1979 Vintage Guitar Dealers Collectors Instruments

Description: Yes we combine shipping for most multiple item purchases.Add multiple items to your cart and the combined shipping total will automatically be calculated. 1979 Vintage Guitar Dealers Collectors Instruments - 16-Page Article Original, vintage magazine article. Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each pageCondition: Good Its InstrwmeHtsGuitar Market:Dealers, And CollectorsBURST LES PAUL, mint: $4,500.•le-neck Strats, $1,000 and up. Flyings slashed to $3,300: cash only. Willtrade Explorer for late-model Oldsmobile.One thing that all the old guitars in this hypotheticaladvertisement have in common is that they used to listfor about S250. What’s going on? Why doessomeonetrade in an armload of new guitars for a single oldone? Why do some Les Pauls have virtually no>ure “collector's value” while others are worth20 times their original price? Are old instru-ments really better? Which ones? Why, andwhy not? Is the dusty old guitar underyour bed a potential gold mine, or justa dusty old guitar?This article will answer some ofthese questions, present opin-ions on others, and examinethe interactions of buyersand sellers, instrumentsand prices, fads andtrends. Some topics areavoided: There is noattempt to see whomthe biggest dealersarc, no effort ismade to duplicatethe contents ofvarious books onguitar history,and there is nocomprehensiveinvestment guide.What does“vintage” mean?Larry Henriksongrew up aroundthe music busi-ness, has hadmuch experience,and now has over500 old guitars —some of them veryrare—at his store. AxIn Hand, in DeKalb.Illinois. He recalls. “Istarted shopping for usedguitars in the late ’60s. andsomewhere between 1969 and1974. ‘used’ guitars became ‘vin-tage.’ People use the word to describeone-of-a-kind collector's guitars, butthey also use it incorrectly when they'retrying to attach some importance to a plainold used guitar.”The vintage guitar market is a system of laissez-fairecommerce, a function of both the finitenature of its resources and the classic factorsof supply and demand. But, as we’ll sec. itsroutine business aspects arc compoundedby fads and fiction, rumors and romance,greed and glamor. The rare instrument sceneis populated mostly by knowledgeable mu-sician-turned-dealers who sell the instru-ments. the much less knowledgeable but in-creasingly aware amateur and professionalplayers who buy them, as well as the collec-tors who buy. sell, and trade them on aJust because it’s olddoesn’t mean it’s valuable.regular basis. Out on the fringes is a menag-erie of secretive eccentrics, hoarders, coun-terfeiters. and non-musician investors.The rock star/collectors range fromsuckers who pretend to know a lot aboutguitars and regularly get taken to the clean-ers by sellers, to people like Cheap Trick’sRick Nielsen, a shrewd shopper whosecommand of facts rivals that of many full-time dealers, and Steve Howe, a guitar con-noisseur with a huge collection.The market recirculates hundreds ofthousands of dollars ever}' week, and it ischanging in several important respects.Prices on many items are soaring, and thehigh value of popular guitars sometimescauses inordinately steep prices to be stuckon the turkeys. Customers arc more awarethan before, though ignorance or miscon-ceptions still affect the particulars of manytransactions. Regionalism is a major factorin pricing. On the East and West Coasts,vintage guitars generally bring substantiallymore money than in middle America (whilethe situation regarding new guitars is oftenthe opposite). Danny Thorpe, of Waco’sHeart Of Texas Music, guesses that a dot-neck Gibson ES-335 may be worth S500more in LA than in Texas: “Take Strats—1can sometimes get prices selling to EastCoast dealers, who are going to resell, thatare just as high as the ones that 1 get sellingto local customers.”The sellers are changing, too. Whilethere are still part-time traders out there inparking lots doing a little business fromtheir station wagons, there are also full-timevintage instrument dealers and collectorswho open specialty shops, hold well-attended expositions, publish catalogs, in-stall vaults in their homes, deal through themails in both domestic and internationalmarkets, and sock away dozens, or scores,or even hundreds of rare collector’s items.Fewer treasures are turning up in attics.Many are already accounted for—they’re“in circulation” among collectors and deal-ers. It is common fora particular “piece,” asthey are sometimes called, to go throughthe hands of one dealer several times over aperiod of years.Instruments And PricesWhile there are many collectible guitars,only three brand names and a handful ofmodels account for most of the reservoir ofcash that percolates through the market’svarious commercial tributaries. The com-panies are Gibson. Fender, and Martin.Most collectible Gibsons are electrics.01 these, the most important models aresolidbodics made in the late '50s and veryearly '60s. including Les Pauls. SG/LesPauls. Flying Vs [see Rare Bird. June ’78]and Explorers; plus the '63-'65 reverse-bodyFirebird guitars [Rare Bird. Sept.. Oct., andNov. ’78] and Thunderbird basses; as wellas the original semi-hollow thin-line guitarssuch as the ES-355, ES-345. and especiallythe ES-335 dot-neck (so nicknamed becauseits small circular fingerboard positionmarkers are easily distinguished from laterblock markers).Among Les Pauls, the ultimate primomodel is the ’58-’6O sunburst finish Stan-dard; in fact, it is currently the hottest col-lectors guitar among electrics. Almost in-variably called a sunburst by dealers, it iscertainly one of the most beautiful factory-stock solid bodies ever made, one for which“I spent four grandfor this guitar—now whatwill I do with it?”Gibson should be eternally proud. The“flame” or “tiger stripe” pattern of themaple top—which varies considerably—isits most obvious feature. And depending onthe nature of this pattern, the aging charac-teristics and color of the finish, and theoverall condition of the guitar, a sunburstcan now bring an easy three grand, maybefour, and according to recent reports, evenfive. In I960 you could buy a new one forS265.00. without case.Other popular single-cutaway Les Paulsinclude the various gold-tops [Rare Bird.Apr. ’78] and both two-pickup (’54-'57) andthree-pickup ('57 and later) Customs. TheLes Pauls from the same period that costless to begin with are still functional, collec-tible guitars, though worth only a fractionof the others. These include Specials. TVs.Saleability and valuearen’t necessarilythe same.and Juniors. When Gibson first changedthe Les Paul to the sharp “horns” anddouble-cutaway currently associated withthe SG models, the instrument still bore theLes Paul name; these SG/Les Pauls.includ-ing Standards and Customs, are prizeditems. SGs. various arch-top acoustics andelectrics, and a few flat-top models (e.g..J-200. J-185. Everly Brothers) are some ofthe Gibsons that appeal to more specializedgroups of collectors.Gibson’s korina-body Flying V's andExplorers were bringing S3.500 and up acouple of years ago. although they’ve re-cently come down. Dot-neck 335s have rad-ically increased in the past year or two andare expected by practically everyone to con-tinue their rise in value. At the recentGreater Southwest Guitar Show, held inDallas March 31st-April 1st. there wereseveral mint dot-necks with price tags (notnecessarily the selling price) of S 1.700 andover. The sunburst dot-necks cost S279.50in 1960.Important Fenders include pre-1965Stratocasters, especially the older, maple-neck models (one especially lusted-afterStrat is a white maple-neck with gold-platedpans). Larry Henrikson comments. “If theday hasn't arrived already when a truly mint'54 Strat is worth S2.000. it will soon." AnyBroadcaster (the immediate predecessor tothe Telecaster, and the Fender company'sfirst instrument) is highly prized.Most Telecasters manufactured prior toFender’s acquisition by CBS are worth atleast twice their original list prices—maybeeight to ten limes as much. All pre-CBSPrecision Basses, or P-Basses, are prized,especially the 1950s models; in general, theolder the better, though the late ’50s modelswith gold anodized pickguards are amongthe most valuable basses on the market.The brand name and model are onlypart of the equation that collectors formu-late when sizing up an instrument's worth.Condition, obviously, matters very much,but the age of the guitar — at least theperiod, and in some cases the actual year—is critical. There are plenty of Stratocasters.Les Pauls. Telecasters, and Precision Bassesthat have virtually no collector s value what-ever on the present market; that is. theirworth rests solely on their practical meritsas musical instruments.The magic of collectible electrics some-times extends to pickups. An original Gib-son patented-applied-for humbucking pick-up. or PAF. can sell for SI00 to S25O ormore, depending upop the colors of the twocoils. Double blacks, according to DannyThorpe, arc at the low end. followed bysplit-coils—one white (cream), one black-followed by the scarce double whites.The great majority of collectible steel-strings are Martins. Of those, the mosthighly desired models are the pre-WarD-45s. which can sell for S6.000 to S8.000.and D-28 Herringbones, which can go forunder S3.000 to over S5.000. Some of theothers include various O. OO. and OOOmodels and certain D models (or dread-noughts). Brazilian rosewood, no longerused by Martin, generally increases the in-strument's value.This is not to say that guitar buffs careThe market has alwaysbeen very fad-oriented.about only three brands of instruments.Rather, it refers only to the fact that consid-ering the immense variety of American gui-tars, most of the cash changes hands over aremarkably small number of models—LesPauls, Strats. Teles. Precision Basses, var-ious Martins, and a few others.But across America there are handfulsof Rickenbacker freaks. Gretsch die-hards.National and Dobro fanatics, and devoteesof other brands; Mosrites are especiallypopular among Japanese buyers and eternalsurfers. Hard-core bluegrassers care aboutMartins, Washbums. Lloyd Loar Gibsonmandolins, a few arch-tops, various brandsof banjos and other items, but in generaltheir interest in vintage electrics is rightaround the vicinity of zero.Older buffs (and a few younger ones aswell) sometimes get seriously into jazz eraarch-tops, and for these folks a mint D’An-gelico. Stromberg. Gibson, or Epiphone is... 15524

Price: 12.48 USD

Location: Kingsport, Tennessee

End Time: 2025-01-31T21:42:32.000Z

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