Old Wood

ESBlonde

I think if you only sell PUs to people with 'old wood' guitars, the chances that the guitar is good already so your pickups sound good by association and the exclusivity of your product enhances it's marketing mystique and price.

p90fool

ESBlonde said:

I think if you only sell PUs to people with 'old wood' guitars, the chances that the guitar is good already so your pickups sound good by association and the exclusivity of your product enhances it's marketing mystique and price.

Or he's just a knob.

Years ago a BSA parts dealer refused to sell me a piston because I was "one of them chopper boys".
The irony was that I was using the bike every day, but if I'd been a non-riding restorer who never even started the bike he'd have happily sold me engine parts.

Rolph is a well-regarded pickup maker in the States, but there are so many of them now making near-identical PAF clones that they all need some kind of backstory or romance to get their names out there.

I guess "he care so much about authenticity that he refuses to sell to owners of non-vintage guitars" is as good a way as any to get noticed.