Conference napalm::guitar

    I don't know much about them. Larry Carlton plays Valley Arts. 
    
    What I do know is that Musicians Friend was blowing out Valley Arts
    guitars for $499 brand new with HardShell Case.
    
    Seemed like a good deal to me.
    
    Brian

    The guy from Rush (Alex Leifson?) has been endorsing these guitars
    for years, before Larry Carlton began using them. 
    
    They are very similar to Strats except that they are neck-through. 
    Most people that buy Valley Arts guitars have them custom made
    to their own specific specs. The one that Carlton uses has EMG
    active pickups, but I'm sure you can get them with whatever
    pu you want.
    
    BTW, it's Valley Arts, not Valley Artist. They are based in California.
    
    Mark 

    
    actually,I think Alex Leifson endorses PRS guitars.
    
    
    
    						ian

    Maybe he does now, but years ago he was playing Valley Arts. He
    appeared in several ads for VA.
    
    Mark

    Perhaps I am wrong but I think that Valley Arts has been going through
    very rough times. I think I remeber that their factory has been
    destroyed by a fire, and that they got taken over by Samick....
    
    Jean-Pul

   A guy I used to work with, who has since left the company, got one.
   It was expensive for a solid body, about $1500 if I remember correctly,
   but he bought it direct from the factory, and it had some level of
   "custom-made-ness" to it.  Though these days things have gotten so screwy
   with distribution channels that it can actually be more expensive to go
   directly to the factory than it is to buy the same thing from a dealer
   (ala Microsnot.)

   It was a real nice guitar, and very solid.  The neck mounting style I 
   saw wasn't a neck-through, but a bolt-on with a special steel tongue-and-
   slot "tang" at the neck/body joint.  The owner is a pretty hot guitarist
   and he said it was the only thing he'd ever played on which he could bend
   a whole chord and not have it detune, even microphonically (he was also
   pretty picky.)  Real pretty yellow/orange sunburst, with nice grain
   underneath.  I don't know if the have a seperate "top" ala Les Pauls,
   etc.  I think you can custom order just about any changes you want, ala
   Carvin.  At $1500 you should!

   Now that I've finally admitted to myself that solid bodies are the way to
   go for my "style" I'd love to get one of these.  Whilst composing this I
   ran off and checked, and Musicians' Friend did indeed have them in the 
   '96 winter catalog, but they're not in the spring one.  Just in case,
   anyone want to buy a Gibson Firebrand 335-S or a Jasmine (Tak) Electric/
   Acoustic, either for $200?  

   -- Sam

   really is blowing 'em out at that price I'll grab one in a heartbeat.
   I'll have to check my catalogs.  If the person a couple of notes back who
   mentioned this still has their catalog handy, please photocopy that page
   and send it to me!  Thanks in advance.

   -- Sam

   re: .5  Ugh.  If that's the case, I'm not interested...

   -- Sam

   P.S.  You can still make an offer on my guitars though!  :-)

    re .5 Samick buying Valley Arts
    
    I wondered exactly what the connection was-- I'd noticed a few adds of
    a Valley Arts model with a corresponding Samick model.  The most recent
    was an electric archtop.
    
    Jim
    

   I called M.F. anyway, to see what was up.  They're all gone anyway,
   so speculation doesn't matter anymore.  :-(  They do have some V.A.
   basses left, the salesdude said, but I didn't know they even made basses.

   On closer inspection M.F.'s ad stated that these were "US Made" and they
   made a big deal of "owning a real V.A. guitar without breaking the bank"
   so maybe these were "real", pre-Samick models.  Who knows, now?

   Samick's aren't *bad* guitars, and are probably the cream of the crop of
   Korean stuff, but they are indeed more in the $200-$500 range than the 
   "real" V.A. I was hoping for.

   -- Sam

    Larry Carlton is very big on Valley Arts guitars as well.  I think they
    even created a signature model for him.
    
    Of course, I *still* wish he'd go back to just playing a 335.  ;-)
    
    	db

    	I recently picked up a Guitar Player (I think it was GT) and on
    the inside had an ad for VA gits. There was a small Samick sign on a
    headstock shown. THe ad was for a Robert Johnson signature series
    acoustic that looked beautiful. They also claimed to be the "original" 
    custom shop. Any one see one of these around? I'm curious of the price.
    	
    
    -kev

    Geez... a signature series for a long-demised artist?
    
    Doesn't that seem like an abuse/assumption of the artist's name?
    
    	db

Yeah, I'm not sure that Robert Johnson could write his name?  
If he couldn't, how could he have a signature model?  ;-)

Jim

    re: .12, 
    
    >Geez... a signature series for a long-demised artist?
    >Doesn't that seem like an abuse/assumption of the artist's name?
    
    Or at the very least, bad taste...
    
    I believe the guitar referenced is endorsed/approved by his estate.  
    But I guess your question stands...
    
    It's not unique.  I think Samick/VA also have a Charlie Christian
    model, and the RJ estate has blessed a whole line of RJ items (picks,
    slides, etc.)   Another example is Collings, with its Clarence White 
    model  (which is at least a bit less tacky, IMO: CW's most famous
    instrument was a pre-war D-28 with an enlarged soundhole.  The Collings
    guitar plays appropriate homage to this instrument (with the exception
    of not using a traditional neck joint), and Roland White (Clarence's
    brother and frequent musical partner) approved the design.)
    
    Jim

I want to thank everyone for their info.  I went ahead and bought the guitar.  
This guitar was last years model but never used.  All of the decals say  
"Custom Made by Valley Arts, San diego",  and there are "made in the USA"
decals, stickers, stamps, etc. all over the place.  So I hope Samick was
suppling money not ideas, or workers.  After playing the quitar for a few hours
last night I think I made a good choice. 


Thanks again for all of the info.


dan

    	You say Collings made a CW signature guitar? I know that Fender
    just issued a Tele/B-bender CW signature model. It looks pretty
    awesome. Who is Collings? I've never heard that name before. 
    	Re Bobby Johnson, I think he was amazing. I'm a very big blues
    enthusiast so IMO, He Da man! I've been listening to that box
    set,non-stop, for about 5 months now. It keeps getting better and
    better. The fact that damn near every blues standard out there is a
    variation of one of his is quite a statement itself. I think he was a
    great songwriter and an even better guitar player.....Ilovemthankyou!
    
    -kev [ I don't know if it was mentioned but CW helped design that now
           famous B-bender. cool!]

    Re: Who is Collings
    
    Collings is one of the top "boutique" shops-- a small shop making
    top-quality products (Santa Cruz Guitar Company is another example).
    Anyway, Collings makes great acoustics, most of which are based on 
    Martin designs.  In addition to the CW guitar, Collings makes a few D
    models, a couple of OMs, and a reportedly phenomenal 12-fret 000.
    Great stuff, but priced accordingly (my Martin OM-28 seemed affordable
    in comparison).  Last time I visted Elderly Instruments, they had a
    gorgeous custom Collings OM in Brazilian rosewood with pearl inlay. 
    The *discount* price was about $7,000.  I didn't have the nerve to ask
    to play it (it was one of the few instruments that was kept out of
    public reach) for fear that I might find myself overwrought with the
    desire to purchase it.
    
    Although Mr. Collings' major inspiration seems to be vintage Martins, he
    does depart in one major area-- he uses a bolt-on neck design, similar
    to Taylor.
    
    Collings also has an archtop model that is supposed to be excellent.
    
    Jim

    If anyone gets a Robert Johnson signature guitar I'll be happy to sign
    it for you.:):):)
    
    I wonder what my commission will be on those things:):):)
    
    "Come on in my kitchen"....
    
    Later,
    Robert Johnson