Thursday, October 12, 2017

Vintage Micro-Frets Guitar for sale in Cleveland Area for $700


Micro-Frets guitar?  You might be asking - huh?  What's that?

These rare birds are unusual and highly prized by some collectors.  I first encountered them when I went to the Eric Clapton Guitar Auction on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood about 6 years ago when he was selling off some of his personal collection to raise money for a school he sponsors in Jamaica. Clapton had 2 of these Micro-Frets guitars in his personal collection.  Slowhand knows guitars. 

This one is missing the original hand wound P-90 style pickups but it does have all the other cool details including the original Vibrato arm and the white plastic plate behind the bridge which are often lost. These guitars were built by Ralph Jones in Frederick MD from 1967 into the 1970's.  I've heard there were a total of 4000 guitars built during that period. 

Keep in mind that you can't have a complete collection of great USA vintage guitars without at leat one Micro-Frets. hehe.  - JC

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 Micro Frets Guitar. 3639 Extremely rare and Made in U.S.A. circa 1960s - $700 hide this posting


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condition: good
make / manufacturer: Micro Frets
model name / number: 3639 
Previous owner did replace the original nut, pickups, and tuners.
Still such a great guitar for a much cheaper price than an all original model..
I was told the humbuckers are from an even older Gretsch model but don't hold me to that.

I had it set up recently by one of the best vintage guitar experts in Michigan. Intonation is perfect, action is perfect, electronics are perfect. Plays and sounds better than any guitar in my collection I just don't have the heart to risk making my gig guitar. It deserves more use!
Most if not all blemishes are pictured above. It's almost 60 years old. Not bad! 


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1 comment:

  1. UnknownNovember 2, 2017 at 11:14 AM

    The pickups and micro-nut are the best parts of a Micro-frets and exactly what's missing here. The Calibrato is nice but unless you bend chords whole steps, it's not a draw on it's own. Pickups are a thing of taste/opinion, but why someone would want to trade an adjustable nut that allows perfect intonation for a fixed one is beyond me. It's cheap for an MF, but there's no point in this condition. It's just a project you'll never find parts for...

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I appreciate your comments but please no commercial links or non guitar related conversations. Thank you. - JC

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