Tips on Collecting Hall of Fame Vintage Guitars
Written by vintage on June 12, 2010 – 4:58 pm -ShareEver thought that a guitar might be a more reliable investment than the stock market? Vintage guitars are becoming a hot item in the collectibles market, and there are few icons more recognizable to Americans than a rock star and his guitar. While a few months' savings might have bought a guitar in the 1960s, some of those instruments are selling for big bucks today. Recently, George Harrison's guitar sold for a little under six hundred thousand dollars, for instance. Eric Clapton's favorite Stratocaster from the 1970s, Blackie, sold for nearly a million. While celebrity collectibles have been a good investment for years, guitars themselves have largely been overlooked. However, the guitar was perfected between the 1930s and the... more
Tags: fender jazzmaster, fender stratocaster, fender vintage guitars, gibson acoustic guitars, gibson es-335, investing in vintage guitars, les paul, martin acoustic guitars, vintage fender stratocaster, vintage gretsch guitars
Posted in ES, Fender Bass, Gibson, Gretsch, Les Paul, Martin, Rickenbacker, Stratocster, Telecaster, Vintage Acoustic Guitars, Vintage Bass Guitars, Vintage Electric Guitars, Vintage Guitars | No Comments »
Vintage Rock ‘n’ Roll guitars offer 500% appreciation
Written by vintage on March 23, 2010 – 4:55 am -ShareThese items cherished by rock gods of past decades are big business If I asked you to guess an investment that can give you 500% appreciation of six months, what would it be? I'll bet that guitars wouldn't be your first response. In the forty years since Jimi Hendrix played his white Fender Stratocaster before a 500,000 people at Woodstock, guitars are now firmly established as collectible items. Such legendary events have led thousands of enthusiasts to seek out vintage Fender Stratocasters from the 1970s. A late '60s Strat', then worth a couple of hundred dollars, can today sell for as much as $30,000. Other items, like a '60s Gibson Les Paul Jr., can appreciate by an incredible 500% after six months of ownership. And the... more
Tags: fender stratocaster, fender vintage guitars, gibson les paul, investing in vintage guitars, investments, jimi hendrix, vintage fender stratocaster, vintage gibson guitars, vintage gretsch guitars, Vintage Guitars
Posted in ES, Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, Les Paul, SG, Stratocster, Vintage Electric Guitars, Vintage Guitars | No Comments »
Hendrix Stratocaster (1980)
Written by vintage on March 8, 2010 – 2:53 am -ShareThe following is a description of the first of seven guitars produced as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Between 1979 and 1980, Fender developed a prototype for a new model that has come to be known on the street as the "Hendrix Stratocaster". This instrument is significant for two main reasons. It was the first Fender artist-related Stratocaster, or perhaps "artist inspired" would be more accurate since no connection to Hendrix by name or image appears anywhere on the guitar (the authorized and licensed Artist Series instruments didn't begin until the Clapton Signature model appeared in 1988). Secondly, the instrument's design features mark a follow-up of the 1979 Anniversary Strat's departure from the CBS norm - a return to the... more
Tags: fender stratocaster, fender vintage guitars, hendrix stratocaster
Posted in Fender, Stratocster, Vintage Guitars | No Comments »
Becoming Familiar with the Collectible Fender Stratocaster Market
Written by vintage on February 1, 2010 – 1:08 am -ShareNew to the maze that's the collectible Fender Stratocaster market? Join me as I reacquaint myself with the current state of the market after a several-year Stratocaster hiatus. In light of the world's current state, economic, political and health included, it will be interesting to see what impact things have had on the vintage and non-vintage collectible Stratocaster. But first, for those new to this world, let's first go over a few basic ideas. An old Stratocaster may or may not be collectible, despite the word vintage. Its collectability depends on a number of factors such as year of manufacture and current condition (refinished, refretted, replaced electronics, etc.). Likewise, a rare and significant Custom Shop Stratocaster... more
Tags: fender stratocaster, fender vintage guitars, vintage guitar, Vintage Guitars
Posted in Fender, Stratocster, Vintage Electric Guitars, Vintage Guitars | No Comments »
Factors That Influence the Value of a Collectible Instrument
Written by vintage on February 1, 2010 – 12:53 am -Shareby George Gruhn As both a dealer and appraiser of vintage fretted instruments I am faced with the daily necessity of placing dollar values on instruments. Any appraisal or price determination is to a certain degree the subjective judgment of the particular dealer or appraiser involved, however, the figures that I or any other dealer or appraiser place on instruments are firmly based on our knowledge and experience of the market involving supply, demand, and prior precedent for instruments of this type. While there is no one simple formula that a dealer or appraiser uses for evaluations, the following factors are critically important: 1. Maker Instruments made by famous luthiers or manufacturers are far more sought after than... more
Tags: fender stratocaster, fender vintage guitars, gibson les paul, Vintage Acoustic Guitars, vintage fender stratocaster, vintage gibson guitars, Vintage Guitars, vintage ibanez guitars
Posted in Guitar News, Vintage Acoustic Guitars, Vintage Bass Guitars, Vintage Electric Guitars | No Comments »
RICKENBACKER 325C58 HAMBURG C SERIES REVIEW
Written by vintage on January 12, 2010 – 4:18 pm -ShareThe 325C58 Hamburg C Series sparked an interest in guitar players, especially when you consider that it's built by a renowned guitar manufacturer such as Rickenbacker. It performs well both in studio and on stage, and will fit many different playing styles. This guitar is fitted with all the features you could possibly wish for, for a playing style that goes with this kind of instrument. Carefully chosen features leave a little to nothing to be wished for, which makes Rickenbacker's 325C58 Hamburg C Series an extremely well featured guitar with which you'll be thoroughly pleased. Highest grades for 325C58 Hamburg C Series's features! The sound of 325C58 Hamburg C Series is superb to main guitars' in many ways. The reason lies... more
Tags: rickenbacker, rickenbacker hamburg, vintage ibanez guitars
Posted in Rickenbacker, Vintage Electric Guitars, Vintage Guitars | No Comments »
GIBSON CUSTOM LES PAUL AXCESS STANDARD REVIEW
Written by vintage on January 8, 2010 – 5:58 am -ShareThis is one of those guitars that gets under your skin very quickly and is prone to making you forget your previous favorites! Gibson Custom did an extremely good job with Les Paul Axcess Standard. A phrase “words are not enough to describe it” suits this instrument well. Les Paul Axcess Standard features: Les paul style body with Weight relieved mahogany back with belly scarf Carved mapleneck top with 1-piece set mahogany neck and Rounded with contoured heel cut neck profile Rosewood fretboard 22 no. of frets Pearloid trapezoid neck inlays hardware Klusonelectronics tuners pickups: Burstbucker 1 neck with Burstbucker 2 bridge Guitar features are a very important aspect to evaluate when buying a new instrument, and that is... more
Tags: electric guitar, gibson les paul, les paul, vintage gibson guitars, Vintage Guitars
Posted in Gibson, Les Paul, Vintage Electric Guitars | No Comments »
Solid-Bodied Gretsch Corvette Guitar Review
Written by vintage on January 8, 2010 – 5:50 am -Shareby Allen Chiles The Solid-bodied Corvette (not to be confused with the Corvette hollow-body arch-top electric, produced from 1955-1959) was Gretsch’s answer to the Les Paul Jr. by Gibson. Introduced in 1961, the Corvette Solid-body was a small, light-weight, comfortable electric guitar that was just right for the budding musician. This killer guitar, with a solid mahogany body, solid mahogany set neck, and a rosewood fret board with pearl dots, originally came with a single HI-Lo ‘Tron pickup. The earliest examples had a trapeze tailpiece. By 1963, the Corvette was sporting a Burns’ flat-arm vibrato tailpiece. (Yes! That Burns! Good old Jim Burns from England), and came with a choice of either one or two of those Hi-Lo ‘Tron... more
Tags: gretsch chet atkins, vintage gretsch guitars, vintage guitar
Posted in Gretsch, Vintage Electric Guitars | No Comments »
Gibson Custom Shop Announces the Jimmy Page “Number Two” Les Paul
Written by vintage on December 29, 2009 – 12:03 am -ShareEvery musician knows that late ’50s Sunburst Les Paul Standards are hard enough to come by as it is. Obtaining a pristine and exemplary ’59 ’Burst and modifying it for heightened performance and vastly expanded tonal options? Unheard of… unless, of course, you’re Jimmy Page. That’s exactly what the legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist, perhaps the world’s most iconic Les Paul player, did with his own ’59 Les Paul Standard, and now—thanks to the extreme efforts of Gibson’s Custom Shop and the intimate cooperation of Jimmy Page himself—the artist’s hallowed “Number Two” Les Paul is available to mere mortals, in the form of the Custom Shop Jimmy Page “Number Two” Les Paul. Produced in strictly limited... more
Tags: electric guitar, gibson les paul, vintage gibson guitars, vintage guitar, Vintage Guitars
Posted in Gibson, Les Paul, Vintage Electric Guitars | 1 Comment »
Autographed White Fender Squier Stratocaster Guitar
Written by vintage on December 11, 2009 – 11:50 pm -ShareThe Blues Foundation Presents Autographed White Fender Squier Stratocaster The Blues Foundation is pleased to offer this opportunity to own a piece of blues history. For our last fundraising auction of 2010 we're pulling out all of the stops! This one is really special and the monies raised will go to support The Blue's Foundation's HART Fund. This month we are offering a white Fender Squier Strat signed by many of the top women and men of Blues music, as well as Rolling Stone members, Keith Richards and Ron Wood. The Blues artists who autographed the guitar number in the dozens and include, among others, Hall of Famers Robert Lockwood, Jr., Jimmy McCracklin, Pinetop Perkins, Bobby Rush, Hubert Sumlin and Irma Thomas, as well... more
Tags: fender stratocaster, fender vintage guitars, vintage guitar, Vintage Guitars
Posted in Fender, Guitar News, Stratocster, Vintage Electric Guitars, Vintage Guitars | No Comments »
