1980s J. Steele 300/301 Precision Bass Guitar

Vintage Korean Fender P-Bass copy, saw action at some of my first gigs and still going strong

Virtually everything featured here over the last few years is something that has been found within that time frame, with just a few notable exceptions. This cheap little nugget is something that I found at Westminster Jewelry and Loan around this time in 1993. I bought this for $85 and over 20 years later, there is little to no information available about the make or model. Used Price suggested the model numbers and stated that they were made in 1987, but that's all I could find.

I gigged with this and put in countless hours of practice in 1993 and 1994, but by the time I moved on to other bands in later years, I had upgraded to a mid-level Ibanez. A friend of mine cleaned up the pots a few years back when he was fostering it and it still sounds and plays great. The neck isn't quite as fast as the Ibanez Roadstar that sits in front of it on the rack, but I still pick it up every once in a while, for old time's sake.

Some of the stickers on this bass are really special, especially the ones on the back. There is a Philadelphia theme on both sides, but the Philadelphia Music Company is a now-defunct music store from that area and where I first fell in love with guitars as a kid. The White Zombie sticker was a fan club thing 20 years ago and is probably worth just as much as the bass today. Of course, the KNAC and Pirate Radio stickers are original, and those were the two main radio stations that I listened to as a teenager in So Cal in the early 1990s.

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.

1995 Ibanez RX 170 Electric Guitar

Vintage Ibanez budget-line guitar, worlds better than what is out there today in this price range, made in Korea 

Here is an interesting guitar, a low-end model, but one that is worthy of investing some money into for hot rodding. The body is made of plywood and the hardware isn't anything to write home about... 

But, the neck is one-piece maple and the HSH pickup configuration means that the sky is the limit in terms of the number of sounds that this guitar is capable of putting out. Throw in some high-end pickups and tuning machines and this guitar suddenly becomes a monster shredder.

Haven't seen too many of these floating around, most cheap Ibanez's available secondhand are the next generation Gios. $250 is a fair deal for a stock version like this one, but finding one in decent shape for about half that number is possible too.

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution pictures here.