I just scored this Airline hollowbody for cheap.... I think I hit the motherload

Rambozo96

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Well upon buying my D-35 I told myself my collecting day’s were done. The rat race and lack of good deals lead me to believe the days of a steal was far behind us. The days of scoring Someone’s “gramps old POS guitar” for way less than its worth were over. So I stroll into a pawnshop looking at a Oscilloscope that ended up being absolutely trashed so I told myself I’ll look at the guitars to see what they had....I spotted a Harmony made Airline guitar like Dan Auerbach used......$399.....I was miffed I had to dip into the savings fund to buy it but I’d rather be mad at myself for a week than sit in regret for years...had it been an old Starfire I’d probably have gone into a coma.
 

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walrus

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That's cool! Love the placement of the 3 pickup selector switches!

walrus
 

Rambozo96

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My grandpa had one kinda like it in 68’. His was tbe earlier singlecut (H-59 if anyone cared to know.). I can now be a bad copy of Dan Auerbach! It ain’t an old Hoboken Starfire otherwise I’d probably have really been shaking up. Like my old Kay it appears they didn’t put a ground wire to the bridge, not sure why I mean I know they were a budget brand but I don’t think a 2 cent length of wire would be a detriment to the company. Besides that was Teisco and the other Japanese manufactures’ job.
 

Rambozo96

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Cool find! Sounds good - think I'd have grabbed that too :)
I guess maybe the hollowbody was just what I need. I remember trying out some Gretsch guitars and liking how I could get the note to feedback and sustain forever....until I position the guitar in tandem with the amp in a way that the guitar and pickups don’t like causing a horrible less musical feedback. I swear guys these old Harmony’s and Kay’s follow me home like stray dog and cats. Almost always in a pawnshop or estate sale for a killer price.
 

GGJaguar

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Pawnshop finds are fun! Cool guitar, congrats!
 

Rambozo96

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I seem to like it so far. Like a trashier Gretsch.
 

HeyMikey

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$399? Nice score Rambozo! That thing looks cool.
 

Rambozo96

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$399? Nice score Rambozo! That thing looks cool.
I couldn’t believe it myself. I never had a deal so great that I was jittering upon buying it. I made the mistake of bonding with it but it happens I guess, besides there’s other stuff in the arsenal I can stand to offload anyway.
 

Brad Little

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....The days of scoring Someone’s “gramps old POS guitar” for way less than its worth were over....
Yeah, I miss the days when tag sales sometimes yielded Harmony Sovereigns for $10-15. Just saw one on an auction site asking over $1000 (admittedly altered to a pin bridge and probably fan bracing, but still). Once passed on a Gibson LG-0 for $75 because it had a sunken top, even something like that would probably go for $300 or more.
Best pawn find I ever knew somebody got was in the mid-60s. A college buddy was in a barber shop some place in the Ozarks (IIRC) and saw a National Steel hanging on the wall. Asked how much, his wife wanted to use it as a planter. $50 out the door.
 

Rambozo96

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Yeah, I miss the days when tag sales sometimes yielded Harmony Sovereigns for $10-15. Just saw one on an auction site asking over $1000 (admittedly altered to a pin bridge and probably fan bracing, but still). Once passed on a Gibson LG-0 for $75 because it had a sunken top, even something like that would probably go for $300 or more.
Best pawn find I ever knew somebody got was in the mid-60s. A college buddy was in a barber shop some place in the Ozarks (IIRC) and saw a National Steel hanging on the wall. Asked how much, his wife wanted to use it as a planter. $50 out the door.
That’s a once in every other lifetime deal. I am too young to have taken advantage of how little the old Sears stuff went for before Dan Auerbach, Jack White and a few others made it cool to play them. I’d like to see what an old Airline Resoglas is like but the prices they command are virtually impossible for me to justify unless I won the lottery.
 

Rambozo96

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I can see why Dan Auerbach likes these. The pickups seem to take fuzz pedals well....until you face the guitar at the amp and it just feeds back on itself. I remember playing around with feedback with a Kustom K-200 guitar which was semihollow and making it feedback against an Acoustic Corp head and the accompanying 6x10 cranked. Neighbor showed up at the door asking who was playing the trombone so loud.
 

ruedi

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I can see why Dan Auerbach likes these. The pickups seem to take fuzz pedals well....until you face the guitar at the amp and it just feeds back on itself. I remember playing around with feedback with a Kustom K-200 guitar which was semihollow and making it feedback against an Acoustic Corp head and the accompanying 6x10 cranked. Neighbor showed up at the door asking who was playing the trombone so loud.

Jack White does it in this clip, 2:30



Cool guitar Rambozo, enjoy it!
 

shihan

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The Silvertone version of that was my first electric guitar. Of course, back then they were very uncool and I didn’t appreciate it. You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone...
You got a great score on a really neat guitar. I know you’ll enjoy it! Congratulations
 

Rambozo96

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$399 is a steal for that guitar. Nice score. I should be so lucky!
Especially considering what the Eastwood clones go for. Not a fan of Eastwood, every single one I ran into had been lackluster in quality and they get rid of the things that made these oddities special so you end up with a weird shaped strat/Les Paul.
 

Rambozo96

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Ok quite an oddity as far as scale length. Apparently it’s 24 1/4. Very very odd but I do recall some catalog guitars having off the wall scale lengths. I remember my Kay’s usually being 25 5/8! Got a goofy Mosrite inspired Guyatone with a 25” scale too.
 
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