Its InstrwmeHts

Guitar Market:

Dealers, And Collectors

BURST LES PAUL, mint: $4,500.

•le-neck Strats, $1,000 and up. Flying

s slashed to $3,300: cash only. Will

trade Explorer for late-model Oldsmobile.

One thing that all the old guitars in this hypothetical

advertisement have in common is that they used to list

for about S250. What’s going on? Why doessomeone

trade in an armload of new guitars for a single old

one? Why do some Les Pauls have virtually no

>ure “collector's value” while others are worth

20 times their original price? Are old instru-

ments really better? Which ones? Why, and

why not? Is the dusty old guitar under

your bed a potential gold mine, or just

a dusty old guitar?

This article will answer some of

these questions, present opin-

ions on others, and examine

the interactions of buyers

and sellers, instruments

and prices, fads and

trends. Some topics are

avoided: There is no

attempt to see whom

the biggest dealers

arc, no effort is

made to duplicate

the contents of

various books on

guitar history,

and there is no

comprehensive

investment guide.

What does

“vintage” mean?

Larry Henrikson

grew up around

the music busi-

ness, has had

much experience,

and now has over

500 old guitars —

some of them very

rare—at his store. Ax

In Hand, in DeKalb.

Illinois. He recalls. “I

started shopping for used

guitars in the late ’60s. and

somewhere between 1969 and

1974. ‘used’ guitars became ‘vin-

tage.’ People use the word to describe

one-of-a-kind collector's guitars, but

they also use it incorrectly when they're

trying to attach some importance to a plain

old used guitar.”

The vintage guitar market is a system of laissez-faire

commerce, a function of both the finite

nature of its resources and the classic factors

of supply and demand. But, as we’ll sec. its

routine business aspects arc compounded

by fads and fiction, rumors and romance,

greed and glamor. The rare instrument scene

is populated mostly by knowledgeable mu-

sician-turned-dealers who sell the instru-

ments. the much less knowledgeable but in-

creasingly aware amateur and professional

players who buy them, as well as the collec-

tors who buy. sell, and trade them on a

Just because it’s old

doesn’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 from

suckers who pretend to know a lot about

guitars and regularly get taken to the clean-

ers by sellers, to people like Cheap Trick’s

Rick Nielsen, a shrewd shopper whose

command of facts rivals that of many full-

time dealers, and Steve Howe, a guitar con-

noisseur with a huge collection.

The market recirculates hundreds of

thousands of dollars ever}' week, and it is

changing in several important respects.

Prices on many items are soaring, and the

high value of popular guitars sometimes

causes inordinately steep prices to be stuck

on the turkeys. Customers arc more aware

than before, though ignorance or miscon-

ceptions still affect the particulars of many

transactions. Regionalism is a major factor

in pricing. On the East and West Coasts,

vintage guitars generally bring substantially

more money than in middle America (while

the situation regarding new guitars is often

the opposite). Danny Thorpe, of Waco’s

Heart Of Texas Music, guesses that a dot-

neck Gibson ES-335 may be worth S500

more in LA than in Texas: “Take Strats—1

can sometimes get prices selling to East

Coast dealers, who are going to resell, that

are just as high as the ones that 1 get selling

to local customers.”

The sellers are changing, too. While

there are still part-time traders out there in

parking lots doing a little business from

their station wagons, there are also full-time

vintage instrument dealers and collectors

who open specialty shops, hold well-

attended expositions, publish catalogs, in-

stall vaults in their homes, deal through the

mails in both domestic and international

markets, 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,” as

they are sometimes called, to go through

the hands of one dealer several times over a

period of years.

Instruments And Prices

While there are many collectible guitars,

only three brand names and a handful of

models account for most of the reservoir of

cash that percolates through the market’s

various commercial tributaries. The com-

panies are Gibson. Fender, and Martin.

Most collectible Gibsons are electrics.

01 these, the most important models are

solidbodics made in the late '50s and very

early '60s. including Les Pauls. SG/Les

Pauls. Flying Vs [see Rare Bird. June ’78]

and Explorers; plus the '63-'65 reverse-body

Firebird guitars [Rare Bird. Sept.. Oct., and

Nov. ’78] and Thunderbird basses; as well

as the original semi-hollow thin-line guitars

such as the ES-355, ES-345. and especially

the ES-335 dot-neck (so nicknamed because

its small circular fingerboard position

markers are easily distinguished from later

block markers).

Among Les Pauls, the ultimate primo

model 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 is

certainly one of the most beautiful factory-

stock solid bodies ever made, one for which

“I spent four grand

for this guitar—now what

will I do with it?”

Gibson should be eternally proud. The

“flame” or “tiger stripe” pattern of the

maple top—which varies considerably—is

its most obvious feature. And depending on

the nature of this pattern, the aging charac-

teristics and color of the finish, and the

overall condition of the guitar, a sunburst

can now bring an easy three grand, maybe

four, and according to recent reports, even

five. In I960 you could buy a new one for

S265.00. without case.

Other popular single-cutaway Les Pauls

include the various gold-tops [Rare Bird.

Apr. ’78] and both two-pickup (’54-'57) and

three-pickup ('57 and later) Customs. The

Les Pauls from the same period that cost

less to begin with are still functional, collec-

tible guitars, though worth only a fraction

of the others. These include Specials. TVs.

Saleability and value

aren’t necessarily

the same.

and Juniors. When Gibson first changed

the Les Paul to the sharp “horns” and

double-cutaway currently associated with

the SG models, the instrument still bore the

Les Paul name; these SG/Les Pauls.includ-

ing Standards and Customs, are prized

items. SGs. various arch-top acoustics and

electrics, and a few flat-top models (e.g..

J-200. J-185. Everly Brothers) are some of

the Gibsons that appeal to more specialized

groups of collectors.

Gibson’s korina-body Flying V's and

Explorers were bringing S3.500 and up a

couple of years ago. although they’ve re-

cently come down. Dot-neck 335s have rad-

ically increased in the past year or two and

are expected by practically everyone to con-

tinue their rise in value. At the recent

Greater Southwest Guitar Show, held in

Dallas March 31st-April 1st. there were

several mint dot-necks with price tags (not

necessarily the selling price) of S 1.700 and

over. The sunburst dot-necks cost S279.50

in 1960.

Important Fenders include pre-1965

Stratocasters, especially the older, maple-

neck models (one especially lusted-after

Strat is a white maple-neck with gold-plated

pans). Larry Henrikson comments. “If the

day hasn't arrived already when a truly mint

'54 Strat is worth S2.000. it will soon." Any

Broadcaster (the immediate predecessor to

the Telecaster, and the Fender company's

first instrument) is highly prized.

Most Telecasters manufactured prior to

Fender’s acquisition by CBS are worth at

least twice their original list prices—maybe

eight to ten limes as much. All pre-CBS

Precision Basses, or P-Basses, are prized,

especially the 1950s models; in general, the

older the better, though the late ’50s models

with gold anodized pickguards are among

the most valuable basses on the market.

The brand name and model are only

part 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 the

period, and in some cases the actual year—

is critical. There are plenty of Stratocasters.

Les Pauls. Telecasters, and Precision Basses

that have virtually no collector s value what-

ever on the present market; that is. their

worth rests solely on their practical merits

as 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 or

more, depending upop the colors of the two

coils. Double blacks, according to Danny

Thorpe, arc at the low end. followed by

split-coils—one white (cream), one black-

followed by the scarce double whites.

The great majority of collectible steel-

strings are Martins. Of those, the most

highly desired models are the pre-War

D-45s. which can sell for S6.000 to S8.000.

and D-28 Herringbones, which can go for

under S3.000 to over S5.000. Some of the

others include various O. OO. and OOO

models and certain D models (or dread-

noughts). Brazilian rosewood, no longer

used by Martin, generally increases the in-

strument's value.

This is not to say that guitar buffs care

The market has always

been 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 a

remarkably small number of models—Les

Pauls, Strats. Teles. Precision Basses, var-

ious Martins, and a few others.

But across America there are handfuls

of Rickenbacker freaks. Gretsch die-hards.

National and Dobro fanatics, and devotees

of other brands; Mosrites are especially

popular among Japanese buyers and eternal

surfers. Hard-core bluegrassers care about

Martins, Washbums. Lloyd Loar Gibson

mandolins, a few arch-tops, various brands

of banjos and other items, but in general

their interest in vintage electrics is right

around the vicinity of zero.

Older buffs (and a few younger ones as

well) sometimes get seriously into jazz era

arch-tops, and for these folks a mint D’An-

gelico. Stromberg. Gibson, or Epiphone is...