I Love Surprises (Sometimes)
Very early Trini Lopez Standard. This guitar had a few aces up its sleeve. Pickups are pre T-top with the purple windings like a PAF. It also had a zero fret which is just weird.
Every time I buy a guitar, it comes with a surprise. It doesn’t matter if I get it from another dealer or from Craigslist, Ebay or The Gear Page. There is always a surprise. Usually, it’s an undisclosed issue and generally it’s a small one like changed saddles or the wrong bridge. Maybe changed tuner tips or spliced leads on the pickups or opened covers. Or missing PAF stickers or two repro knobs or a changed pot. There are a fair number of parts on a guitar and stuff gets swapped out over the course of decades. So, I generally accept stuff being wrong-or different than expected. It’s not generally because anyone is trying to cheat me. Its simply because most folks just don’t know the difference between a no wire ABR-1 and a wired one. And I don’t expect them to. I’m allowed to ask a lot of questions and look really carefully at the photos but somehow, something always gets by me. The good news is it cuts both ways. A really good example came to me recently off of Craigslist (the biggest crapshoot of all).
The seller had a Trini Lopez Standard for sale. Now, I like Trinis although I rarely find the early ones that I prefer. The very first ones had a wide 1 11/16″ nut, all nickel hardware and pre T-top pickups. This one had some unusual issues but I bought it anyway – for a reasonable price. There was one issue I saw in the photos and that may have scared away some buyers. Someone had installed a zero fret which shouldn’t work properly without moving the nut which they didn’t. So, I figured, what the heck, I can simply remove it and fill the slot with some glue and rosewood dust. Well, oddly enough, the intonation seems fine, so I left it. When the guitar arrived, the pickups had chrome covers. But the photos showed nickel. “WTF”, I said to myself. But the nickel ones were in the case pocket which was a relief. So, I decided to removed the badly soldered chrome covers and put the nickel ones back on. I know, from experience that this guitar should NOT have had t-tops. Regardless of what you read elsewhere, 65’s don’t have t-tops. They usually have the later poly winding pre T’s. Not this one. Both pickups had the coveted purple enamel wire. They were identical to PAFs. The pickups alone were worth the price of the entire guitar (almost). And yes, it’s pretty unusual to see these pickups in 65 but if the covers are nickel, the windings are almost always purple.
Other good news, 64 date codes on the pots, nice wide neck, Brazilian board and the rest of the parts were nickel. Bad news? I had to buy a set of proper vintage strip tuners to replace the ill-fitting Schallers that had been added. And it plays great. I should point out that for every time I get lucky and get more than I expected, there’s another guitar with a rewound PAF or a repro stop tail or a back bow in the neck. You can always ask a lot of questions but when the 89 year old widow of the original owner is selling the guitar to pay for her nursing care, you really can’t ask her to pull the pickups to check the stickers or try the truss rod to see if it still turns. And I don’t (ask her, that is). It’s the crapshoot part of the business. It’s nice that it goes my way once in a while. Like the 61 ES-355 with the neck break, changed bridge, wrong tuners and a pair of double white PAFs. Christmas can come all year round.
Always nice to find an undisclosed double white. It’s like your birthday and Christmas rolled into one.
Charlie, interesting story as usual and good advice to buyers! Best to always try to deal with reputable folks such as yourself when possible. I go to extensive effort to identify and disclose flaws and issues when I sell musical equipment. On the flip side I have only rarely received an instrument that is materially better than what I thought I was buying based on the seller’s description. For example, I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the case on my ’62 Riviera! Near mint! A happy day. A less happy day when I paid big bucks to have a brown ’62 Fender Deluxe amp express shipped across the country. Despite the dealer’s assurance the amp was flawless the amp had been regrilled with repro cloth. Such a poor job the cloth was sagging like a hammock in the middele and it appeared to be stappled on using an office stapler! Any novice should have been able to spot that! The dealer took the amp back but I was out two way shipping and the emotional distress!
Very Cool Trini.One of my customers has a stock 66 335.All chrome,trap.narrow nut,etc.with a zebra in the neck position.Go figure.Could you show a pic of the fret nut?Thanks,Joe
Look here:
Yes, the early Trinis are cool. Charlie has had some nice Trini models including a rare black one. I’ve also seen one in Pelham Blue!
I once had a ’66 Trini. No t-tops either.