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Legend & Abbreviations

This page is assist you in figuring out what my descriptions mean.

Due to dealer agreements and competitor complaints many companies won't allow me to print my LOW prices. 

This policy extends over to written Email quotes that can be used at another dealers store as a price wedge.

Please call me if you need a price on a new guitar.  I will beat most all prices quoted by any authorized dealer on new merchandise.

CONDITION
Call  Call me this guitar has a story attached to it, too long to describe in print.
New Absolutely brand new with full warranty. (Sometimes I can't advertise the item as new)
NOS New Old Stock. Might be something that I purchased from another dealer that he could not sell it may even still have hang tags on it. 
Mint Mint Item is so perfect it defies description (very rare). can also mean brand new
Dead Mint Same As Above, Might be new,  Might even be pre-owned but definitely never used or played.
Mint Perfect condition, no scratches,  pre owned by a collector and not played.
Near Mint Between Mint and Excellent
Excellent May have some minor surface scratches, No dings, almost mint.
Very Good May have 1 or 2 dings but guitar is generally fresh and very clean.
Good Some dings but guitar is still clean and 100% playable.
Fair Still more dings and even deeper scratches
Player Collector grade that has been devalued greatly by modification. (Best Buy)
Poor Sad shape, paint may be crappy, frets could be worn medium playability.
NFG Sadder shape, crappy looking and playability blows.
POS Saddest shape. Basically a Piece of $hit
A few words about condition

I always try to be honest and fair when I rate guitars, It usually pays off in repeat business and less return problems. I hate returns so I tend to be a little heavy handed with my descriptions. I may rate a guitar "Good" that a competitor may rate "Very Good". It is possible for me to make a mistake,  contrary to popular belief  I am not infallible. If you disagree with my assessment, I will take the guitar back no questions asked.

Common Abbreviations
Used in my description line on the price lists
10 Top  On a scale of 1 to 10 this means that the top or face (Supposedly) is the best.
AT                        Archtop, Otherwise known as a Box or Jazzbox (Jazz musicians are cool cats)
BB Bound Body
BC Rich Bernardo Chavez Rico (Son of Bernardo Mason Rico) (Bernie Jr) Grandson of Bernardo Mason Rico
BH  Black Hardware
B0     Bolt on or Bolt in neck.
Call Call for description, Sometimes a one word description is not adequate.
CE  Classic Electric, (Relating to PRS)
CE Cutaway Electric, (Relating to acoustic guitars)
Celeb Celebrity owned (Usually this will be fully documented)
Cstm Custom, (Relating to Gibson, PRS, or any company that offers a Custom model)
Dblnk Doubleneck Guitar
DC Double Cut,  Double cutaway pertaining to the New Gibson Models.
Ecoustic    Acoustic guitar with electronics and pickups.
EQ   Equalization, Equalizer, Equalization Circuitry (usually means active)
ES     Electric Spanish, Pertaining to Gibson 330/335/345/347/355 etc
ESP Electric Sound Products (Located in Shibuya and Nagoya Japan)  All ESP Guitars are made in Japan & Korea except a few so they can keep up their False USA Made Image
FAUX False, Imitation, Fake, Ersatz, Reproduction,  Not Necessarily Counterfeit.
FRT Floyd Rose Tremolo.
FT Flame Top
GH Gold Hardware
Grfic   Graphic paint job,  Usually there won't be enough room to describe the graphic.
HRI  Historic Re Issue
HSS    Humbucker Single Single (relating to pickup configuration)
In Play  There are current negotiations and hagglings with several interested buyers.
In Transit    This means the guitar is on it's way in and all info is not available yet
KISS    Keep It Simple Stupid,  (Really that's what it stands for)                   
LP Les Paul  (Relating to Gibson, Heritage, Epiphone or copies thereof)
Mega Flame The nicest sharpest flamed maple available at least a 10 top.
Mega Quilt   The nicest sharpest quilted maple available at least a 10 top.
MPL Maple
NIB  New In Box
Nitro  Nitrocellulose Lacquer  (A preferred finishing technique among vintage geeks)
NOS New Old Stock
NJ   Nagoya Japan  it does NOT mean New Jersey (Relating to BC Rich)
N/T   NT Neck Through Body. (The most costly and absolute best way to build a guitar)
OHSC  Original Hard Shell Case
ORIG     Original Condition (this means guitar is 100 stock no modifications)
PAF          Patent Applied For "Sly Crafty, Larry Dimarzio trademarked this abbreviation. Gibson can't even use it."
PRE 95 Relating to PRS (approximately April 1995 is when the neck heels changed ) Mass Production started later that year (Buyer Beware)   
PRE CBS Relating to Fender (1965 was the year Leo Fender sold out to CBS)
PRE GIB  Relating to Steinberger 1992 was the year Gibson closed the Newburgh factory.
PRE GIB    Relating to Tobias (Look for serial numbers below 1100)
PRS   Paul Reed Smith
QLT Quilted Maple,
QT Quilted Maple Top,
REV Usually means reverse headstock but it could mean reverse body in some cases,
RI      Re Issue,
RW Rosewood,
SG  Solid Gibson or Spanish Guitar, (relating to Gibson people argue on this one)
SIGNED   Autographed by some Rockstar or pseudo Rockstar or even Rockstars. (Way cool dude)
STD Standard, (Relating to PRS and Gibson)
SUP Supreme, (Relating to BC Rich) Top of the line Model
TT Transposing  Tremolo,  (Relating to Steinberger)
USA         Made in the USA.  (people have actually asked me what it stood for)
UV  Universe (Relating to Ibanez Steve Vai 7 string models)
WOP Work in Progress.
 

Disclaimer

Sometimes it is possible for a wrong year to be posted on a particular guitar.  This may occur on some early 70's SG's and possibly some Fenders.   This of course may is not done on purpose but sometimes I am forced to guess on the year of a guitar.  BC Rich for example is hard for me to identify the exact year but I am usually not far off.

I will gladly refund your money if a guitar is advertised as a 1982 turns out to be a 1992 or  a 1971 Strat turns out tp be a 1978.  But unless the guitar is sold as a particular vintage year model I am not responsible when a 1973 SG turns out to be a 1972 or a 1974 Strat turns out to be a 1973. If you have a problem with this policy simply tell me about it before you buy and I will be glad to give you a year guarantee or a refund if it turns out to be even one year off.

The reason for this policy is to prevent a return of a guitar that was purchased as a 1993 Strat and 3 months later a customer discovers that in actuality it is a 1994.  There would be no significant difference in value in a case like this so I would not offer a refund.  However in the case of a significant value difference I would be glad to to offer a refund or an adjustment.

Steinberger Models 
Most of the People who worked at Steinberger did not know these

When I worked for Steinberger back in 1990/1991,  I was primarily responsible for naming all the models, I came up with the names Legend, Matrix, Racer & Performer for the L,M, R & P series. For the headstock series that was called a Sceptre.

I believed that the guitars should have an identifying name that people could remember.  I didn't become completely fluent on Steinberger  nomenclature till about 6 months after I picked up all the merchandise in their closed warehouse sometime in early 1998.  I know when I worked there there were always naming conflicts going on all the time and 95% of the employees didn't know the actual names of all the models.  It's very confusing to say the least.

Well Ovation already had used the name "Legend" so very few people in the USA ever got the printed literature pertaining to the names.  Europeans still call me for the Matrix or the Legend.  There was a short period where they changed the names to "Elite"   There was the GT Pro era and God knows how many other naming conventions that never seemed to stick for long.

Below is the original number & letter designations,   Confusing as they are,  I decided to use this as a universal way to distinguish one from another.

Prefix G       Guitar
Prefix X          Bass
MODELS  
L    Legend (Oar shaped all graphite model like Eddie Van Halen plays)
LW   Legend (Oar shaped wood body graphite neck model) (Actually sounds better)
M Matrix ( Pseudo Strat shaped model like Joe Perry, David Gilmour, Vito Bratta play)
P   Power Vee (The mini V shaped model like Leslie West or Andy Powell play)  Before switching to the Westberger
R    Racer (Poor mans version of the M series usually no trans trem or EMG pickups) made in Korea
Q Quint or Quad Bass
S Scepter (The short lived headstock model)
K Kleinberger  (The Steve Klein model)
T When T appears in the model number it means Trans Trem included
S When S appears in the model number it means Std Trem Included
A When A appears in the model number it means Active EQ circuit is included
2 When 2 appears in a model number it means 2 humbucking pickups
3 When 3 appears in a model number it means 3 single coil pickups
4  When 4 appears in a model number for a Guitar it means 1 Hum 2 Singles
7  When 7 appears in a model number for a Guitar it means Hum Single Hum