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1974 Veleno #71

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by Les537 » Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:23 pm

Hi, I'm looking for some advice and knowledge from anyone familiar with Veleno aluminum guitars from the 70s.

About 20 years ago I bought a Veleno from a friend for $100. The guitar had 2 broken tuning heads, but it was a totally aluminum guitar and that's worth $100 any day.

The Veleno neck is really thin and long scale. I've always like chunky shorty scale Gibson style necks so instead of replacing the tuners I bolted on an Epi LP neck that happened to fit perfect.

I drilled two holes in the guitar and put on a different bridge (from the same epi LP). Then to complete my crimes I painted the body red.

It stayed like that and was used around the house for 15 years or so. Then I decided to restore it, still without any clue or mind to rarity or worth. In my mind it fell into the $100 toy guitar section.

I took the red paint off with thoughts of bringing it to a chrome like finish. Then I found some other distraction and the guitar stayed like that unassembled for 5 years or so.

Then very recently I had thoughts of using the pickups from the Veleno in another guitar I have so I started googling to see if I could figure out what kind they were...I found out that the pickups are early 70s issue Gibson 't-buckers', but also that the guitar is actually quite rare and sought after.

I found the serial number on the heel of the body where the neck joins. It's number 71 and it also has the distinction "1st black" which made me really question my misguided artistic youth. The body is labeled "58" in two places on the bottom section and the neck is labelled "39" near the bolt holes.

So, did I remove all the value from this guitar? If it has value what steps would be prudent to maximize return?

I'm thinking I should restore it and refinish the body, which includes buying a lost ruby. The actual metal of the guitar is fine and it would be physically as good as new. The neck itself was never used while I owned it and I still have the original bridge and stop bar.

I'm interested any thoughts about this.

Here's a few photos I took of the guitar http://imgur.com/a/0MsbC#0
Les537
 
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by Phizix » Thu Mar 14, 2013 4:05 pm

We have one Veleno catalog from 1974/75 in the catalog subscription section here

http://www.vintaxe.com/catalogs_america ... o_1975.htm

Being that it is a pretty rare guitar and all aluminum, I would think that it would still have some decent value if you could restore it to a fairly original and playable condition. The holes drilled through the body obviously hurt the collector value a bit but you definitely have enough there to restore it to original shape with all the original parts you still have.

The prices for the "original" model (they made a travel size guitar also) ranged from $798 - $945 in 1974 $'s depending on 4 finish options from most to least expensive: gold plated, chrome plated, super finish, anodized.

I'd say its worth your time, good luck.
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by Spud1950 » Fri Mar 15, 2013 12:40 am

Having never heard of those, I did a little net research on them. He only made 195 of them and they have tremendous collector value. I found info of serious collectors paying $6000-$8,000 for them in very good original condition. Put it back to as much of original condition as you can. You will lose value because of what was done to it, but then again considering you only paid $100 you're still way ahead.
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by Les537 » Sat Mar 16, 2013 4:44 pm

I've been talking to a few people trying to find out more about the guitar. 3 people have asked to buy it and they all stress that I should not do anything to it. Maybe this is not surprising when supplied with the evidence of my past work.

I'm still thinking that because it's metal a refinish on the body wouldn't be such a bad thing and would greatly improve the value in the same way that new frets would. Professionally done, of course :)

It's supposed to look just like this guitar in this image, but with a sort of semi gloss/flat black. I read this "black electroplated satin aluminium oxide" was an option and that sounds about right.

http://www.lotustalk.com/forums/attachm ... cn0353.jpg

That image is a 1975 Veleno numbered 86. It was made 15 guitars after mine and has the exact same config of 4 knobs, a toggle pickup selector and a mini phase switch up top. Earlier ones and later ones had slightly different configs of knobs and switches and they moved the front strap knob thing around from back of the neck to the top cutaway (neck heavy guitar).

People have asked me to take more photos and I did. They are here if anyone is interested http://imgur.com/a/NZQLZ#Ww6IJA1
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by Spud1950 » Sat Mar 16, 2013 8:10 pm

The finish is more commonly known as anodized. Your thinking on the refinish is actually wrong. In terms of collectability, a re finish adds nothing to the value. In the collector market a re finish might look nicer, but it actually hurts the value. Don't waste your money. on that. You should put some money into having the guitar put professionally back together into playable condition and sell it as is.
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by Les537 » Mon Mar 18, 2013 12:28 pm

Thanks for the advice. I decided to sell it as is after getting an offer well into 4 digits. This offer is about 1/4 of the value someone would pay for a clean example of the guitar. That is the price I pay for mangling the guitar in my youth. I regret nothing! Well, maybe those damn holes I drilled...and the red paint...actually, I regret many things!

The good news is that the guitar is going to a place where it will be much more respected and I'll have enough money to pick up this 1958 LP JR in the local shop or maybe a nice AC30 and everyone is happy.
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by Les537 » Tue May 21, 2013 3:06 pm

Just for the sake of clarity I want to report that the sale of this guitar fell through and it's still in my possession and I haven't done anything with it.

I had it sold to Nicky Panicci for 4500 USD. He spammed me endless emails asking me to not sell it to anyone else and promising to pay more than any offer I got, which was 4000 USD before him. So we had a virtual handshake on the deal, then he went radio silent for 3 or 4 days before finally replying that he changed his mind. Seems he had premature buyers remorse.

I can't fault him for not wanting to buy it, but it's a bit of a burn to drag me along and make me close other REAL offers people sent me then leave me hanging. The whole thing left me kind of burnt out on wheeling and dealing and I haven't done anything with it since.

I felt I needed to post this here because in the last post I said I had it sold, but it didn't happen and I don't want to leave a confusing trail for any other potential future buyers.
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