Conference napalm::guitar

2744.0. "Gibson Barney Kessel Guitar" by POWDML::DAGG () Mon Jun 07 1993 17:37

    
    This note is for discussion of Gibson Barney Kessel Regular
    and Barney Kessel Custom guitars.  
    
    The guitar is a double florentine cutaway archtop made during the 60s.  
    Apparently this model is not as sought after (and hopefully not as 
    expensive) as other Gibson archtops from that period. I think
    they're made mostly of plywood, and the Custom model has
    gold parts and fancy inlay.  
    
    I almost bought one from a store in New Orleans last week.  It 
    was a regular model, and played pretty well.  But it had been 
    refinished, and they didn't have the original case.  Since I'm
    in no hurry, and chronically short on cash, I decided to keep 
    looking around for awhile.
    
    From what I've heard the price for a good BK regular should be
    between $1200 and $1500, and add about $500 for the custom model. 
    Does that sound right? Anybody seen one of these in the Greater
    Boston area lately?  
    
    Any thoughts on how these guitars compare with ES175s (this was
    suggested to me as a good alternative)? 
    
    thanks, 
                                     
    Dave

    1016.4 has some info on BKs. The pricing data is still reasonably
    accurate, which shows how little collector's appeal these have.
    
    Collector's appeal or not, my '63 spruce-top Custom is one of my
    favorite guitars.
    
    Danny W.