cockroach wrote:Maybe it's the fate of a lot of good but different instruments...not really popular because few -or no- famous players use or used one...
No maybe about it, John. For a lot of guitar players, that link to a famous player is terribly important - and they are willing to pay for it.
However, over time and as new players come along, the 'overlooked' instruments become valued for what they are, rather than who might have played them. Many Burns guitars have moved from 'going cheap in the junk shop' in the 1970s (before Paul Day wrote
The Burns Book) to being highly valued today.
Barry Gibson's Club range of guitars are very well made (a lot of the reason, I'm sure, is down to quality control by Barry and his team) and although the Cobra is the lowest price model I'm sure its value will rise over time.
Here's another prediction for the future - Alden guitars. They are designed by Alan Entwhistle (who has recently designed the new noiseless pickups for the Burns Apache) and built by Muse in Korea. Mr E. has taken 'classic' designs then produced a worthwhile variation. So my TV Cruiser DLX looks superficially like a Telecaster Thinline, in Fiesta Red and with a rosewood fingerboard. However, it has a gold-plated tremolo (in fact, all the metalwork is gold-plated) and Entwhistle's very unusual MVH split-coil pickups - high output, low noise and with a very tasty harmonically-rich sound. This particular model was only available for a short time, from one outlet, and I've been getting enquiries about it ever since I started gigging with it.
Ray