Value Question:

Inspector #20

Inspector #20

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Hey, Fellows...

Want to get your thoughts on a potential value for this last remaining Von Herndon Stagecrafter - serial # 12 out of 26 total guitars produced. The first run of these sold themselves through my professional contacts at about $1,200.00 each. However, these fellows are quite affluent and they are not your average gear buyer. So, I wanted to see what I should ask for this one, since it will be the only one that has ever been advertised for sale:

Maple/Mahogany/Maple Body

One Piece Mahogany Neck - Woods and basic cuts by B. Hefner in Whittier, California

Catalyzed polyurethane over red stain

Hand sanded and polished out

Set neck, long tenon construction

1/4" thick Rosewood fretboard MOP inlays

Cream body and neck binding with black acrylic side markers

Neck thickness - 1" from heel to nut

Neck width is 1-3/4"

12" radius

24.75" scale length

Fender style vintage fretwire

Hand leveled and crowned

White corian nut

Strings: Ernie ball Hybrid Slinky .009" x .046"

1st fret action heighth .015"

12th Fret Action height (unfretted) .070"

Stratocaster style string-through-body bridge & cast saddles

Fully aluminum shielded internally

CTS Pots and Sprague Orange Drop Cap

3 position selector switch

Master volume and tone control with bridge coil tap microswitch

Metal control knobs

Pickups:

Artec Giovanni Series GVH 59

Nickel silver baseplate

Wood spacer

Machined Metal Spacer

Nickel covers

AlNico V magnet

25 to 30 gauss range

Plain Enamel Magnet - AlnicoV

Neck 7.4k / Bridge 8.4K

Light wax potting

(Not wired 180° out of phase)

Schaller Locking Tuners

Schaller straplocks

Von Herndon Stagecrafter First Cuts (1).jpg

Von Herndon StageCrafter Bodies (2).jpg

Von Herndon Neck Plans - 2.png



#12 and #13.jpg

StageCrafter.jpg


I will add more photos later today, including shots of the wiring and neck heel.

Thanks...
 
Robert Herndon said:
Hey, Fellows...

Want to get your thoughts on a potential value for this last remaining Von Herndon Stagecrafter - serial # 12 out of 26 total guitars produced. The first run of these sold themselves through my professional contacts at about $1,200.00 each. However, these fellows are quite affluent and they are not your average gear buyer. So, I wanted to see what I should ask for this one, since it will be the only one that has ever been advertised for sale:

Maple/Mahogany/Maple Body

One Piece Mahogany Neck - Woods and basic cuts by B. Hefner in Whittier, California

Catalyzed polyurethane over red stain

Hand sanded and polished out

Set neck, long tenon construction

1/4" thick Rosewood fretboard MOP inlays

Cream body and neck binding with black acrylic side markers

Neck thickness - 1" from heel to nut

Neck width is 1-3/4"

12" radius

24.75" scale length

Fender style vintage fretwire

Hand leveled and crowned

White corian nut

Strings: Ernie ball Hybrid Slinky .009" x .046"

1st fret action heighth .015"

12th Fret Action height (unfretted) .070"

Stratocaster style string-through-body bridge & cast saddles

Fully aluminum shielded internally

CTS Pots and Sprague Orange Drop Cap

3 position selector switch

Master volume and tone control with bridge coil tap microswitch

Metal control knobs

Pickups:

Artec Giovanni Series GVH 59

Nickel silver baseplate

Wood spacer

Machined Metal Spacer

Nickel covers

AlNico V magnet

25 to 30 gauss range

Plain Enamel Magnet - AlnicoV

Neck 7.4k / Bridge 8.4K

Light wax potting

(Not wired 180° out of phase)

Schaller Locking Tuners

Schaller straplocks

View attachment 29651

View attachment 29652

View attachment 29655



View attachment 29654

View attachment 29653


I will add more photos later today, including shots of the wiring and neck heel.

Thanks...
Click to expand...
That is a beautiful instrument, if I had cash I would purchase it,
Stay with the 1,200 $ range!
The instrument is definitely worth it
Cheers Mitch
 
I'd think you need to play up the builder angle a bit. Establish the B. Hefner bona fides for a potential buyer as it were. The specs look nice but it is essentially a one-off with no known provenance. If I didn't know you or its history I honestly probably wouldn't even consider buying it, even with those specs, and even if I did then I probably wouldn't be willing to pay more than $500 or $600 for it unless I knew a lot more about its source. For $1200 you can buy an awful lot of nice Gibsons/Fenders/Etc's that people know and trust, so even if its actually a better guitar its a much, much harder sell. Also, the giant '57 profile neck is a bit of a niche, especially on a guitar like this, so you have to be patient about finding the right buyer that wants the combination of what is a shredder guitar on paper but plays more vintage, and couple that with the fact that most people are going to be expecting a 25.5" scale on a "T" style instrument.
 
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gball said:
I'd think you need to play up the builder angle a bit. Establish the B. Hefner bona fides for a potential buyer as it were. The specs look nice but it is essentially a one-off with no known provenance. If I didn't know you or its history I honestly probably wouldn't even consider buying it, even with those specs, and even if I did then I probably wouldn't be willing to pay more than $500 or $600 for it unless I knew a lot more about its source. For $1200 you can buy an awful lot of nice Gibsons/Fenders/Etc's that people know and trust, so even if its actually a better guitar its a much, much harder sell. Also, the giant '57 profile neck is a bit of a niche, especially on a guitar like this, so you have to be patient about finding the right buyer that wants the combination of what is a shredder guitar on paper but plays more vintage.
Click to expand...
I agree with your comment on the build aspect, but I also remember that a guy (custom guitar builder) in the very early 80’s quoted me a price of 1,200$ on a custom V I wanted built, as time fly’s so does prices!
I still feel comfortable with the amount I posted earlier in this thread !
I believe it will take some time but Robert will get what he is after !
Cheers Mitch
 
Mitch Pearrow SJMP said:
I agree with your comment on the build aspect, but I also remember that a guy (custom guitar builder) in the very early 80’s quoted me a price of 1,200$ on a custom V I wanted built, as time fly’s so does prices!
I still feel comfortable with the amount I posted earlier in this thread !
I believe it will take some time but Robert will get what he is after !
Cheers Mitch
Click to expand...

It's probably worth it to the right buyer, but the trick is finding that right buyer. In your case, you went looking for a custom build and in this case Robert needs to find someone else that's looking for a custom build that just happens to want the same thing he did when he commissioned the guitars. Then they have to be convinced that this builder makes something worth the money, which is why I think educating a potential buyer is vital.

IMO, what's written on the headstock of this guitar is meaningless to a potential buyer and will likely be dismissed as just another partscaster unless the case is made that the builder is doing something special enough to justify the cost.
 
gball said:
I'd think you need to play up the builder angle a bit. Establish the B. Hefner bona fides for a potential buyer as it were. The specs look nice but it is essentially a one-off with no known provenance. If I didn't know you or its history I honestly probably wouldn't even consider buying it, even with those specs, and even if I did then I probably wouldn't be willing to pay more than $500 or $600 for it unless I knew a lot more about its source. For $1200 you can buy an awful lot of nice Gibsons/Fenders/Etc's that people know and trust, so even if its actually a better guitar its a much, much harder sell. Also, the giant '57 profile neck is a bit of a niche, especially on a guitar like this, so you have to be patient about finding the right buyer that wants the combination of what is a shredder guitar on paper but plays more vintage, and couple that with the fact that most people are going to be expecting a 25.5" scale on a "T" style instrument.
Click to expand...

Great observations. Thanks. Man!!!!
 
I agree with everything @gball has said.

I mean, we all know and love Robert, and want the best for him. But, this is one of those situations where, in spite of our emotional attachment to Robert, we have to look at this guitar unemotionally.

In addition to what gball has pointed out, the painful truth is that the market is awash with Telecaster-style guitars. Some of these have price tags as high, or higher, than what Robert is considering, but they are also being sold by dedicated, full-time, boutique builders. Like gball noted, this guitar will have to be marketed as a custom-built instrument. People will want to know why this guitar commands the same, or higher, price tag as the myriad other Tele-style guitars out there.

I don’t know if Robert’s other buyers will consent to having their names used, but that may be one way to market this instrument. Robert could, perhaps, start at $1200.00 to test the waters, but may have to drop the price as time goes on.

BTW, Robert, I think you may have some terminology wrong.

You say the micro switch is a bridge coil tap. If the switch is being used to disable one coil in the bridge humbucking pickup (essentially, turning it into a single coil pickup) it is a coil split, not a tap. A coil tap is usually used only on single coil pickups, and the pickup has to be wound with the expectation that a tap will be used. The coil tap “taps” into the coil at some point and allows you to use only some of the windings. This lets you change to a lower gain, more vintage output on the pickup with the flick of a switch. Coil-tapped single-coil pickups will have three wires attached to the base plate.

You could do a coil tap on a humbucker, but both coils would have to be tapped at the same place. If you only tapped one coil, you’d compromise the hum cancelling properties of the pickup. Coil tapping a humbucker would be an extremely rare thing. Conversely, coil splitting a humbucker is fairly common.

So, you may want to double-check and make sure you’re using the correct term. I suspect you mean to say it’s a “coil split”. The “split” versus “tap” terminology is frequently mistaken.
 
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