Original Dobro gauge 4 sale

[Karol]

Steve Pilant has decided to write me and announce that he is offering up his Dobro gauge on eBay. It's not going for cheap, but as you can read in his description, it is an extremely rare gauge assembled from original Dobro parts by a former Dobro employee.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0431479140

[Taipan]

My dead dog dug his way up from the grave, looked at the screen and punched me in the face upon seeing the price.

[OzHemi]

$1500 ?

[Big Bopper Bart]

Thats bullshit man.I mean you can remake the mf'er fof far less than that. This is a hobby of diehard movie fans.WTF is with these fucktarded prices on some of the shit for this hobby???

[MFP1]

Steve is a great guy, but I think has attempted to sell his gauge before, using a pic of the mad max cars replica as a comparison (without credit) and when I asked him to give credit or remove the photo he prefered to remove than give credit??????

I am going to have to agree with Bart here. It is simply a reproduction, albeit very accurate and built by a former Dobros employee...... However there are NEW Gauges available built AT the former Dobros plant (now WIKA) by Former Dobros Employees. I am not sure how this reproduction merits $1500 except by virtue of the fact that is was one of the early ones before it came back into new production and whatever ligitmacy comes with that.

[MFP1]

WOW, I just actually looked at the listing..... did you guys see the Steemed up "Adendum"? Someone must have dropped a few bees in his britches.
Obviously some folks have been "poking the bear".
I am not going to write him (especially since it seems folks are hassleing him), but I found this intresting:
In the begining of the description he outilnes how they secured the old Dobros bits and "recreated" the gauges using "rub on letters as close to the original font as possible" (as near as I can tell this would be the dictionary definition of "Replica"), and then goes on to repeatedly use the term "Original". Its not up to me to critisize his gauge (which is as spot on as any I have ever seen, so I have no flaws to point to), but a dead on accurate recreation and "Original" strike me as 2 diffrent things.

[Big Bopper Bart]

Wow Steve Pilant,once the cock of the walk and now a feather duster....

[XA351GT]

Well to be honest only someone building a RW version should even worry about this piece. unless your just collecting memorbilia.If $1500 is too much than pass. Why certain people would bother to give him shit for it is unknown to me. If you think someone is trying rip you off DON'T BUY IT. Bottom line is it is his guage and he has the right to ask whatever he wants for it.
Tommy

[MFP1]

Well to be honest only someone building a RW version should even worry about this piece. unless your just collecting memorbilia.If $1500 is too much than pass. Why certain people would bother to give him shit for it is unknown to me. If you think someone is trying rip you off DON'T BUY IT. Bottom line is it is his guage and he has the right to ask whatever he wants for it.
Tommy

Ill second that. He can put any price he likes on it, it is his after all.
While I might still point out that if he truly wanted to sell it he might try a price someone would actually pay.

[Dragonforce]

Steve is a great guy, but I think has attempted to sell his gauge before, using a pic of the mad max cars replica as a comparison (without credit) and when I asked him to give credit or remove the photo he prefered to remove than give credit??????

I am going to have to agree with Bart here. It is simply a reproduction, albeit very accurate and built by a former Dobros employee...... However there are NEW Gauges available built AT the former Dobros plant (now WIKA) by Former Dobros Employees. I am not sure how this reproduction merits $1500 except by virtue of the fact that is was one of the early ones before it came back into new production and whatever ligitmacy comes with that.

Sure it is like all gauges out there a reproduction, and not just accurate but dead on in terms of the complete unit as a whole. It is very expensive I agree there, and he will likely not sell it (maybe he doesn't intend to, or he just cant let go who knows?). However there is simply no comparison to be made between an original gauge like Steve's Vs one of the new WIKA made units. The only thing they both have in common is the gauge face. The WIKA ones are very nice, and well built and no doubt serve their intended purpose, but it really is apples to oranges there I'm afraid. The new WIKA gauge bodies, window, rear detail etc... are NOTHING like the original Dobros units, and simply cannot be compared to one another. I originally thought otherwise, and actually believed and stated that any WIKA gauge is in fact a Dobros gauge...but man was I wrong! Since acquiring my real one and seeing it in the flesh so to speak...there is NO WAY anything but a real vintage Dobros gauge will look like a real vintage Dobros gauge, Unless one was fabricated from scratch to look identical. The newer ones cannot have the lamp/buzzer assembly mounted to them easily without fabrication of some sort of seperate bracket, whereby as I have discovered, the Dobros ones seem meant for it! As for the new ones being built by former Dobros employees...well that's just hearsay really, just because the company owns all intellectual property rights to a long defunct Dobros name does not necessarily mean that past employees are making these new ones, if they are then they don't seem very fussed on accuracy and details.

I can see why Steve used the Madmaxcars gauge for comparison himself, simply to show the many obvious differences between the two allowing the reader to make their own informed decision. Why would he give credit for a gauge that looks nothing like an original except in the face?
There was a time a few years back when I used a steel WIKA gauge 100mm dia, with screw on glass window, and an accurate needle to boot! very much identical to the madmaxcars ones (because at the time, it had to suffice being that it was all I could find...thats all it was.....just like the new ones are, a Compromise! I showed it to people here at the time who had good things to say about it, and recognised the effort in trying, but they also advised me in how many ways it was wrong, which I took in my stride. But I never felt the same, knowing I had just a compromise I was happy with it sure but I always was aware that it was not even close. To the layman even...my brother for one, who like most has only seen the movie once or twice, he could even tell that it was" not quite right" (his words). And that's about all I have to say about it.