Buying ash Telecasters as an investment?

+1

No 2 year old, mass-produced guitar is an investment.

 

I have zero doubt they will be going thru the roof, so yes. Look at rosewood.....they still use it but only on USA fenders. Just from that change RW becks and RW neck models have gone thru the roof. MIM classic 60s, baja 60s and MIJs with RW are thru the roof already. Good luck finding a used one for less than about a grand and may are asking more. RW fender necks are going for more then brand new pau ferro ones. And this is all while there are USA fenders and other brands still using RW. Imagine when fender eliminates ash altogether. I think it's a good investment tho it will likely be many years b4 the return is huge. I was seeing MIM rosewood neck classic series stuff for $400 in CL and even less till about a year ago. I watched a classic 60s strat take months to sell that was listed at $400 and finally went to $360 before it sold. Just recently the same model showed up in CL at $800 and sold in about 3 days. Do the math.

 

Guitar ≠ Investment.

There I did it.

 

What is the price of Ash wood ?

 

Ash shortage? We've got it covered over here.....We can get some body blanks out of this

 

You’d be much better off putting your money into a sensible investment, like lottery tickets.

 

Every guitar I’ve ever picked up, cheap, expensive, acoustic, electric, plastic, wood, 7, 6, 4 string, you name it, have all been able to produce the notes A through G. If your value in an instrument is anywhere other than it’s ability to make music, you’re not a musician and you’re in the wrong market for getting rich.

People need to lose this mentality that they should be able to profit on every used thing they want rid of. No way I’d ever pay more for a used guitar than I can buy a new one for.

 

In the real world, I'd guess few people are that bothered about the actual material composition of the guitar they are looking to buy. It's only on online forums where people obsess about nonsense!

 

if there's a premium on rosewood Fretboard.. it's been created by Fender itself. Rosewood is able to be used on guitars again, and thousands upon thousands of Rosewood FB Strats and Teles are readily available from previous years, and even cheap guitar makers are still using it.

There are a million MIM Standards out there in Rosewood from the early 90s through a few years ago,There is no rarity there. If people are rushing out to buy Rosewood FB Teles... it's going to be over 100 years until they are a rarity, not counting the thousands that Fender are pumping out this year.

Market is saturated, and it will not be remotely as rare as 50s-60s Fenders,, due to the sheer amount of numbers they are producing.

 

They’re mass produced Mexico made telecasters. Eventually, purely due to inflation, they’ll sell for more than you paid for them. On paper. But only because price increases have made new ones even more expensive.

Are they gonna be worth a lot of money just because they’re ash and fender stopped using ash? No. Because fender only stopped using ash on their low end lines. You can still get MIA and CS guitars in ash. And plenty of other manufacturers still make ash guitars.

Even if ash disappeared from guitar building entirely, it wouldn’t help much. It would become a novelty, not a bankroll.

 

I doubt this is a long term phenomenon. Heck, one day the Pau Ferro models might be seen as scarce and THEY are the ones that go for more.

Similar case in point, wacko unpopular MIC Fenders like the Marauder were derided when sold as new, already priced below MIM, and had to be discounted further to sell, but now fetch much more than a MIM of similar age ten years later.

 

Generally it works like this:

• Buy used gear
• Post it for resale for many many months
• Sell it for less than you paid
• Pay sales commission
• Deal with packing and shipping
• Hope it arrives in one piece
• Start over

 

Rare does not equal valuable
Rare plus desirable may equal valuable but not guaranteed

Guitars are meant to be played not traded on the NY Stock Exchange.

Play the darn thing!

 

Ehhh. Probably not a sound investment. Even Brazilian rosewood can still be obtained for not crazy money

 

I agree with the fact there are tons still out there and they are able to still use it. But that doesn't change the fact they AREN'T using it on anything under about a grand or more and not on any vintage types under about 2 grand, and it doesn't change the fact (and yes, it IS a fact if u look at prices) that RW is going for a lot more. Even squire bullet and affinity necks that have RW boards are getting listed at crazy prices. People make a point to tell you it;s RW not indian laurel then price them at what a classic series neck used to be or even more. I'm not making this stuff up, i'e been looking for a RW tele neck or a whole ele classic or baja or MIJ and the prices have been nuts. And i've been looking for over a year. Yet you can still buy even the BETTER squier (classic vibe) neck, the classic vibe in maple board for pennies.

Besides, my point wasn't about RW because there are still RW models being made even tho only in higher end stuff than b4. It's nothing like what will happen if ash completely goes away from fenders entire line. Theres no doubt ash models will go thru the roof, mark my words.

 

It’s amazing how valuable we think our guitars are until we try to sell them, then somehow the value plummets like a Boulder from outer space.

 

Facts are nothing without context. IN the grand scheme of guitar investing these smaller patterns come and go, Nothing about any of these mass produced models will be investment worthy in the long run.

So currently the RW models go for more. Are they going for more than they cost new? No. So its not an investment at all.

 

that is a nice looking instrument!

 

I knew a guy who invested a chunk of his extra cash in vintage Nationals as an investment -- and it worked. Doubled his money in a few years. Then National Resophonic came along & started making really fine instruments & the values of the vintage ones leveled off & have stayed level for a decade. Moral of the story? It's pretty much just gambling.