Opinion on a possible trade

johnswiss

I have an all original 66 fender musicmaster in olympic white with case and ive been offered a trade with for an eric johnson strat, 2011, rosewood neck, dakota red and mint. Isthis a fair trade for me? Cheers

richardhomer

In my opinion - yes.

The values to older, low-end Fenders have escalated dramatically in recent years (I once owned a '57 Musicmaster which I paid £200 for!) - but outside of high-end vintage dealers, I doubt they actually sell for that much.

Just in case I'm wrong, I'd call Nick's Guitars, Vintage and Rare in Bath and any other UK vintage dealers you can think of and see what they would pay you for the guitar.

I doubt any of them would pay you more than the value of a used EJ Strat in cash - but I may be out of step.

meltedbuzzbox

I am with @richardhomer

Musicmasters tend to go for £450 - 800 sometimes a little more but rarely

The EJ strats seem to fetch £900 - £1k ish

johnswiss

I thought they were probably similarish in value. If I get the strat I will prob still have to sell it as the idea is really to raise cash. Much demand for used ej strats?

guitarmangler

In the short term, yes defenatley . Long term? Who know? They won't be making any more vintage 60's musicmasters , but they will make more ej's.

If you're going to play the ej, get it !

If you're going to trade up the ej, get it!

If you're going to leave it in its case for years then sell it the future for not much because they've made 6000000 ej's and now they're worth £1.50 and the latest rockstar is using a 60's musicmaster and everyone wants one ( hey, it could happen ) and you'll lament it's passing. Don't .

Personally I swap that sucker for a ej strat in a heartbeat !

johnswiss

Some well put sound advice, thanks

ICBM

Very important question: what scale length and neck width is the Musicmaster? These make a huge difference to the value.

A 24"-scale, B-width version could be worth double what a 22.5", A-width version is, and potentially more than the Strat.

The little ones are cool, and sound surprisingly good with heavy strings on - and play pretty well if you don't have big hands - but definitely aren't worth as much as you might think a '66 Fender would be. I gigged a '65 22.5/A one for a while, with 12s on it sounded like the fattest Strat neck pickup ever. From memory I bought and sold it for around £350 and £450 respectively about ten to twelve tears ago.

johnswiss

Thats a good point and it is the smaller 22.5 A version. I am torn as its a great guitar but a few have to go and the trade seems a good deal. Agreed about the fat sound and whilst the neck is pretty small I can play things on it that are unreachable on other guitars. If I didnt have a 65 mustang id def keep it but its a bit of a luxury to have it really. Mind you the mustang may have to go too!

octatonic

Depends on how long you want to hold onto the Musicmaster.

The EJ will never be a vintage piece so its worth is capped at roughly what it is now.

The MM could, potentially, end up being worth a lot more- although we could be talking about 20-30 more years.

If it is 100% original, working (well as much as they ever worked) and 24" scale I would probably hold onto it.

johnswiss

The guy started to get cold feet, he might have read this thread! This prompted me to say no because he was still keen to travel and meet half way but with no guarantee of doing the trade. I think he was angling for some cash his way possibly. I played it quite a bit last night and it does sound amazingly fat, especially with some drive. I might save it from the chop for now!

richardhomer

^
'If I doubt don't' is always a good motto to live by.

ICBM

I would definitely keep it unless you actually don't like it. It's so much cooler than a Strat. You can buy a Strat any time, and you can get a decent one for much less than that.

I really regret selling off my collection of short-scale Fenders now - my musical direction had changed and I couldn't really justify keeping them, but even so...

I had:

'65 Jaguar (sunburst)
'65 Musicmaster II (22.5/A, gold refinish)
'64 Duo-Sonic II (24/A, white re-refinish)
'66 Mustang (24/B, red)
'72 Mustang (Competition blue)
2x Swinger (yes really! But both badly hacked, by John Birch I think)

The Jag was my main guitar in my 'real' band for about five years, the others got used for various side projects.

I wish I'd kept at least one of them now - although which one would have been a harder choice. The Jag was the 'best', but the others all had very distinctive characters and some were actually more suited to certain things.

suspiciousminds

I'de keep it tbh, musicmasters are well cool imo (but that maybe cause i like shortscales!).
And its from the mid '60's for added mojo!