Vintage Guitars

I tripped across an old classmate on Facebook who is now a CPA in Chicago. His Facebook page seemed to be focused on showcasing his guitar collection which numbered well over 70 at that time and included some beautiful looking instruments.

He specializes in Fenders from the 50's and 60's, but there are quite a few Gretsch's in the photos on his site and a hand full of nice acoustics. As with almost any collection, original, mint condition items are the ultimate. But he's also found some beat up looking pieces and had them reconditioned. He claims there's a good ROI on restoring the right pieces.

According to him they are an excellent investment. From what I recall of him he's enough of a bean counter that he wouldn't be making that kind of a statement without having run the numbers. I suspect you have to be an active player in the market to do well. He says that he gets calls from dealers and other collectors about pieces that might be interesting.

When I told him I liked a couple of the ones that I saw on his site, he started trying to negotiate a sale. Never miss a potential score.

To some extent, vintage guitars are great collector's items, yet if you have one-PLAY IT!

I know only about 3 or 4 Chords, but I would still Love to get my hands on a 60's Gibson.

At an auction :

" The item up for bid is this guitar used by Jeff Beck in 1966. We start the bidding at 10,000 pounds."


The auction goes on and on till a sum of 100,000 pounds is reached.

"Going once."

" Going twice."

Fitman raises his hand.

" Sold to the..."

Fitman: " Wait. Jeff Beck is good, but nowhere near as good as Henry Vestine of Canned Heat or Blind Mole Jackson, who strung three rubber bands over a cereal box in Mississippi in 1926 and put out one 78 called St. Louis Browns Blues with a bunch of unintelligible grunts on the other side. This auction is good, but not as good as the one I went to in Greenwich Village in 1965. "

I have two friends who've made small fortunes dealing in rare electric guitars. One specializes in the obvious (Fender, Gibson, Hagstrom). The other in cheap stuff - Silvertone, Airline, Danelectro - for which there is now a growing market.

There are reviewers who know more than me - but even an idiot like me can rate (positively) the potential value of any well-made instrument that stands the test of time.

A lot of vintage guitars are pretty marketable......especially that Gibson where the strings are made from the same material as Joe Biden's hair plugs.

When I think what my 70s edition Gibson L6-S would be worth today,it's time to either cry or chug some Bourbon....(I lost it to a friggin Pawn Shop.Ouch.A worse regret than many a failed relationship,but I digress...) Having gone to a guitar show or two in hope of finding a vintage Fender I could afford,and realizing that even the "basket cases" were beyond my budget was sobering.