Vintage guitars

lustycourtier

I had a 72 (from memory) refined SB Jag a few years ago that was terrible. Neck pocket was huge, had holes drilled in back, and was quite a few piece body, but sounded good. I sold it on, and I believe its currenlty For sale on denmark st for about £3k, with different scratchplate and no mention of refin. My Marr Jag which replaced it was 10 times the guitar.

koneguitarist

I have owned about 20 or more 70's strats and tele's, some have been poor, some have been great, but if you take an average then it's below the quality of any MIJ equivalent made in last 30+years.
I owned a 76 sb tele, that was perfect, light and great tone plus a 79 strat that had a fantastic figured Birdseye maple neck, so yes some good ones around.

GuitarMonkey

I think what drives the market is middle age.

Guys in their 50s whose kids have left home now have the money to buy the guitars they lusted after 40 years previously.

Hence the interest in and attendant high prices of 70s guitars at the moment.

richardhomer

GuitarMonkey;338834" said:

I think what drives the market is middle age.

Guys in their 50s whose kids have left home now have the money to buy the guitars they lusted after 40 years previously.

Hence the interest in and attendant high prices of 70s guitars at the moment.

At least one industry person I know has a term for this type of person; 'Cool greys'....

Bogwhoppit

Philly_Q said:

I think anyone over the age of 40.... well, maybe closer to 50.... grew up with the "received wisdom" that '70s and early '80s Fenders, and to a slightly lesser extent Gibsons, were crap. .

 

There was no internet back then, dissemination of information was via word of mouth based on direct experience - not coloured by mass reviews or fashionable brand bashing. Those that owned pancake Gibson's and plastic Fender's never had the advantage of networking, so came to the conclusion independently that both these marques were in effect 'shite'. Ok, there would have been limited propagation from music shops, but nothing that would cause unfounded rumours.

Another factor was the rise in MIJ guitars, especially importers such as Fletcher coppock and newman whose incredible original MIJ electrics sold under various brand names. These guitars were annihilating the USA models in sound, build quality and started too be used by the musicians of the day.

 

Richardj

It has to be misplaced nostalgia over common sense. Or the desire to show others that you can spend a lot of money on something not very good, just because you can.  They aren't nice to look at, well made or sound that good.  It is the idea of owning it over practical considerations.  Each to their own of course.  Personally I wouldn't bother.

I was going to include being the same as classic cars and bikes but I owned a 1968 Volvo and a 1982 Suzuki Katana so had best keep quiet about that.

meltedbuzzbox

lustycourtier said:

I had a 72 (from memory) refined SB Jag a few years ago that was terrible. Neck pocket was huge, had holes drilled in back, and was quite a few piece body, but sounded good. I sold it on, and I believe its currenlty For sale on denmark st for about £3k, with different scratchplate and no mention of refin. My Marr Jag which replaced it was 10 times the guitar.

Was it a 74 with bound neck?

@GavHaus just sold one to a shop on Denmark Street

lustycourtier

meltedbuzzbox said:

lustycourtier said:

I had a 72 (from memory) refined SB Jag a few years ago that was terrible. Neck pocket was huge, had holes drilled in back, and was quite a few piece body, but sounded good. I sold it on, and I believe its currenlty For sale on denmark st for about £3k, with different scratchplate and no mention of refin. My Marr Jag which replaced it was 10 times the guitar.

Was it a 74 with bound neck?

@GavHaus just sold one to a shop on Denmark Street

Yeah that was the one. I vaguely remember someone on here having it.

meltedbuzzbox

lustycourtier said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

lustycourtier said:

I had a 72 (from memory) refined SB Jag a few years ago that was terrible. Neck pocket was huge, had holes drilled in back, and was quite a few piece body, but sounded good. I sold it on, and I believe its currenlty For sale on denmark st for about £3k, with different scratchplate and no mention of refin. My Marr Jag which replaced it was 10 times the guitar.

Was it a 74 with bound neck?

@GavHaus just sold one to a shop on Denmark Street

Yeah that was the one. I vaguely remember someone on here having it.

The burst on it was really nice. Probably the best faded colour I have seen rather than the usual crude 70s bullseye.

Did you do that yourself?

Skipped

USA dealer pricing is more consistent and is IMO the starting point for judging values.
I don't know if the guitars we are discussing are vintage. The (adjective) definition which says it is a high quality item from a past time, makes some sense to me. The Fenders are clearly from the past, but are struggling with the first bit.

GuitarMonkey

Hey not all vintage Strats are overpriced!

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/fender-stratocaster-1960-1970-electric-guitar-for-sale/1079277110

lustycourtier

meltedbuzzbox said:

lustycourtier said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

lustycourtier said:

I had a 72 (from memory) refined SB Jag a few years ago that was terrible. Neck pocket was huge, had holes drilled in back, and was quite a few piece body, but sounded good. I sold it on, and I believe its currenlty For sale on denmark st for about £3k, with different scratchplate and no mention of refin. My Marr Jag which replaced it was 10 times the guitar.

Was it a 74 with bound neck?

@GavHaus just sold one to a shop on Denmark Street

Yeah that was the one. I vaguely remember someone on here having it.

The burst on it was really nice. Probably the best faded colour I have seen rather than the usual crude 70s bullseye.

Did you do that yourself?

No I imagine it was done stateside many years before, as it was nicely faded! It came to UK through a well known session guitarist friend, who was bothered by the changes, so offered it to me. When I got it, it had different knobs, and wiring was a mess.

GavRichList

It didn't do it for me, to say the least. However it paid off my overdraft, so no foul. Pickups sounded great, but everything else was horrid.

ICBM

meltedbuzzbox said:

lustycourtier said:

I had a 72 (from memory) refined SB Jag a few years ago that was terrible. Neck pocket was huge, had holes drilled in back, and was quite a few piece body, but sounded good. I sold it on, and I believe its currenlty For sale on denmark st for about £3k, with different scratchplate and no mention of refin. My Marr Jag which replaced it was 10 times the guitar.

Was it a 74 with bound neck?

@GavHaus just sold one to a shop on Denmark Street

It's likely that a '74 Jaguar - the very last year of 'production', or at least sale - was not in fact made in '74 but put together from a lot of rejected parts produced much earlier, just to get rid of them. So it's quite likely that at least one part would be dated '72, and that it might have some serious QC issues.

GavRichList

Yeah, to get technical about it, it was shit

Neil

JohnnyPlectrum said:

It's no different with cars, motorbikes and no doubt loads of other things.

Modern equivalents stop, steer, and work better than their older relatives.

Guitars are the same.

I don't think many people lash out a huge pile of dosh on old guitars expecting them to perform like a new one. They lash out huge piles of dosh for rarity, investment and personal satisfaction.

Personally I'm slowly finding 1976 instruments despite some of them being dodgy to say the least.

Unfortunately there's a tendency for sellers to over value stuff just because it's old.

As you say it is not just guitars.

Middle aged blokes who couldn't afford all the shiny stuff they saw in windows as a kid suddenly find they have a fair amount of disposable income (mortgage paid etc) and want that old stuff like old Rolex watches and Fenders they used to drool over in their youth.

It has nothing at all to do with playability or quality. 

They probably have other, modern, stuff for that. 

fretfinder

Neil said:

JohnnyPlectrum said:

It's no different with cars, motorbikes and no doubt loads of other things.

Modern equivalents stop, steer, and work better than their older relatives.

Guitars are the same.

I don't think many people lash out a huge pile of dosh on old guitars expecting them to perform like a new one. They lash out huge piles of dosh for rarity, investment and personal satisfaction.

Personally I'm slowly finding 1976 instruments despite some of them being dodgy to say the least.

Unfortunately there's a tendency for sellers to over value stuff just because it's old.

As you say it is not just guitars.

Middle aged blokes who couldn't afford all the shiny stuff they saw in windows as a kid suddenly find they have a fair amount of disposable income (mortgage paid etc) and want that old stuff like old Rolex watches and Fenders they used to drool over in their youth.

It has nothing at all to do with playability or quality. 

They probably have other, modern, stuff for that. 

I'm nearly 60 so in that group but I prefer to have Fender CS and Gibson Historic guitars because I play them, and I have no desire to own the dodgy 70s versions of the same thing. A great 70s one at sensible money maybe, but how likely is that to come up?

richardhomer said: At least one industry person I know has a term for this type of person; 'Cool greys'....

I accept your categorisation, with pleasure!