Well today a guitar fell into my lap, as they have a way of doing.
I was considering trying to buy a Les Paul Vintage Mahogany someone had listed locally on Craigslist, but I already have 2 Gibby LP's and frankly it wouldn't have been that different from what I already have. Plus it would've exhausted the rainy day fund, and once it gets up over a couple hundred I'd rather not do that unless it's something I REALLY want.
Day before yesterday I spotted something intriguing, and much cheaper, on Craigslist. A Danelectro Hodad. These are from the same era as the reissues, but the design is a new one, not a 60's classic redone. Basically they took a Mosrite silhouette and equipped it with 2 pairs of splittable lipstick humbuckers. Came with or without Bigsby, this one was with (yay!).
I'd never had a guitar with lipsticks, so this was a better addition than the LP VM, and much cheaper. Asking $250, which is on the low end of what they seem to be going for on Ebay.
Turns out the seller is an old acquaintance of mine from the local scene. He's the one I got the incredible trade deal on my beater Ric 620 from. Under other circumstances I would've bargained harder, but the asking price was fair to begin with and the seller was a longtime acquaintance of mine. I told him under other circumstances, if it were someone else, I might've bargained more, but since it was him, hey, Merry Christmas.
I'm still undecided on whether it was a good karma thing to do, or I'm just a chump.
At any rate, it's blue sparkle. Has a couple finish chips on the back but otherwise is in good shape, though in need of a fresh set of strings. When I bought this Dano off him today, he asked if I still had the Ric. I told him yeah, it was a keeper. He said if I ever wanted to sell it, call him first.
Here's the pic he posted, sorry about the quality:
Here's the original Danelectro web page re: the Hodad.
Mine's deep blue rather than purple or the light blue pictured. Managed to take a couple pics after la familia went to bed. Computer crashed last week and haven't reloaded software to brighten pics, so they're a bit dark, but at least they're an improvement over the camera-phone pic from the seller.