Visiting Southpaw Guitars

velalv · **Posted:** February 14th, 2012, 11:19 am

Agent00Soul wrote:

velalv wrote:

He also had some Dillon Thunderbirds that I did not play much, as they were definitely not my style, and the next dive was crazy on it.

Can you remember if these were reverse or non-reverse style Thunderbirds?

He had both reverse and non-reverse. There were three Thunderbirds, 2 four stringers and a fiver. I don't recall which one had which headstock, you would have to call. Here is a picture of one.

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velalv · **Posted:** February 14th, 2012, 11:22 am

velalv wrote:

Ok, I had a chance to visit for a couple of hours today. If there is anything anyone wants a closer look at, I am happy to send along more pictures. Jim is selling a vintage mid 70's P bass with flats (I think they are Chromes, they are definitely not TI's) from his personal collection. It is in super sweet condition. I actually thought it was new. Nice sunburst with maple neck, finished in heavy laquer. Sounded great through the Bassman they had in the store. Condition looked very, very good to me. It is as heavy as a boat anchor, but the tone was just great. Reverse taper pots. He is asking $3000. Here is a photo.

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Tried adding photos, the iphone photos are too big. Any ideas on how to shrink them down or other ideas on how to get them on the site? I will gladly email pics from my phone if you PM your email address.

He had a number of lefty Musicman basses, including a used Bongo in Red with a white Pearl Guard for $1299. He also had some Dillon Thunderbirds that I did not play much, as they were definitely not my style, and the next dive was crazy on it. Also played a 30th Anniversary G&L ASAT in white with a matching headstock, very, very nice. The ergonomics on it were not great, and I had a lot of neckdive with the bass.

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There were a great selection of Schecters, mainly Raiden and Stilletto. One of the Raidens had a burled maple top.

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There were three Martin acoustic basses that I got to try. One THinline, one aluminum topped thinline which was nice, and a BC00-16GTE that I really liked.

velalv · **Posted:** February 14th, 2012, 11:24 am

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velalv · **Posted:** February 14th, 2012, 11:26 am

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velalv · **Posted:** February 14th, 2012, 11:29 am

Ok, I think I all of the pictures posted that I took. AZ Bass was right, Southpaw has way more guitars than basses, but they have a heck of a selection for us, and it was nice to pick up almost anything I wanted to try out. The folks there treated me very, very well. I know I did not take pictures of every individual bass, but if there is something that you are trying to identify in the photos, or want pricing and impressions, I am happy to help as best I can.

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AzWhoFan · **Joined:** March 14th, 2008, 10:57 am **Posts:** 2866

Way more basses than the last time I was there 4 years ago!

BTW, I dunno if y'all have heard but they got broken into last night and had 13 -15 guitars stolen. Details on their FB page.

http://www.facebook.com/southpawguitars?sk=wall

Frenchy-Lefty · **Posted:** February 14th, 2012, 3:09 pm

I swear I did not do it!
Seriously, it won't be easy to re-sell that many lefty guitars without getting busted...not very smart..it has to be some local idiot tweakers

frankenjazz · **Joined:** July 31st, 2009, 1:21 am **Posts:** 232

Who ever stole from them will probably get caught with in a week, the idiot drug addicts that steal lefty stuff always get caught....Not to hijack the thread but when I used to work at G.C we got an internal email about how a used custom lefty Mccarty 24 private stock was stolen from the store from miami at 11 am that day, a blonde woman walked in, grabbed it and ran, not an hour after getting the email a blonde woman comes into the W.B.P store that I worked at wanting to sell what? a lefty custom Mccarty 24.

velalv · **Posted:** February 14th, 2012, 5:52 pm

frankenjazz wrote:

Who ever stole from them will probably get caught with in a week, the idiot drug addicts that steal lefty stuff always get caught....Not to hijack the thread but when I used to work at G.C we got an internal email about how a used custom lefty Mccarty 24 private stock was stolen from the store from miami at 11 am that day, a blonde woman walked in, grabbed it and ran, not an hour after getting the email a blonde woman comes into the W.B.P store that I worked at wanting to sell what? a lefty custom Mccarty 24.

You are probably right. Southpaw Guitars is located in a lower working class neighborhood. I would not be surprised if someone drug addict type did rob the store that night. That will be interesting to see how they sell it. One thing that was interesting though is that none of the people I talked to at other guitar stores in the Houston area knew that Southpaw Guitars existed.

Ok, now hopefully some folks will comment on the basses that were there.

Stingray5 · **Joined:** April 5th, 2008, 4:52 pm **Posts:** 366

Thanks for the great pics!

sucks they got robbed. hope they can recover the stolen guitars.

fivebass52 · **Posted:** February 14th, 2012, 9:32 pm

I find it hard to believe the store has no alarm system, and no clanging bell that goes off the instant it's activated. Or did someone forget to turn it on when they left? No silent alarm signal to a monitoring agency that calls the owner and police? Hard to imagine a store that large, with that much inventory at stake that doesn't have a a better system in place, unless it was just a typical smash-and-grab before the police could get there... and no system is truly infallible...

OK back to the thread, and thanks for all of the photos!

pjmuck · **Posted:** February 15th, 2012, 8:09 am

AzWhoFan wrote:

Way more basses than the last time I was there 4 years ago!

BTW, I dunno if y'all have heard but they got broken into last night and had 13 -15 guitars stolen. Details on their FB page.

http://www.facebook.com/southpawguitars?sk=wall

You're either incredibly dumb or incredibly savvy to steal a load of lefties.

Agent00Soul · **Posted:** February 15th, 2012, 9:05 am

Frenchy-Lefty wrote:

I swear I did not do it!

velalv · **Posted:** February 15th, 2012, 9:53 am

Hey Guys:

I have to admit, when I read news of the theft, I was hoping that the bass I was eyeing did not get stolen. I was eyeing a used 4 string MM Bongo in CAR with a pearloid guard. Was thinking of trading my deluxe jazz for it because it is such a modern sound, and would be quite different than my P with TI flats, but ultimately decided against it, as the active jazz seems to be a good modern take on a classic tone that seems to work everywhere. Anyone, one more picture that I did not get up yesterday was the Bongo. I figured it might be of interest to someone here since it would be cheaper than a new one. I think they wanted $1299. They have had it in the store for a while now.

If someone thinks I should have done the trade, I would be curious to hear that too.

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Basshappi · **Joined:** March 14th, 2008, 2:28 pm **Posts:** 965

What was the price of the Hofner Club?

velalv · **Posted:** February 15th, 2012, 10:00 am

$2099. It was new, looked good. As PJ said earlier, they appear to be open to some negotiating.

Jeroen · **Posted:** February 15th, 2012, 10:28 am

I love those Schecter Riots, I would really like to give one of those neck-through 5-strings a try. They look awesome! Would probably fit in perfectly in my metalband.

Pro Stock John · **Joined:** August 21st, 2008, 11:19 am **Posts:** 95

I went into his store in the 90's, and a few years ago I bought a Yamaha acoustic guitar from him. Good guy. He's offered to buy my 1969 EB2 a few times.

I've never heard of Dillon, are they any good? I can't keep up with these newer guitar companies. Is Jimmy still on Bellaire?

velalv · **Posted:** February 21st, 2012, 12:31 pm

Pro Stock John wrote:

I went into his store in the 90's, and a few years ago I bought a Yamaha acoustic guitar from him. Good guy. He's offered to buy my 1969 EB2 a few times.

I've never heard of Dillon, are they any good? I can't keep up with these newer guitar companies. Is Jimmy still on Bellaire?

I felt the same way about the Dillon Thunderbird that I do about Stingrays--well made, solid feeling, just not my tone. The neck was really polished. If you like lots of gloss, you'll like the neck. I am more of a P bass, J bass, G&L kind of guy.

And yes, Jimmy is still on Bellaire.

AzWhoFan · **Joined:** March 14th, 2008, 10:57 am **Posts:** 2866

Southpaw gets robbed again! Here's the list:

Gibson Es 335 Cherry Figured
Gibson ES 335 Lightburst
Gibson ES 335 Vintage Burst
Gibson ES 335 Vintage burst Figured
Gibson Es 335 Cherry with Bigsby
Gibson Les Paul R8 Ice Tea 811790
Gibson SG Std. used cherry
Gibson Custom Cs 336 Tangerine burst
Gibson Lefty Les Paul R8. Cherry Gloss 81003 one of a kind
Gibson Lefty Les Paul R7 VOS gold top 83806
Gibson Les Paul R8 Ice Tea figured

From what i undersatnd - from a blurb on their Facebook page - Gibson has discontinured lefty 335's. Which leads me to believe sumpin' fishys going on here ....

LeftyBassist.com

Visiting Southpaw Guitars

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