Baldwin 801 CP Relisted On Ebay

[Tom Keller]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Baldwin-801CP-Class ... 45fc7200da

All disclaimers apply (No Dogs In The Race)


Tom

[PhilHunt]

Up to $1,500 and 4 days left. There's no battery box with this Baldwin. I'm wondering how the seller even played this thing without a battery box. If you plug it in by itself it sounds tinny and horrible, you can tell by the video on youtube of him playing it.

[AngusH]

I've seen a thread in the past about the battery box - please excuse my ignorance, but where does it go and what does it do? Could a replacement be made fairly easily? Also, Jerry's Baldwin appears to have volume and other controls on the body of the guitar, but these don't seem to be on either the guitar currently up for auction or the others on the Harmony Demont database.

Meanwhile, my Prismatone II has arrived - hoping to have it installed in the H173 I acquired earlier this year, if I can only get the luthier to return my emails and calls. I suspect he may think I'm mad....

Angus

[bill park]

the battery box - where does it go and what does it do? Could a replacement be made fairly easily? Also, Jerry's Baldwin appears to have volume and other controls on the body of the guitar, but these don't seem to be on either the guitar currently up for auction or the others on the Harmony Demont database.
Angus

The Baldwin 801CP was designed with an external battery box to power the onboard preamp. It connected to the guitar preamp located on the input jack via a stereo cord. A really dumb design, and I wouldn't doubt that Jerry had his changed when he had volume/tone knobs added to his upper bout. Most modern onboard preamp/power supplies use a 9-volt battery located in the guitar.
The Baldwin power supply is a simple electronic circuit, and can be easily constructed by anyone with passable electronics skill. The schematic has been posted here before.
Thanks,
Bill

[AngusH]

Bill - many thanks for the info, I appreciate it. I'll be sure to look out the schematic should the need arise....

Angus

[PhilHunt]

Well, Someone must have wanted this 801 really, really, really bad. I hate to break it to the winner.....BUT THEY PAID WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY OVER PRICE FOR IT!! $3,005!!!!!!!!

[Roger Pratt]

More money than brains IMHO, but who cares what I think....LOL.

[Doug_H]

Good grief! lol! IMHO, the 'book' price of $700-$800 someone posted on another thread is about right. To me, it would be worth the cost of having a Prismatone installed in a cheap guitar. That's it. Even though Jerry Reed played one 'like it', I could play his chopped Baldwin and I would sound like me, and he could have picked up my cheap Alvarez and still sounded like him. It's a buyer's market, and sometimes a seller gets really lucky.

[GlenHines]

Way over priced - must have been at least two folks who wanted it really bad to drive the price that high. Now we'll see if it gets relisted because the buyer didn't pay for it. (Bought a banjo "on the rebound" that way once)

[bill park]

Supply and demand, folks. There simply aren't many of these around and they are highly desired as collectibles by Jerry Reed/Willie Nelson fans. We're a small audience, but there's enough of us to drive the price up when one becomes available (I haven't seen one this nice on Ebay in years). George Gruhn recently appraised a 1971 model at $2500 and I expected this one to go for around 2000-2500, so I was surprised, but not shocked, at the result. I don't think $3,000 for an extremely rare guitar from a highly motivated buyer is that incredulous.
Thanks, Bill