Teleplayer wrote:Thanks for getting back to me so fast Jos!
The one i'm looking at is number 18/1000. But he's asking around the 10K mark. This seems a bit much don't you think? But I guess they can put what ever price tag they want on it considering the rarity of them!?
Jacob
P.S I'm from Wollongong, Australia
Hi Jacob,
That's seems a little high indeed no matter whether the price is taken in AUD or USD (in which I expressed my quotes).
This is what I know about #18:
- The sales log indicates it was finished and entered 11/6/1991
- The invoice number is 4887 and it was indeed shipped to Australia
- It has a #2 neck with maple fingerboard
November 6 is just 2 days past Dale Hyatt's retirement date which puts this guitar in the twilight zone between pre-BBE era and BBE-era, which is what drives the price for collectors. I go by what G&L researcher Gabe Dellevigne relayed to me. Ash bodied Comms #4, #6, #7, #8, #10, #11, and #12 are all considered pre-BBE. Given that they were assembled on November 5 and 6, i.e. the 2 days after Dale's retirement date, #13 thru #18 are borderline. All parts were for sure manufactured under the aegis of Mr. Hyatt, they were just not put together yet. Anything later is BBE-era; #19 was assembled 11/11/1991, a full week after.
Now about the rarity. The neck plate states '1 of 1000'. But far fewer were built. In February 1993 a settlement was reached between BBE and FMIC where BBE would be allowed to build 500
instruments which led to the infamous 350 ASAT Classics/150 ASAT basses division. But more than likely in both cases fewer than that number were actually produced since production was halted in May 1991 (ignoring the incidental rogue employee guitars that were produced at a later date). I think the division is more in the neighborhood of 250 ASAT Classics/25 ASAT basses. And then there is of course the subdivision between Lacewoods and Ash guitars. The former is considered to be consisting of 5 pre-BBE Lacewoods (#1,#2,#3,#5,#9) and 2 BBE-era (#26 and #69). How the Ash bodied ones are divvied up has already been discussed above.
In short, from a collectors perspective, I would personally be OK if the seller demands a little more for the #18. But certainly not by that amount which elevates the price into the region of the going rate for the 7 Lacewood guitars.
Hope this helps,
- Jos
