Vintage instruments are not of superior construction to instruments being built today regardless of the hype. Instruments built today are some of the finest instruments ever built. HOWEVER! There are important differences between instruments of today and those that were built years ago. If a current production model gets lost or destroyed it's owner can go to a store and buy another just like it. A lost or destroyed vintage instrument cannot be replaced so easily. The woods used in older vintage instruments may also be of a type and quality not readily available to builders today.
A great luthier can make an exact copy of any vintage guitar. It may even be prettier, be made of better wood and sound better than an original but it's still a reproduction or counterfeit. Only the original is a true vintage guitar with all the qualities and attributes (good and bad) that go with that vintage guitar.
Some vintage instrument lovers are attracted to vintage instruments for reasons of historical significance. Perhaps their first electric guitar was a 1952 Gibson ES125. Again, maybe they fell in love with Blues after hearing their favorite Blues Artist knock out Delta Blues on a single pickup 1952 Gibson ES125. In either case, a Gibson ES125 hollow body guitar (ideally a 1952 model) becomes a prize worth searching for. Others might have absolutely no reason whatsoever to care about a 1952 ES125 but would kill to get their hands on an original 58 Fender Strat, etc. So it goes with vintage instruments.... Each person has their own unique personal reason for wanting one.
They made hundreds of ES125's back in 1952 and hundreds of 58 Strats back in 1958. However, the odds of finding one in good playable condition after 50 years are not good. If and when one is found it won't come cheap as dozens of other people will have been searching for weeks, months or years to find that exact same vintage make and model instrument!
Perhaps your first instrument was one of those cheap Ibanez copies of a Gibson Les Paul that Gibson filed suit about. If so, sooner or later you're going to start wishing you had one of those old Ibanez lawsuit copies just like the one you once had years ago. It won't matter if you have a dozen genuine Gibson Les Paul stashed in your closet. Nothing short of one like you use to have will really satisfy you. You'll wonder if it was as good (or bad) as you remembered it to be and nothing short of owning one very similar to it will satisfy that curiosity..
That's one of the things that makes vintage instruments so special. There is more however.
If you buy a brand new instrument today at $5000 you'll be lucky to get $3000 for it tomorrow should you need to sell it. Many years will have to pass before you can hopefully recover your full $5000 outlay. That's usually not so with vintage instruments.
Vintage instruments have usually "depreciated" as far as they are going to go and are now in the process of "appreciating". Unless destroyed they should continue to appreciate indefinitely or at least retain their current value.
The most recent issue of "The Orion Blue Book of Vintage Guitars" is the vintage guitar buyer and seller's Bible. Stay with it and you can't go far wrong. Disregard it and you will have no one but yourself to blame for paying too much or selling too cheap. Equally important for the buyer and seller of non-vintage instruments is "The Orion Blue Book of Guitars and Musical Instruments".Any time you can buy a vintage instrument that is in good playing condition below the cost of the company's current reproduction model you save money. You may also have found a fabulous investment opportunity. Buy it, play it for years then sell it for as much or more than you paid for it! No other item I know of offers the buyer this kind of value.
Having said that I'll explain how I got into vintage instruments. Over the last 50 years I've watched hundreds of beautiful instruments hit the market that I could never have afforded to buy at the time. However, as time passed I found I could buy some of those used instruments at greatly reduced prices. Typically the market for new instruments got saturated to the point where production was halted or discontinued for lack of buyers. I began buying good used instruments as they became available to me at reasonable prices. I played them for a while and would then sell them so as to be able to buy another I wanted to try out. I accepted trade ins and over time I built up an inventory of not less than 100 various kinds of vintage musical instruments. My closets were full to running over.
I bought, sold and traded locally for a while but as I got older and closer to total retirement I decided to open a website so vintage instrument lovers like myself from all over the world could enjoy the treasures found in Old Closets like mine. If you find an instrument in my closet that interests you drop me an e-mail and tell me about it. If you have an instrument you want to sell or trade tell me that too. If I can I'll help you locate what you are looking for or help you find a buyer for what you are trying to sell unless you are asking as much or more than the vintage retail stores are buying and selling them for.
1. Packing and Shipping
Tips
2. How to Adjust Necks
and set Intonation for proper playing action.
3. How to Set UP electric
Guitars.
4. Taking Care of Guitar
Finish
5. Fretboard care and
Treatment (Fret Polishing, etc.)
6. Return to Main Page
of The Old Closet!