Tom Shipley's 1969 F50 For Sale.

idealassets

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
Messages
2,517
Reaction score
1
Location
Northern Michigan
Last edited:

DV-72 NT

Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2015
Messages
152
Reaction score
5
Location
WI
So my question to LTG today is: what is the coolness factor of this particular guitar now knowing it is a maple F50?
Since my 45[SUP]th[/SUP] year high school reunion is in 3 weeks, and this one-hit-wonder was popular back in my high school years, the cool factor of me bringing this guitar to perform at the reunion may be pretty high – but only within the realm of my fellow classmates and only for that 1 night.

$9k – $15k minus 1 night = ?
 

bobouz

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2015
Messages
2,228
Reaction score
1,827
God I hated that nothing of a song, and still do.

It's sad that such a lovely Guild was subjected to being a part of it's creation!
 

dapmdave

Enlightened Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
7,612
Reaction score
24
I like this version of the song better.

Same dumb song, of course, but coming from Lawrence Welk it becomes perfectly absurd.

 
Last edited:

gjmalcyon

Senior Member
Gold Supporting
Joined
Feb 6, 2011
Messages
4,181
Reaction score
2,419
Location
Gloucester County, NJ
Guild Total
13
I like this version of the song better.

Same dumb song, of course, but coming from Lawrence Welk it becomes perfectly absurd.

Forgot about that! THAT is surreal. Imagine some stoner walking into the house and mom and dad are watching that.

The best part? At the end Mr. Welk saying, "There you heard a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale.”

A little more here.
 

dreadnut

Gone But Not Forgotten
Gone But Not Forgotten
Joined
Jun 15, 2005
Messages
16,082
Reaction score
6,442
Location
Grand Rapids, MI
Guild Total
2
Methinks he would be better off using that guitar to write a new song.
 

walrus

Reverential Member
Gold Supporting
Joined
Dec 23, 2006
Messages
23,957
Reaction score
8,019
Location
Massachusetts
Forgot about that! THAT is surreal. Imagine some stoner walking into the house and mom and dad are watching that.

The best part? At the end Mr. Welk saying, "There you heard a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale.”

Well, according to John Lennon talking about the song "Rain", there is a god of marijuana...

From an interview in "All We Are Saying":

The other key feature of Rain was John Lennon's backwards vocals, heard during the coda at the song's end. Lennon claimed that the discovery was the result of a stoned accident, when he threaded his rough mix tape of the song into his reel-to-reel player the wrong way round.

"I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana and, as I usually do, I listened to what I'd recorded that day. Somehow I got it on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint. I ran in the next day and said, 'I know what to do with it, I know... Listen to this!' So I made them all play it backwards. The fade is me actually singing backwards with the gutars going backwards. [Singing backwards] Sharethsmnowthsmeaness... [Laughter] That one was the gift of God, of Ja, actually, the god of marijuana, right? So Ja gave me that one."


walrus
 

adorshki

Reverential Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
34,176
Reaction score
6,791
Location
Sillycon Valley CA
On a positive note the seller claims that he has been with Jerry Garcia in person, who has recorded songs on this guitar.
Hmmm.
THIS Jerry Garcia?
awavyjerry.gif

SlLtQ9E.gif


Or this one ?:
SD_SD200710070301006AR.jpg


OK to be fair odds are there were probably plenty of opportunities for their paths to intersect over the years and the first thing I checked was to see if they were on the tour that yielded the "Festival Express" movie :
festival-express.jpg

Nope, but somewhere in the murky mists of my memory IS a nagging suspicion that I've read an anecdote about their paths crossing somewhere along that line.
Even if I don't happen to like that tune (heck I don't like all of Jerry's stuff either), gotta admit all 3 of 'em have great taste in guitars.
:smile:

So my question to LTG today is: what is the coolness factor of this particular guitar now knowing it is a maple F50?
I suspect Jerry's F50, now, that'd be worth $10k plus.....
And Bobby's F50R Special with the oversized headstock as seen in the color pic and discussed here before??
Even more I'd bet....
 
Last edited:

adorshki

Reverential Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
34,176
Reaction score
6,791
Location
Sillycon Valley CA
Since my 45[SUP]th[/SUP] year high school reunion is in 3 weeks, and this one-hit-wonder was popular back in my high school years, the cool factor of me bringing this guitar to perform at the reunion may be pretty high – but only within the realm of my fellow classmates and only for that 1 night.

$9k – $15k minus 1 night = ?

Would it help you finally score with Suzy Creamcheese?
des-barres.jpg

Don't forget that was 45 years ago and truth to tell, you might want to hope you've aged as gracefully as she has since then:
michelle-mick-pamela.jpg

:smile:
 

idealassets

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
Messages
2,517
Reaction score
1
Location
Northern Michigan
Is it possible that Jerry Garcia is playing an F-47 in those old pic's? In the pic next to Bob Weir the maple guitar appears to have a shorter body and width, although the depth looks about the same.

That color picture of the threesome is from when a near riot occured in an auditorium where concert goers got bad locations, so far away they couldn't see the band; with a fence keeping them all way back. So in an act of died in the wool hippiedom from the era, the Dead quelled the riot when they announced a "free" Dead concert would re-locate to a nearby park, where the fans could get right in there to see them better. They were indeed acting as true humanitarians. (At least in the world of hippie concert going people..)
 
Last edited:

idealassets

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
Messages
2,517
Reaction score
1
Location
Northern Michigan
On another note I am just dying to hear it- Was there an actual Suzie Cream Cheese, and what are the facts?

I left off being a Zappa fan after going to a Mother's concert and having my ears ring forever after from how outrageously loud it was. AND I got no closer than an entry foyer and was standing around the corner from a 6' double door propped open into the auditorium.
 

adorshki

Reverential Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
34,176
Reaction score
6,791
Location
Sillycon Valley CA
Is it possible that Jerry Garcia is playing an F-47 in those old pic's? In the pic next to Bob Weir the maple guitar appears to have a shorter body and width, although the depth looks about the same.
Trick of the angles.
F47's never got G-shields, were mahogany flat-backs, and didn't exist when that '62 pic was taken.
F40's were maple archbacks but didn't get that kind of G-shield and didn't get 'em by the time they got crowned headstocks.
Never got railroad tracks or triangles in the block inlays on the fretboard, either (not first gens, anyway).
'59 F40 (note "lips" headstock):
gr3eeft8fvb2gmfeez4i.jpg

By '62 (last year of the "lips") they got a chesterfield (which the replacement F47 inherited):
a9iuvm5vpm2apbzqc96o.jpg

Note also that somewhat "angular" and more "pinched"-looking waist (the original "Valencia" outline), which was a tad more "graceful" on the inch-wider F50.
OK I know you probably meant to say F40 but the details might be interesting to folks who've never seen the pics yet.
... besides which, they've been ID'd as F50's for years, and now you can see why.
:smile:
That color picture of the threesome is from a when a near riot occured in an auditorium where concert goers got bad locations, so far away they couldn't see the band; with a fence keeping them all way back. So in an act of died in the wool hippiedom from the era, the Dead quelled the riot when they announced a "free" Dead concert would re-locate to a nearby park, where the fans could get right in there to see them better. They were indeed acting as true humanitarians. (At least in the world of hippie concert going people..)

Ohh, never heard that backstory before.
I thought it was credited here a while back as a college show in the SF Bay Area but it may have simply been a different date with the same 2 guitars.
OK, here we go:
http://www.letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?185399-Bob-Weir-and-his-Guild-F50/page2
Columbia University student strike as Ralph mentioned?
The tag attached to it in my image search associated it with Festival Express but I was skeptical of that so just posted it "un-cited".
That thread details Bobby's special, though, confirmed by Hans post#3
:smile:
 
Last edited:

adorshki

Reverential Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
34,176
Reaction score
6,791
Location
Sillycon Valley CA
On another note I am just dying to hear it- Was there an actual Suzie Cream Cheese, and what are the facts?
http://wiki.killuglyradio.com/wiki/Suzy_Creamcheese :

Frank Zappa:
"Suzy Creamcheese was a girl named Jeanne Vassoir. And she is the voice that's on the Freak Out album. The myth of Suzy Creamcheese, the letter on the album, I wrote myself. There never really was a Suzy Creamcheese. It was just a figment of my imagination until people started identifying with it heavily. It got to weird proportions in Europe, so that in 1967, when we did our first tour of Europe, people were asking if Suzy Creamcheese was along with us. So I procured the services of another girl named Pamela Zarubica, who was hired to be the Suzy Creamcheese of the European tour. And then she maintained the reputation of being Suzy Creamcheese after 1967. The first one went someplace, we don't know where."

The girl I pictured is actually Pamela Des Barre:
"Des Barres was also a member of the GTOs, which was an all-girl groupie "musical" group sponsored by Frank Zappa", and has written a couple of quite entertaining tell-all bios about her, uh, "career".
51jZ3-ymOGL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


:smile:
 

idealassets

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
Messages
2,517
Reaction score
1
Location
Northern Michigan
I suspect Jerry's F50, now, that'd be worth $10k plus.....
And Bobby's F50R Special with the oversized headstock as seen in the color pic and discussed here before??
Even more I'd bet....
Yes, and I thought the Shipley guitar was Brazilian RW until I got his last email where he said "maple".

Meanwhile Jerry G. was a scary guy when he was a warlock in 1962. You didn't see much of that back then, except for perhaps the Munsters on TV. Meanwhile I found the entire Festival Express movie in the bargain pile at Walmart some years ago, and snapped it up since there was just one in there. The color pic looks similar to the "free concert" scene in the movie although possibly not, since Jerry G. was also playing a Martin HD28 in that similar scene.

From a historical point of view that is about the time that the Workingman's Dead album was published, and it was entirely innovative for the day. It was very imaginative to have acoustic songs with 2 drummers in them, and Jerry G. began playing a lot with a Tele, giving it all that Merl Haggard flavor on it.
 
Last edited:

davismanLV

Venerated Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2011
Messages
19,198
Reaction score
11,822
Location
U.S.A. : Nevada : Las Vegas
Guild Total
2
It reminds me of Jane Hudson trying to run and ad in the LA Times for a piano accompanist. She goes the the paper and he says (without looking up) "Name?"
"Jane Hudson. Maybe you remember me? I'm BABY JANE HUDSON!!"
Rolls his eyes, "Address??"
Life rolls on..... and a Guild is always a nice guitar.
But Brewer and Shipley??
LMAO!!

Sooooo funny. $15K for sure..... :encouragement::saturn::devilish:
 

idealassets

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
Messages
2,517
Reaction score
1
Location
Northern Michigan
It reminds me of Jane Hudson trying to run and ad in the LA Times for a piano accompanist. She goes the the paper and he says (without looking up) "Name?"
"Jane Hudson. Maybe you remember me? I'm BABY JANE HUDSON!!"
Rolls his eyes, "Address??"
Life rolls on..... and a Guild is always a nice guitar.
But Brewer and Shipley??
LMAO!!

Sooooo funny. $15K for sure..... :encouragement::saturn::devilish:

Thank you for that affirmation and a reality check. Yes, really the ad that I inquired on only showed one front view, and one can only assume from the original $9K asking price that it would be Brazilian RW, but it took some time to get a reply that it was maple. YES, I could have tried to look and see if there was back bracing, but in actuality the content of my questions were concerning the current condition, any neck re-sets, major repairs, surface checking, etc.: so far I have no answers on any of those concerns.

HINT: any basic routine questions can narrow down a lot from a seller regarding any instrument if the seller's answers are forthcoming. But often something is being downplayed, or a seller may not really know how to determine realistic quality and value.

I can shed a different light on things despite vintage guitars having a certain mojo, but today the new Guild guitars that are showing up in dealer inventories look to be top notch, and the average joe seeing them being played would never be the wiser as to the year of manufacture. The sound demo's from both Guild and some dealers on youtube are definitely an enticement to get a new one.
 
Last edited:

walrus

Reverential Member
Gold Supporting
Joined
Dec 23, 2006
Messages
23,957
Reaction score
8,019
Location
Massachusetts
LOL Al! Would hate to show up in “Tell All Vol2” :unsure:



Unfortunately, the truth is I fit more in the category of:

c4CknxO.jpg

I am actually disappointed that Keith dyed his hair black for the current tour.

And once again, whenever I have the opportunity - let me plug the greatest rock autobiography ever written - "Life" by Keith Richards. So many stories, and laugh out loud funny throughout.

walrus
 
Top