New Guitar Day: Luna Apollo

I wasn't supposed to be having a new guitar day.  At least, not so soon.  You see, I have been trying to sell off five (yes five) guitars and one amp.  I did manage to sell the amp the other day.  But it has been hell trying to sell the guitars.

My plan was to sell off these guitars to pay for one guitar.  Namely, a USA made Guild Bluesbird or a Heritage H-150.  Both of those are Les Paul styled guitars.

However, there was always one guitar that was my, "guitar that got away."  Or rather, it was the guitar I never had, but always wanted.  That would be a Luna Apollo in Trans Flame Purple.

When I worked for Armadillo Enterprises, the parent company for Dean Guitars, Luna Guitars, D-Drum, and Nord Keyboards, Luna was just starting up.  I was able to play one of the Apollo series guitars, and loved it.  What made it odd was that, unlike other Luna guitars, it had a thick neck on it.  It was also a lot heavier than other Luna models.  

One thing that really stood out on this guitar was actually beneath the surface.  This guitar had a genuine 3/4 inch maple cap.  The other thing about this guitar was the price.  It cost $599 back in 2006.  I have to say, they really went all out on this guitar.  It was one of the first guitars that I had seen come with matte nickel hardware and pickup covers.  And believe it or not, it actually has a ebony fretboard.  

So, I had been looking all over the internet for one.  However, there weren't any to be found on Reverb.com.  I couldn't find any on Craigslist.com.  I checked E-Bay, and found one.  But my delight soon turned to anger.  The seller had his listed at $660.  I wrote him about what they cost new, and even made two offers for the guitar, but he never replied to me.  He still has it listed as a write this.

So I was doing a general search of guitars on Facebook Marketplace when I saw it.  Someone down in Bradenton had a Luna Apollo in Trans Flame Purple for sale.  I couldn't believe it.  It was in awesome shape, and was being sold for a fair market price of $300.  Long story short, since I didn't jerk the seller around he said he would come to me since he worked near me.  

I plugged it in and made sure it played fine.  It was perfect.  I quickly handed him the $300, and thanked him.  I told him there was no need for me to perform a 30 minute inspection or demo.  I could see that it had barely been played.  Heck, it still had the plastic on the pickup covers and backplate.  

I ended up taking the guitar out to the workshop, and performing a minor set-up plus changing the pickups and strings.  Here's what she looks like.

 

I decided to use the bladed pickups that I had originally installed in my Les Paul Custom.  Of course, I took the pickups out of the Les Paul when I decided to sell it.  I installed the Les Paul's original pickups, so now I had these pickups available for the Luna.  

The one thing I noticed was that the Luna balances extremely well when holding it.  I can throw the strap over my shoulder and the guitar just sits perfectly.  It doesn't have any neck dive to it at all.  

I know it sounds silly, but it feels like a part of me is complete.  I had wanted this guitar since 2006, and now was the right time to me to acquire one.  Honestly, it looks like it just came from the factory.  I've been playing it quite a bit, but I'm just going to play it some more.  Again, it's all about having fun.  And I'm having fun with it.