Why are some vintage electric guitars so valuable?

[Will Fly]

The "old" guitar market is, in some respects, like the art market, in that it's impossible to put a "real" value on the commodities available. The price paid is down to all sorts of non-guitar factors such as supply, availability, snobbery, investment, fashion and myth. All guitars age differently, and not always well. A collector in my area recently decided to cash in on his three original '57 Telecasters and they were on display for around £25,000 each in a local store. They didn't sell and, in the end, were taken back by the owner. I tried them and they were no better, in fact not as good as, my '87 G&L ASAT - which is a guitar that was made by Leo Fender in his last incarnation as a guitar maker. If I'd have bought one of the '57 Teles, what might my motives have been? As an investment? To look cool? To hang on the wall? To brag to friends about? Who knows - but certainly not to gig or play seriously. I've also played guitars from that period where the p/ups had not deteriorated, and the instruments sounded good - but £25,000 is still too much money when you can get seriously good modern instruments for 1/10th of the price.

In the end, the playing quality of any guitar is individual - as is the taste and style of the individual player. When you try a range of guitars, the one that is right for you will "speak" to you very quickly - and, with luck, it won't have a £25,000 price tag on it!

[bearsville0]

Will Fly,
if your friend thought the guitars were going to find a buyer at those prices, he should have taken to Sothebys or Christies for an appraisal and perhaps they could sell them for him. What are the chances of selling them out of a local store window?  Pretty slim to none I would think.

[ducktrapper]

You gotta love the Yngwie Malmstrom strat that Fender was offering a few years back. Complete with cigatette burn. 

[wes]

i don't know if it's still happening, but in the 90's japanese buyers were paying the most for these guitars and keeping prices on the rise.

there was a small shop here in portland who did most of their business mail order to japan.

god, the malmsteen guitars...

have you seen the double neck?

all i can think is "where's the sock drawer?"

[Roman]

Because some of the knucklehead guitar snobs think they are better because of age, wood,ect....


That's a pretty lame statement . . . I suppose an automobile collector should pay as much or more for a replica than an original vintage car . . . or how about a cue stick made by Rambo or Balabushka . . .

I guess I'm a knucklehead . . . and proud of it 

[ducktrapper]

For me it's old acoustics and new electrics.

[bearsville0]

For me it's old acoustics and new electrics.

There's a dirty joke in there somewhere ducktrapper!

[sneaky]

the sock drawer?...it`s here...

[wes]

ahhh, fretless.
smoooth.

and i'll bet you get a real warm tone from the sweater drawer.

[dermot]

The questions is;
Why are some vintage electric guitars so valuable?

My answer is because SOME sound so very, very good.....

One of the ones that sound so very, very good is my '59 Les Paul Custom

I have owned it since 1971, giged it for years, but now sits in a bank vault unless i am recording something.. but if i need/want thick sweet tone & sustain for forever...

My other main electric is a '82 (first year) Japanese custom shop  "52 Tele" reissue.

i have a matching pair of custom shop strats from the 90's... (the somewhat paranoid producer wanted me to have a identical spare at all times & payed for it) in cases and an 80's MIM strat that rocks, and it gets played first.. even tho it cost a fraction of the custom shop Strat's... come to think of it i probbaly have spent over 1K on bit's and bob's  that MIM Strat....

Clearly I'm not  a "vintage" guy, just a "tone" guy... and the old Lester has tone

d.

[ducktrapper]

There's a dirty joke in there somewhere ducktrapper!

Electrics and acoustics? Well some people here may like things that vibrate and make them yell. 

[jeremy3220]

The questions is;
Why are some vintage electric guitars so valuable?

My answer is because SOME sound so very, very good.....

I guess the real question is why can't they make new ones that sound as good? UnclRob touched on it already though.

[NotRevGDavis]

I'm glad since I own a 1973 Natural Fender Jazz Bass that I bought for $200.00 in a Pawn shop in Oakland CA. in 1981. Back then nobody wanted one of those CBS built Fenders and...... why would a Punk want the tone of a Jazz.

[magwa1]

The questions is;
Why are some vintage electric guitars so valuable?

Because some people have a lot of money? 

Yeah, yeah, I know about wood being alive, aging and all that.  And sound?...To me, that only "should" be the main thing.
But I'm not rich. So, I'll bet my $1,500 on the fact that a very, very good sound is achievable at under $40,000.



Everybody's different.  Different level of resources.  Different methods of investing.  All of that.
Art prices are market-driven.  I'm glad Boomers still have the money and appreciate nice musical art
after the last stock market "correction".

Meantime, the *real* player's market (for most of us, it's the $1,000 to $4,000 price range) has eroded in the favor of buyers.



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[sneaky]

My other main electric is a '82 (first year) Japanese custom shop  "52 Tele" reissue.
d.

so you must mean a JV tele then, there were two versions at the time the -90 and the -65. They were the JVs, don`t think FJ had a custom shop at the time. I picked up an April 1982 JV 52-90 a few months ago locally...one piece body, US electronics and p`ups and lacquer finish...very nice guitar and they fetch quite a bit these days. I have a few JV strats too plus one ExTrad strat that was made to order from a list of options and as far as I know custom shop. They did do custom editions... I have some of those too... sometimes shop orders or one offs, I guess those ar as close to a real custom shop as the Japanese Fenders get. There has been debate on line that there never was an FJ custom shop. No one really knows for sure.

[unclrob]

The problem that I hve with vintage is that it ends up behind glass and never played.When I owned vintage I played them.As for the Made in Japan Fenders they where much closer to the originals then any of the custom shops from Fender USA.As they say back in the day necks were chunkier which I prefer the radius of the fingerboard was not compounded,the fret work was rite and it felt like it was assembled by someone who cared.My lasted complaint is that there are people assembling from assorted parts suito copies and getting outrage's some's for beat up crap.IMHO!!!

[Dale_I]

The problem that I have with vintage is that it ends up behind glass and never played.When I owned vintage I played them...

Say it again!!!

If you gott'em... play em..

[unclrob]

Years back I had the pleasure of owning and playing some great stuff and a few things that I can't figure out why someone would pay so much.Of the vintage back then pawn shop used were a 53 Gibson Goldtop that I loved dearly,a 61 Tele both had many happy hours of playing by me.Tones of strats and Gibson 335's and a way cool 6/12 semi hollow Gibson double neck.The real disapointment was the 59 Les paul that was just muddy sounding but I did use it for 2 years.
I played a 39 Martin D45 that at the time was valued at 175K great guitar wonderful tone and playability I still wouldn't pay that much for it though it was real nice.