New guitar questions. Do the 80s count as vintage?

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  • thermionicthermionic Frets: 9499
    My (very brief) research indicates that the guitar predates steel strings by up to twenty years. Could this be the cause of the neck bow and the split?
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  • StuckfastStuckfast Frets: 2393
    The auction did say the action was "high but playable", which was a fair description and led me to think a reset might be on the cards.

    @thermionic where does that information come from? There is no bow in the neck, nor any bellying in the top -- it's just that the neck angle is wrong. The bridge looks original, or at least old, so it seems most likely to me that this was always intended to be steel strung. Of course it's quite possible that the date is wildly out, I have only the seller's word to go on there.
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  • kt66kt66 Frets: 315
    80s Rickenbackers have been growing in value. 
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  • jimmyguitarjimmyguitar Frets: 2464
    kt66 said:
    80s Rickenbackers have been growing in value. 
    You didn’t read the actual post did you?
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  • thermionicthermionic Frets: 9499
    Stuckfast said:
    The auction did say the action was "high but playable", which was a fair description and led me to think a reset might be on the cards.

    @thermionic where does that information come from? There is no bow in the neck, nor any bellying in the top -- it's just that the neck angle is wrong. The bridge looks original, or at least old, so it seems most likely to me that this was always intended to be steel strung. Of course it's quite possible that the date is wildly out, I have only the seller's word to go on there.
    I just googled it and it seems that steel strings only took off at the turn of the 20th century. Just a hunch that something that old would not have been built for steel strings, which I think I read in a book.

    One of the links I found suggests that steel strings were around in the late 1800s but not common, and the guitars weren’t built for them : http://www.esomogyi.com/ssg1.html
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  • GagarynGagaryn Frets: 1553
    My (very brief) research indicates that the guitar predates steel strings by up to twenty years. Could this be the cause of the neck bow and the split?
    you beat me to it...

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  • StuckfastStuckfast Frets: 2393
    So the repair guy I took it to has been poking around inside with a mirror and a camera, and reports that the bridge plate is not cracked, which is good news. He has quoted me £300 to rest the neck, replace the bridge and do a setup, which seems pretty reasonable. And remains slightly less than I paid for the thing.
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  • StuckfastStuckfast Frets: 2393
    Just picked this up from Keith at Imperial Guitars, who I must say has done an amazing job, especially as he tells me the neck joint was an absolute bugger to work with. Slightly scarily, he says he tried various different string gauges and it only felt right with 13s, because of the short scale length and the stiffness of the neck, but it feels great to play, and the action is perfect -- 2mm at the 12th on the bass side and a bit less on the treble side. He's fitted a new bridge with a compensated saddle and the intonation is pretty good, if not quite 100 percent at the 12th.
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  • PukiBusukPukiBusuk Frets: 10
    1880's is beyond vintage, it's antique innit !
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