Quote:
Originally Posted by swankmotee
I had the fortune of becoming good friends with Chris Derrig back in the early 80's when he worked for Atlanta Guitar Works. He bestowed a ton of inside info on what he felt were the most important factors that made 50's LP's great. I remember a paticular longwinded convo about how he described the "blossom" ( how once you struck the notes above the 12th fret through a cranked Marshall that they would noticably get louder as they continued sustaining) and how he went to great lenghts to recreate that in his guitars. I know this was a continued source of frustration for him because I owned a couple of his 2nd's which he didn't think did the blossom thing very well but they were still excellent sounding because he sourced the correct woods. He also sold me alot of PAF's that were not his favorites or the ones he chose for his guitars and let me tell you that they were still some great ones but his were the choicest and his clones were absolutely top notch. I remember one in paticular that had the most incredible 3D,super dense top. He showed me outside of the store in the sunlight how it had every type of curl,stripe, and flame all superimposed on top of each other and as you turned it in the light you could make out each from the differing angles that the sun hit it! It was mindblowing to say the least and I wonder where it is today because it would be the talk of all LP owners everywhere!! He said he was selling it to someone in the UK for around 25K which back in 82' would have been a huge sum for one of these. The only reason I thought to bring this up on this thread was because every one of his guitars that I played exemplified all the elements that us Sunburst devotees lust after...... ultimate sustain,PAF tone,and incredible vintage looks which are undiniable once you experience it. Even though Chris was a somewhat "shady" character (andI had my own experiences to back that up) he totally understood all the elements that made one great and I was a truly lucky soul to have been around him when he was doing his best work and be schooled in what makes a great vintage/clone Paul great!  |
My experience with Derrig's guitars was different from yours. I have a friend who knew Chris and owned two different Derrig's at different times. They weren't all that special. If Chris sold one for 25 grand in '82, then there's only one reason that could have possibly accounted for that price.
Soldano, one of the reasons that you haven't seen one come up for sale is because he simply didn't produce that many. I'm not sure how old he was when he died, but he wasn't very old.