Great Deal on American Made Vintage Guitar

Those of you that have read some of my previous articles know that I like guitars that have good tone with a better price. A couple of years ago I found an excellent deal on a Peavey T-15 short scale guitar, and since then have acquired quite a few. The T-15 had such a good tone that it led me to investigate and buy it's big brother the Peavey T-60.

The T-60 was Peavey's first guitar and was produced from 1977 to 1987. The T the T-series stands for the T in Chip Todd's name who was the designer. Chip designed for Peavey and later Fender and was ahead of his time. Now retired he lives in Austin, Texas where he was still building guitars until a few years ago I believe. The T-60 was the crowning moment of his career as it was a completely new design that sold for ten years. He is also a nice guy as I emailed him a couple of years ago when I got my T-60. Imagine if Leo Fender or Les Paul could just email back and talk about their guitars.

The T-60 was a ground breaker as it was the first guitar to use CNC machinery to make a more consistent instrument, which is standard now. Another unusual innovation is that the humbucker pickups can be a humbucker or a single coil with a twist of the tone knob. With the tone on 10 the pickup becomes a single coil, with it on 7 it becomes a humbucker. The Les Paul type two volume knobs and two tone knobs make it easy to dial in a wide range of tones and switch back and forth.

If all the volume and tone knobs and single coil/humbucker combinations are not enough versatility for you they try the three position phase switch. The middle position is out of phase and makes the best sound on the guitar in my opinion. The out of phase and Peavey pickups make it versatile enough to play about any style but it still has it's own tone.

The best way to explain the T-60 is a cross between the Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson Les Paul with a little Telecaster twang if adjusted to it. The weight of the big ash body is definitely Les Paul as this guitar is the heaviest one that I own. Though it is a heavy, the big chunk of wood hums when a string is hit and goes on forever. With it being heavily built it seems indestructible as if Pete Townsend himself couldn't destroy it.

The T-60 was built in the U.S.A. and has it prominently displayed on the headstock. For a gigging band it is versatile and tough enough to play anything anywhere. Since they have the stigma of not having a Fender or Gibson label on them they are still very reasonable. T-60's in good shape regularly go for around $300 on Ebay and sometimes less or more depending on condition. Not bad for a U.S.A. made professional grade guitar.