $160, I have 2 new microphones, priced at $200 new. Not really anything to profit off of, but I can recoup my money fairly easily.

If either (or both!) microphones work, I'm in luck! I can pull the capsule half of the microphone and solder it into the bottom half of the Unidyne, even going so far as to replace the windscreen and collar with the original Unidyne ones. Now, I fully realize that the microphone is not then a Unidyne, but the capsule has not undergone any significant changes, so it will be literally the same microphone. Maybe worth selling at $150 or so, for a minor profit, or keeping. If both work, I can sell the other working one for $70ish and recoup almost all of my costs, making my Unidyne virtually free. Virtually...meaning I'm willing to net having paid $30 for one of the best microphones around. I might even paint it, just to be coy.

I honestly think the worst case scenario at this point is if they are both fake. That's not terrible, as I'll just send the microphones back for being horribly incorrectly described.

At any rate, it's a lesson to myself not to speak too soon, and a chance to hopefully vindicate myself after speaking too soon. I'll keep you updated!

~C

Maxon OD808 Flip. Quick. Easy. Painless.

After the difficulty in the Unidyne SM57 flip (which, admittedly, I'm still on top of, since I made over $100 profit on the first Unidyne and only spent $50 on the second one...), it's nice to report an easy and positive flip for quick profit. This won't be a long post, but a great message.

Bought: $45
Sold: $100
Profit: $55

The extra benefit is that it was sold fairly locally -- someone in Illinois saw I was selling it on Facebook and asked if I'd be willing to ship it cheaply. I was, and so made an easy and tidy profit.

So here's the lesson -- if you start to feel comfortable with repairs, and can recognize the telltale signs of easy fixes, you can easily make some money. I don't want to say it's on others' misfortunes, as people find themselves with non-responsive pedals, but I often offer to repair pedals, and the cost of labor that most companies would charge is more than the profit I'm making. Folks don't know how to fix pedals and want to make some money by selling it at a relatively deep discount.

I'm happy to oblige!

~C

Unidyne SM57 Update...or How I Spoke Too Soon

I must confess, I've made a mistake. I've jumped to conclusions, and it came back and bit me.

The recent SM57 acquisition is a much tougher nut to crack.

I did all of the soldering I had mentioned before, using shrink tubing to ensure a good connection and no shorting. After doing all of that work, nothing. No signal.

I eventually got to the point where I had to remove the R57 capsule from its housing and discovered the real culprit: a coil wire had broken.

Anyone who has worked on SM57s know it's a death sentence for these microphones if the coil wire breaks, especially right near the diaphragm. The only way to restore the microphone would be to remove the diaphragm, unwind the coil a couple turns, re-secure the coil wire, and find some way to precisely return the diaphragm. Near-impossible, and if you pull it off, you have a slightly underwound coil. Probably not enough to make any difference, but this is the sort of work that needs to be disclosed to any would-be buyers and would undoubtedly sell for less. There's just no longer any profit in it.

So what I've done for now is tabled the SM57. My plan is to eventually buy a replacement R57 capsule and wire it into the body, whose transformer should likely influence the sound and make the closest thing to vintage as possible, and keep it. Better yet, buy a used SM57, just in case there is a transformer issue too. Unfortunatly, I have no way to know for sure since the capsule is beyond repair.

Ugh, this is the first time I've had something that's been deemed "un-fixable" -- heck, even Shure's service work with that type of issue consists of sending you a replacement microphone. I could actually do that, but it'd cost $55 and I'd lose the Unidyne and gain a MIM Shure SM57. Just not what I'm up for.

Besides, I already have a sweet instrument microphone. I'll probably put this microphone aside and wait until the right opportunity presents itself. I was hoping for a tech article, but alas. Such is the way things work.

~C

Flip-in-the-Works: Maxon OD808, the Pre-Tubescreamer

So, Maxon pedals aren't new to me...I've owned a couple through the years and am impressed at the build quality, the ability to put a big circuit in a small package, and somehow...the fact that people sell "non-working" pedals when a few minutes' maintenance would have solved the problem quite quickly.

So I didn't hesitate when someone was selling a "kinda working" OD808 for $45 shipped online. Their description was that the sound sometimes cuts out and the knobs sound scratchy. Seems to me like the potentiometers need a little cleaning out...the same issue with the AD80 I fixed not too long ago! And flipped!

The pedal came in just yesterday and I had a chance to open it on 4/17. Actually ended up being a more complicated fix, but stupidly, I didn't photograph the journey. But here's what I did:

1. Started by lubricating the pots to eliminate scratchiness. I noticed after playing through the pedal that there was definite potentiometer scratching in there. So I went to work lubing the pots.
2. I noticed there was some "play" when I pulled on the potentiometer shaft, more than normal, which led me to believe that the potentiometers were actually PCB-mounted. Makes sense in such a complicated but compact pedal (picture below of the inside of an OD808 and a PCB-mounted potentiometer).
3. Inspected the potentiometers. Sure enough, a couple of them were not fully tightened down. On some potentiometers, the shaft and threads are held on by some bent metal, which had loosened and allowed the whole metal piece to separate slightly from the rest of the potentiometer, resulting in sometimes the pot would spin without changing anything. It took about 15 minutes to solve the problem and have the pots clamped down properly and with the correct rotation movement, but I got there!
4. Reassembled the pedal, spun the potentiometers a few dozen times to loosen any oxidation, and tested it out.

Perfect! The fix worked like a charm. Now, for the low-low cost of $45, I have a pedal that's fully working perfectly, that usually costs $150 new. Woo!

And this will be my next flip. I simply cannot resist selling things that can likely double my investment!

~C

My First Ever Flip: Danelectro Back Talk Reverse Delay

So, back in the day when my only electric guitar looked like this:

And my amp looked like this:

And my pedalboard literally did not exist, I went to Leonard's Pawn Shop in search of inexpensive pedals, knowing absolutely nothing about what I should get. One pedal in particular looked sort of interesting, and its shape, heft, and everything else screamed "YOU SHOULD BUY ME." It was a Danelectro pedal of all things. Now, before you laugh, let me mention here that it is a discontinued and increasingly collectible pedal, the Back Talk Reverse Delay pedal.

I knew nothing about reverse delay, or even forward delay, or anything else, but it was on the shelf for $50, I made an offer for $40, and away I went. Note that this was before smartphones became hugely popular. I had no way to do research beforehand. This was a knee-jerk purchase.

I jumped on ebay and -- surprise! -- found out that the pedal was a big collector's item. One on there had recently sold for $150. Whoa!

Being the kind of person I am (which is the kind of person that would sell my favorite pedal if the price was right), I immediately put it up on ebay. "Who cares," I said to myself, "it's not like I really needed that pedal." Lo and behold, mine sold for $130 within 2 days. Just like that.

And I became a flipper for life. I think having such a favorable first flip is what really set it off for me. It's amazing what you can get at a good price and sell for an even better one with just a little bit of information. I also like the fact that this type of business dealing is a win-win-win -- the pawn shop sells their item, presumably for a profit of some sort (some pawn owners have told me that they will never sell an item for less than they paid, so I'm always buying things for some profit, to keep them open and doing their thing), I make some money with not too much effort, and the eventual buyer owns the pedal they want at a price they were willing to pay. See? Win-win-win. I like winning.

~C

Another Unidyne SM57...the "Fixer-Upper"...

So, from my last flip, wherein I tripled my money in 24 hours by buying and selling an old Unidyne III SM57, I went on the hunt for instrument microphones.

(For myself, I got a slightly less-expensive but responsive instrument microphone from Audio-Technica, the Midnight Blue MB2k. This is going to be my "keeper" microphone, so other purchases are really just for profit.)

Anyways, on ebay, I found an auction for a non-working Unidyne SM57: eBay link and quickly followed the auction, planning to bid the minimum ($60) at the end of the auction.

In a crazy twist of fate, my mobile eBay app wasn't working properly and I missed the end of the auction, where I was going to swoop in. Luckily, I was able to message the seller and ask if he'd be interested in selling the item at a reduced cost, as he hadn't described the issue.

Side note: If you look at the description, you see it "has been worked on" but was non-working, which worried me, as I figured he took it to a tech who couldn't make it work. This turned out to not be the case, as he said he just opened it up and couldn't figure out what was wrong with it.

Lo and behold, I made an offer for $50 and got the microphone. It arrived in the mail yesterday. I finally got to open it up today. Brace yourself...

 So here's the bottom of it. Literally every wire was detached between the body and the capsule. Every. Wire. How is that even remotely "worked on"? No wonder it doesn't work!

This picture is actually quite alarming, as the black wire (read: the ground) is attached to the (+) of the element, rather than the middle, using the eyelet on the table to the right of the image. Sigh. Also, look at the terribly poor soldering job. The frayed wire edges on the right eyelet there are worrisome, as they could easily be in contact with the body, effectively grounding what should remain an isolated loop.

So I basically just need to attach the black wire back to the middle where it belongs and attach it back to the copper bar down inside the body, then connect the yellow wire (which is too short to reach the capsule, just by a little) and the green wire to their respective poles on the capsule, and I guarantee this will work again.

Profit, here I come! :)

New Flip, Less than 24 Hours: Unidyne III SM57

I feel like all of my posts lately have started with me apologizing for taking so long between updates. To be honest, home life keeps me very busy. I don't normally have time to post. However, I still take some lunch breaks to troll the pawn shops, looking for the next deal.

On my latest visit to Pawn King, I had my eye set upon a couple of guitars, including a really nice Les Paul copy, a bit overpriced, but I considered making an offer. Unfortunately, there'd be no way to make any money unless I could buy it for like $60.

At any rate, I looked at a shelf and saw an SM57 microphone. To me, standard, run-of-the-mill SM57, but on closer inspection, I saw that it was an older piece:

Instead of the standard "Shure" logo, it had a "Unidyne" logo, but retained the SM57 designation. This didn't look like a copy, and the brand sounded familiar. A quick google search revealed that Unidyne was the name of the microphone type/element, as a product of the Shure Brothers company (you can see it on the left of the 2nd picture). Also of note is that the microphone was manufactured in the U.S.A., rather than in Mexico, like modern SM57 microphones. The "Unidyne" designation was later removed.

Looking at forums, there was quite a fan club for the Unidyne version of the SM57 microphone, some because of the USA manufacture, and some because of an audible difference, such as smoothness and clarity, from the Unidyne. (see here here and here). Further, I saw some of these SM57 microphones going for sale for $300 (for new-old-stock), with a price floor for working microphones around $125.

Price tag on the microphone was $49.99, and I made an offer of $40, which was accepted. Jackpot! Probably an easy way to triple my money. I made sure the microphone worked and threw it up on ebay.

In the meantime, I tested the microphone. The hype is real. These microphones are fantastic. I've played through many instrument microphones and haven't been really impressed with them. Shure SM57 and Beta57a microphones do just a splendid job, don't get me wrong, but this one has just a bit extra, somehow.

In truth, the old Unidyne microphones have a unique transformer in them that can likely be traced as the cause for difference. Although some places sell transformers you can use to transition your new SM57 (which has the same cartridge as before) to the vintage sound. Regardless, I'd never spend $100 for a new mic only to put an $80 part in it. Give me my $40 instrument microphones that do just as well!

I threw the microphone up on ebay and Reverb, with a $150 Buy-it-Now price with free shipping. I knew I was onto something when I saw a $120 and $130 offer come through, but I waited on it.

Strangely, the microphone sold within 24 hours to someone who accepted my counter of $148, someone who lived in Russia. Weird!

At any rate, the microphone was sent off and I have officially done another flip!

Buy Price: $40
Sell Price: $148
Less Shipping: $10
TOTAL PROFIT: $98

Now that's what I call profit! Now, why did I sell it, when I was impressed by the sound? Because I can't resist the type of profit that comes from a quick flip.

Consequently, someone sold me a non-working Unidyne SM7 for $50 that should make it into my inbox in the next day or two. I'm interested in spending some time checking out the internals as I try to fix it! If I do, this one will probably be a keeper. We'll see.

Stay tuned!

~C

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.