Do Good and Get a Great 2010 Lipe Virtuoso in Velvet Brown Burst

A bit of a back story. I had 2 crappy guitars in 2004 when I was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, with my chances of living 5-years only 7%--yikes! To keep myself sane while going through 2+ years of chemo and surgeries, I bought guitars--over 200 of them! I wasn't going to live anyway, so why not enjoy some amazing guitars?

Well here it is 22 years later and I'm alive and well, and retired from my professional career. I don't play any more and spend most of my time and money supporting cancer patients and research so that other cancer patients might have the same positive outcome I've had.

That's where you come in. Traveling to various cancer meetings and conferences is not cheap. I need to unlock the money I have in these guitars so I can help other cancer patients. And I will donate 5% of the selling price (yes, it should be from the profits but I'm selling most of my guitars below cost so there is no profit--just lots of money spent) to Fight Colorectal Cancer, a non-profit advocacy organization that helps other colorectal cancer patients and survivors.

So you can do good to support cancer patients and research, and get a great guitar!

Note that I sell my guitars at VERY GOOD retail prices based on what I paid for them 10-15 years ago. If you think you're a guitar dealer and want to pay wholesale prices, my guitars are probably not for you...but players will be VERY happy! Also, I'm not interested in trades.

For sale is my LIPE CUSTOM SHOP VIRTUOSO guitar, a very early guitar in this model line (serial number 008 with a signed Letter of Authenticity). Though Mike Lipe (he tragically died in 2018 at age 70), he was one of the most important luthiers in Ibanez history and in the late 1980s and early 90s he was one of two luthiers who made guitars exclusively for Ibanez-endorsed players. He made guitars for Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Brian May, Carlos Santana, Curt Cobain, Sting and a host of other well-known musicians. In the early 2000s he started building guitars under his own name.

Like all Lipe guitars, this guitar was made by hand by Mike, without use of CNC machines. This is one of the first VIruosos with a serial number of 008 and the first Lipe guitar in the then-new velvet brown burst color. I bought this new directly from Mike in 2010 so I'd consider it New Old Stock. I never played it and it sat in its case for nearly 16 years.

Specifications:

• Body--Alder with quilt/flame maple drop top
• Neck--hard rock maple with maple fingerboard. 1 5/8" bone nut, C profile, 22 jumbo frets
• Pickups--Amalfitano
• Bridge--Hipshop
• Tuning keys--Hipshot
• Volume and tone controls, 5-way switch
• Comes with a Vineyard hard case with 2 keys

I've been buying (mostly) and selling guitars for a number of years and have over 400 positive feedback ratings on eBay with NO negatives (see Lee2tall). See my 100% positive feedback here on Reverb--I'm not a dealer so my buyers get great deals with no hassles. Also, I've sold over 50 guitars and shipped successfully to Australia and New Zealand. Due to high shipping costs and hassles with Customs, I will no longer sell outside the US--sorry.