would you really notice any difference if you could afford to buy a vintage guitar?

racefaceec90

compared to a well made modern guitar?

most of us lust after the holy grail guitars (59 les pauls/50's strats/teles e.t.c)

but would you actually notice any difference/hear a big improvement for the huge outlay it would cost to buy one?

especially when you hear of them using less than precise building methods e.t.c for some of them.

i expect the answers might be along the lines of a classic sports car and the like?

even if i had that sort of money to buy a proper vintage guitar (along with the ability to do it some justice playing it),i just couldn't bring myself to buying something that expensive,when the modern equivalent will be every bit as good,if not better.

what are your views about vintage instruments?

Adam_MD

If I could afford it I'd buy some vintage guitars, though if I could afford it I'd also buy some prs private stocks as well.

GuitarMonkey

I A-B'd my '92 Les Paul Junior with a '59 recently and was hard pressed to tell the difference. 

The owner of the 59 looked a bit disappointed as he'd spent £4K.

p90fool

Well a lot of us old farts grew up playing "holy grail" guitars because contemporary production stuff was not as good, so there is no mystique around them.
Most of us will now acknowledge that current production guitars have pretty well caught up, and that although some old guitars have that certain "something" you're not actually forced to play them if you want classic sounds like you were in the late 70s.
At one point you couldn't have prised my pre-CBS guitars away from me at gunpoint, nowadays I don't have any and don't particularly care.

xSkarloey

I'd have to A/B them to truly know.

Even then if it was a toss up between say a 62 Strat and a 62 RI but my hands and ears couldn't feel/hear that much difference, then I'd probably get the RI.

grungebob

I honestly have no interest in owning vintage guitars. I'd be most happy owning and playing a guitar that has the action and string tension I like with a tone i like, I'm almost there too!

Skipped

Both points of view/answers on this question are correct!

There really are some great re-issues around. Even the so-called mojo of the old guitar can be replicated with clever Faux Playwear (Huh? Did I just invent a new term) such as rolled edges. Coming soon to the Gibson Custom Shop - fretboards with authentic finger undulation. So if you can get 80% of the way there for 2/5th of the price (Les Paul Junior) it may be that you have just made a very sensible decision. An educated decision.
But I expect you to spend the 3k you have saved on your loved ones, or on very poor people ie Charity.

If you must buy vintage (and you don't want a Junior) - same advice as always from me: Player Grade.
 Is a player grade vintage guitar an investment?
It is after the collectable market has crashed  and the guitars belonging to collectors  are valued  as instruments......Just like your player grade vintage guitar was........ and still is  :-O

Blueingreen

I have no interest either.  I'm old enough to have seen many guitars that were viewed as dogs when they were made sold for fancy prices as vintage. It makes you sceptical.

It's also a game that if you're going to play it successfully requires a fair bit of specialist knowledge, some of it pretty dry afaic.  I know some players have a genuine interest in the small appointments that differentiate an early from a late '63 etc but to me it's pretty dull stuff.

Neil

If I was a lotto winner or something I'd have some original custom coloured Strats but I doubt I could personally make them sound any better than my '89 model (possibly someone else could). 

TTony

Blueingreen said:

I have no interest either.  I'm old enough to have seen many guitars that were viewed as dogs when they were made sold for fancy prices as vintage. It makes you sceptical.

It's also a game that if you're going to play it successfully requires a fair bit of specialist knowledge, some of it pretty dry afaic.  I know some players have a genuine interest in the small appointments that differentiate an early from a late '63 etc but to me it's pretty dull stuff.

Wisdom.

Old guitars, like old cars, may attract a price premium and a scarcity / collectible value, but that doesn't necessarily make them better than more modern, predictable, reliable alternatives.

Unless the guitar was made by Kawai, obviously.

richardhomer

I used to own a '65 sunburst Strat, which I bought because it was much better than my heavier-than-the-Moon '80 Strat.

About a year later I tried a '63 Strat which wiped the floor with the '65. First lesson learned; not all old guitars are amazing...

I know own neither. The CS Strats I have played were all at least as good as the '65 and the the very best ones were probably as good as the '63. The differences are really not worth worrying about.

The only vintage guitar I own now is a '64 335. It is superb and probably better than a Historic equivalent. That said, I only paid about Historic money for it. If I'd had to pay five figures for it, I would probably have concluded that the difference was insufficient to justify the price differential.....

impmann

No. Having owned vintage guitars (and bought and sold them professionally and on a personal level) - there is much hyperbole about how vintage guitars are somehow "better" just because they are old.

Some old guitars are great. Some new guitars are great.

Some old guitars aren't great. Some new guitars aren't great.

There is no "mojo", "magic" or other voodoo bollocks that makes you somehow turn into a fully fledged rock god the moment that you buy a vintage guitar. No matter what the mags or other folks with a vested interest in keeping this bullshit alive tell you - just because a guitar was made in a 'golden year' doesn't automatically mean it is going to be better than one you can buy in a shop right now.

Alnico

^

This,........

Plus lots of other stuff I had better not say as it's quite opinionated and will definitely annoy someone.

boogieman

Being old doesn't make it better. I'm old enough to have owned a couple of guitars that seem to be classed as vintage and desirable these days. Both were utter dogs. I don't care how old it is, I just want it to play nicely, look good and sound great.

Basher

Another "no" from me.

I've never had the money to own anything properly vintage but I'm almost certain I couldn't tell the difference with the modern equivalent.

 It's not the same as old Fenders and Gibsons but it's a similar phenomonon on a smaller scale: I am old enough to have owned early 1980s Tokai strat and LP copies that I bought new - and while they were nice enough, they were not any better than today's models and certainly not worth the premiums people seem to pay for such things.

If I were lucky enough to be able to afford vintage guitars, I'd happily buy Historic/Custom Shop stuff and spend the money on a nice soundproof studio/rehearsal complex where one could gather with friends, get pissed and make a right fucking racket without bothering the (very wealthy) neighbours.

musteatbrain

From recent experiences, Gibson used much better and lighter wood in the 60s. I'm not sure they are built any better though.
There are plenty of great guitars being built today.

thermionic

Reading Phil Harris's columns (often based on his vintage hire business) made me wonder about blowing a few hundred quid hiring out a '59 Les Paul, an early 60s Strat and something else for one day. Giving them a good run through a plexi Marshall, AC30 and a Tweed Deluxe. Just one day, to see what the fuss is about.

musteatbrain

thermionic said:

Reading Phil Harris's columns (often based on his vintage hire business) made me wonder about blowing a few hundred quid hiring out a '59 Les Paul, an early 60s Strat and something else for one day. Giving them a good run through a plexi Marshall, AC30 and a Tweed Deluxe. Just one day, to see what the fuss is about.

We should organise that!

ToneControl

Sounds like most people share my opinion, that current top notch guitars are at least as good as any era

There is another point to consider: When buying expensive vintage guitars, you have to accept the risk of forgeries

ThePrettyDamned

ToneControl said:

Sounds like most people share my opinion, that current top notch guitars are at least as good as any era

There is another point to consider: When buying expensive vintage guitars, you have to accept the risk of forgeries

Same for modern production these days, sadly

noisepolluter

For acoustics - possibly, depending on which particular acoustics were being compared. 

For electrics - most probably not.