Pat Smear owned R4 about a block away

[VintagePlayerStrat]

I was also interested in the guitar (at a lower price), wrote the guy and he just told me that he is a personal friend of Pat, but did not make any fuzz about it.

If Pat had it, it was for a really short period of time...

Fairly believable. Lots of connections like that here. I think the owner, or one of their staff, is also known as a pretty good relicer/luthier.

I can't buy it but if the guitar is in their Burbank location, PM me if you want me to check anything about it in-hand. (Unless you're also local, of course.)

Good luck!

 

[cutaway]

Yeah, you responded to me responding to someone else and it threw me off.

i hate it when that happens

 

[VintagePlayerStrat]

It's high, I think most here acknowledge that. But it's not that high, not "rock star owned" premium high. It's right at the Gibson published street price of a new one, actually surprised to see Dave has three new ones. And like with Dave, we don't know what Imperial would actually sell it to you for if you made them an offer. Also consider that Imperial Guitar is right by LA, one of their locations is in LA. Used asking prices tend to be high around town at the premium stores, like Norm's, Cal Vintage, Truetone. It might be a little easier for them to sell locally at a higher price compared to what Dave might be able to. Again and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, they aren't pushing the Pat Smear connection, only mention it briefly in the Reverb ad and no mention at all in their website listing.

I think they think it's worth that much at least as an asking price, based on the guitar itself. I'd have to play it (and I might well run over there, been meaning to check that location out at some point except for this virus thing that seems to be going around!) and don't automatically think low weight is better, but of course a lot of people do think that. And that's pretty low.

Really low weight. It's pretty hard to find any non weight-relieved Paul that's in the 8.0 to 8.5 pound range, let alone the sub 7.5 pounds on their scale.

As far as tone though, my guess, and just a wild guess, is this: Pat might have bought it for the low weight, and then realized it wasn't delivering the tone he wanted.

I only guess this because I once owned a beautiful R7 darkback that was 8.0 pounds. No matter what I tried though, it just didn't have the punch that I expected out of a Paul. I am not saying this is the case for all lightweight Pauls, but was for that one. My R4 is a hair above 9 pounds and it has that Paul punch, for what it's worth.

 

[gibson3798]

Post of the week. The combo of snarky and dead (indisputably and factually) wrong is surreal - like watching those videos of skateboarders rack themselves on railings.

But would have been better though if you had worked in the term “literally” - thus only 8/10.

That's literally the dumbest retort I've had in this entire exchange of trying to assign legend status to someone most musicians have never heard of.

Now, if you'll just reply using the word dude, my life will be complete.

 

[VintagePlayerStrat]

That's literally the dumbest retort I've had in this entire exchange of trying to assign legend status to someone most musicians have never heard of.

Now, if you'll just reply using the word dude, my life will be complete.

I dunno, man. Might be true most musicians have never head of Pat Smear. But I'd say most musicians who play rock and punk guitar have heard of him.

Anywho, both of ya'll maybe don't take this stuff so seriously. It's not a big deal.

 

[xmd5a]

With a name like "Pat Smear", I'm glad he's not better known, lest his name come up more often.

He must be a great guy to hang with, because as a musician I don't see much evidence of anything special going on there. Most of his success seems stem from being Cobain/Grohl approved.

 

[TedJames]

The guy has been on the COVER of Rolling Stone Magazine at least twice, the cover of Guitar World Magazine more than three times, performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, has been featured in multiple documentaries involving the influential music of the rock scene of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000’s, played on multiple movie soundtracks, has been written about in multiple biographies and histories of various music scenes, regularly performs in live shows that are broadcast on tv, AND a good number of the tunes he played on are even included in the Guitar Hero LEGENDS video games.

If you don’t get your information from the books, magazines, live shows, movies, television, music recordings, the Internet or video games I’m not sure what’s left, media wise that can help one out. Gotta be hard to learn to play guitar with zero outside information coming in.

Kind of just leaves word of mouth.

Personally I’m not even a fan of that type of music. (I can name like 2 Foo Fighters songs - and one of them only because I get it mixed up with a Jackson Brown song of the same name all the time). But if even I, as completely uncool as I am, know who he is then, clearly, he’s pretty damn well known.

Maybe if he posted videos on Instagram?

At some point we went from a society where people were excited to learn something new (actively seeking out and trying to fill gaps in knowledge or abilities - or just learning new things for the pure joy of learning new things) to one where we have these pockets of people who argue that if they didn’t know something then it’s not worth knowing (and getting weirdly defensive about it rather than embracing the opportunity- as if not knowing something was a bad reflection on them).

Though I wouldn’t pay up for one of his old guitars unless he would also come over for a couple beers and tell me a few crazy stories as well.

 

[kingofrats]

The guy has been on the COVER of Rolling Stone Magazine at least twice, the cover of Guitar World Magazine more than three times, performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, has been featured in multiple documentaries involving the influential music of the rock scene of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000’s, played on multiple movie soundtracks, has been written about in multiple biographies and histories of various music scenes, regularly performs in live shows that are broadcast on tv, AND a good number of the tunes he played on are even included in the Guitar Hero LEGENDS video games.

If you don’t get your information from the books, magazines, live shows, movies, television, music recordings, the Internet or video games I’m not sure what’s left, media wise that can help one out. Gotta be hard to learn to play guitar with zero outside information coming in.

Kind of just leaves word of mouth.

Personally I’m not even a fan of that type of music. (I can name like 2 Foo Fighters songs - and one of them only because I get it mixed up with a Jackson Brown song of the same name all the time). But if even I, as completely uncool as I am, know who he is then, clearly, he’s pretty damn well known.

Maybe if he posted videos on Instagram?

At some point we went from a society where people were excited to learn something new (actively seeking out and trying to fill gaps in knowledge or abilities - or just learning new things for the pure joy of learning new things) to one where we have these pockets of people who argue that if they didn’t know something then it’s not worth knowing (and getting weirdly defensive about it rather than embracing the opportunity- as if not knowing something was a bad reflection on them).

Though I wouldn’t pay up for one of his old guitars unless he would also come over for a couple beers and tell me a few crazy stories as well.

Pretty much this. The dude is an absolute legend, period. The fact that there's uproar here about this just further exemplifies how conservative and antiquated guitar culture has become.

 

[Thesleepstalker]

I see "owned by [famous guitarist]" as sort of a blight, they didn't like the guitar enough to keep it. Sort of makes it an awkward coversation piece. "Check out this Les Paul! Pat Smear owned it, but apparently didn't love it."

You've just described every used guitar in the world in your own pessimistic way.

 

[HipUncle]

You were a punk in the early 80's and you've never heard of the Germs?

Fear? Yes. MIA? Yes. Husker Du? Yes. Black Flag? Yes. The Dead Boys, Richard Hell, The Cramps, MDC? Yes, yes, yes, yes.

I could go on. But The Germs do not ring a bell.

 

[xmd5a]

You've just described every used guitar in the world in your own pessimistic way.

I'm sure a lot of guitars are sold for drug money or to make rent, but when you have Pat Smear money, he's saying "I could keep this guitar if I wanted, but I don't care if I never touch it again in my life."

But this all kind of absurd because the odds of Pat Smear having anything to do with the guitar in question is exceedingly low. Some salesmen made a mark and this is the mess they left behind.

 

[viper jazz]

Fear? Yes. MIA? Yes. Husker Du? Yes. Black Flag? Yes. The Dead Boys, Richard Hell, The Cramps, MDC? Yes, yes, yes, yes.

I could go on. But The Germs do not ring a bell.

Honestly, I find this extremely hard to believe.

 

[viper jazz]

Pretty much this. The dude is an absolute legend, period. The fact that there's uproar here about this just further exemplifies how conservative and antiquated guitar culture has become.

TGP is a refuge for the conservative and antiquated, so there's some severe filtering happening here, too.

 

[HipUncle]

Honestly, I find this extremely hard to believe.

Sorry to disappoint, but I speak the truth. To the best of my knowledge, the first time I heard about Pat Smear/The Germs was in this thread. I googled them, and they broke up in 1980. Maybe that's why...they were over right when I was getting started.

 

[TedJames]

Fear? Yes. MIA? Yes. Husker Du? Yes. Black Flag? Yes. The Dead Boys, Richard Hell, The Cramps, MDC? Yes, yes, yes, yes.

I could go on. But The Germs do not ring a bell.

Oh man, I completely forgot about MDC. I saw them live a couple times (grew up in SF) and used to have a few of their singles.

Man - what happened to them? You’d think what’s going on would be right up their alley. This is their moment. Surprised not out making some hay.

Then again they’re probably all stock brokers or selling insurance somewhere.

 

[Drew816]

He's a gynecologist.

You sir have won TGP for the day! I'm sure Pat's heard this one all his life, but I wasn't expecting it and couldn't stop laughing!

 

[HipUncle]

My thread title has Pat's name in it, and it's not an accident it's a most viewed thread. That wasn't deliberate, but just making the point.

I'm being 100% honest here, I clicked on the thread because it was trending on the homepage, I read the title, and I'm like, "Who's Pat Smear, and what's an R4??" LOL

 

[Rick Lee]

Though I wouldn’t pay up for one of his old guitars unless he would also come over for a couple beers and tell me a few crazy stories as well.

Oh man, the stories that man could tell would be worth the price of the guitar all by themselves. I'm not a fan, but the man has had a full career and life.

 

[TedJames]

Oh man, the stories that man could tell would be worth the price of the guitar all by themselves. I'm not a fan, but the man has had a full career and life.

He’s like a Waddy Wachtel - iconic everpresent sideman who time and again was there when the house burned down. Stories have got to be epic.

 

[j_el_jee]

I see "owned by [famous guitarist]" as sort of a blight, they didn't like the guitar enough to keep it. Sort of makes it an awkward coversation piece. "Check out this Les Paul! Pat Smear owned it, but apparently didn't love it."

Perplexing view from a few folks here. Clearly there are more than a few reasons people part with guitars. What makes a "celebrity" any different?