Vintage Guitars Are Not That Expensive

There sure are a lot of fake Cobras going for stupid money...…………...

 

Yeah, but the buyers know they are Cobra replicas. Original Cobras cost much more.

 

I'm happy for you finding what makes you happy.

What might be odd is I myself, wouldn't even pay $4 for that guitar. In fact you couldn't even give it to me as I have no use for an old cheap crummy Harmony taking up space.

I learned how to play on something like that for the first two years back in 1963/4 and I have no desire to revisit my old p.o.s for nostalgic or any other reason.
For $400 I can good get a very nice used MIJ or MIM Fender or Gretsch Electromatic.

S Mac

 

I'd buy a vintage guitar but I got all my spare cash tied up in tulip bulbs.

 

Tulip bulbs eh ? aren't you the dark horse he he

 

I played a well worn 53 once and nearly got drawn into the "must have one" scenario. Luckily I realised that what you wrote is true and ended up happy with a fantastic sounding and playing partscaster.

 

There's no industrial production electric guitar that must cost more than 1000-1500$ (well, if you put diamonds, gols or so on it can go up the cost of this materials). Everything over there it's not justified at all

 

Danelectros are still affordable. Also, there are some excellent vintage late 60s-early 80s MIJ out there, but they have been inching up price wise. I blame Jack White and Dan Auerbach for making Harmony too expensive for what they are. $400 is a great price , but I’ve seen people asking $800.

 

There is a lot of grey in the middle as well. Someone like myself makes their living playing. I have tons of cool stuff but I'm not really a collector as much as I am an accumulator.

I have some friends who are true collectors. One of my son's friend's fathers is a serious collector. The guy does something in DC and works about 10,000 hours a week. His collection is crazy impressive and he's kind of like Joe "Bonna" Massa in that he can show you every map from 1960 that Fender made and they're all perfect whereas my stuff is kind of random.

Great guy, nice family and not that good a guitar player because he concentrated so heavily on other things but he enjoys buying guitars and playing them when he has the time.

I've always said play what you like and like what you play. The whole sour grapes thing of all of this stuff will be worthless in 20 years just makes me lol
I've never bought guitars as investments, I just bought stuff I like to play. Like I said, I paid 22k for this in 1997. I was 21 and had just signed a publishing deal and got an advance. Always wanted one and it had some issues (old factory overspray, removed Bigsby and knobs that were old and legit but wrong for the year).

At the time I was working full time, going to school and playing in a band. The rest of the money paid my rent for the next year while I took time off from school to record and tour. I played this thing everywhere and had it in our old van. Over the years I've played it on so many things that even if the "market" (lol) hit 0 I still wouldn't sell it.

 

The point OP was making is, people buy boats all the time. Unless you make your living on the water, it’s a completely discretionary purchase. People don’t look at that as an over-the-top extravagance. You don’t have to be rich. If you drive a luxury car, you are spending maybe $15K more than you need to, and people don’t really bat an eye over that. I don’t understand people collecting sports memorabilia, but if it gives them joy, who am I to judge? If you spend $3K on an autographed Pujols game bat but I can get a Louisville slugger at Walmart for $40 and hit the ball just as far, is your purchase wasteful, or simply wasted on me? The point isn’t to debate one’s financial situation. Yes, $15K is a lot of money to a lot of people. But not life changing. If you learned you needed a kidney transplant and your out of pocket is $15K, you would make it happen. Most anyone can come up with $15K if it warrants that kind of priority. It’s just that most of us prioritize our expenses differently. So OP was questioning the recommendation that I go to far out of my way in order to authenticate a guitar that has value, but not really extraordinary value. I think it’s s reasonable question to ponder.
My wanting to go to Nashville is partially motivated by my feeling (warranted or not) that I am now a steward of something that is viewed by some (me included) as a little part of musical history. It’s not the holy grail, but it is something special- whether or not it sounds or plays any differently than a perfectly gigable Squier (which by the way, I’ve been playing an awful lot of lately and really dig). Whatever the value, I want to preserve it and enhance it. It will always be just $20 to me (and really, more of an expense) as I have no intention of turning any profit on it in my lifetime. Someone enjoyed this thing before me, and I want someone to be able to enjoy it after me.

 

When I was a kid there was a guy in my area who had a store called City Guitars (IIRC) that was full of Danelectros. I *think* he's the do0de that wrote the book on them. People have been collecting them for a long time. The thing with Dano is (aside from the Lindley/Page thing) is that they made stuff that (when I was a kid) 1- nobody else was currently making and 2- were still available and affordable.

One guy I took some lessons with had a double neck 6 string bass 6 string guitar. At the time you could find a Dano 6 string bass for a heck of a lot cheaper than a Bass VI and there were more of them around as well.

 

From what I've seen online 99% of the internet types grew up in extreme poverty - like barely had indoor plumbing and got a jelly bean for Christmas (maybe).

Growing up they started working full time when they were about 10, became full time gigging guitar players when they were 15, made like $1000 a night in roadhouses where they fought people nightly, put themselves through college with zero loans and zero debt then either bought their first home with cash when they were 22 or 23 or had it paid in full by 30. Oh, and never ever ever had a credit card.

Their kids usually have full rides to Ivy League schools and they would never help them anyways because they don't want them to become entitled like all the other kids.

In my case I worked really hard and like to buy stuff. My wife works really, really hard and really really really likes to buy stuff but we have three kids and the savings and bills come first.

I am the same as I was when I was 12 in that I like to buy old guitars. Yeah, I can play the same stuff on some imported knockoff but why would I want to? It's not as fun and it doesn't sound as good.

I do see the silliness of the online types. I like to work on my old car but I don't have a lift and ten chests of Snap On tools in my garage. I don't need that stuff to do what I need to.

 

It's striking how you can get a 1966 Fender Mustang for $1500.00 or a new U.S. made Mustang for around $1000.00. Not a huge difference in price.

 

this is sophistry, pure and simple (um maybe not pure or simple but sophistry)

 

How about a sandwich? 15k might seem like a lot of money for a sandwich, but in fact it isn’t. Think about it, people spend 15k on a car no problem. Ergo, a 15k sandwich is ok too.

This makes just as much sense as OP.

 

Sophistry on who’s part?

And yes, I had to google the word sophistry.

 

This made me lol.

I think nothing wrong with being a collector of anything if it gives you joy.
I do respectfully disagree with a modern guitar not performing as well as a vintage one. We live in a golden age for inexpensive great guitars and amps.
I think thick poly and cheap ceramic pickups are the root of all evil, tonewise. Squier should sell a guitar that is unfinished.

 

While a $15k guitar is not for me even if it might not be that much of a financial hardship I don't think they are a really terrible expense or financial decision.

I have a Subaru. I could have got a functionally identical Audi or Volvo and have paid $20-25k more for what was essentially the same car. The Audi & Volvo might have a little more Horsepower and probably break down more and cost more to maintain. But they wouldn't be particularly exciting cars or bring me much joy.

No one, I mean no one would bat an eyelash if I was driving said Audi or Volvo at my income level/where I live, etc.. lots of people we know would spend that extra money and change out the car ever 3-5 years. Likewise I could probably go buy a Corvette or something and have it as a 3rd car and it's just a giant waste of $50-100k and yet no one would bat an eyelash or judge.

That extra money in those more expensive cars will practically vaporize the day I drive the Audi or Volvo off the lot and yet it is totally accepted as fine & normal to vaporize that money on a semi-annual basis. The Subaru is probably worth more after the first year due to better resale value. (Not that I care, I drive a car till it's used up if I have the choice.)

The guitar is not really going to break down, maintenance is absolutely minimal, there is no cost to store it except maybe humdipaks or something. Yet people would probably raise an eyebrow if they were over at the house and the conversation came up.

The guitar would probably bring more joy than a car. If you gift me a Porsche or a Ferrari I will still be stuck in traffic the same every day in the fancy car. I will actually probably be more frustrated, as those cars don't like to be stuck in traffic or be driven slower than a bicycle can travel. They'll waste more gas than my Subaru, probably 2X as much, which will make me feel bad about the environment. I already feel bad about driving the Subaru since I could get an electric car and it'd be fine 99% of the time and I'd be cutting my emissions and fuel usage dramatically. It doesn't make any sense for me to get another car but when the Subaru is used up I will hope I can get an electric car.

The boats are a great example. My dad has given me a hard time about my bicycles, camera, or guitars. He's owned 3 boats and had owned 2 of them by the time he was my age. Total money spent/evaporated on those boats was way in excess of $100k. He has no boat today, nothing to show but memories. The last boat had storage & hauling costs (too big for him to tow) each winter that cost as much as all my guitar gear. All the bikes, guitar gear, and cameras don't add up to the cost of anything except the first boat, which was a < 20ft sailboat. He is not bitter about this.. I grew up helping with the boat and he was constantly telling me the boat was a hole in the water that money was thrown into, or that the happiest days of his life were the days he bought or sold a boat. My wife's father has always had a boat too and she learned the same thing, though I would say her father did a much better job of containing costs & getting more days of use out of the boats.

 

A 59 burst or a 54 tele are NEVER coming down into my price range, unless I’m ransacking noah330’s house and popping one into my rusty shopping cart after the Total Breakdown of Society, and that’s fine. I made my life choices, and as a guitar hobbyist who values my free time more than money, I got nothing to complain about.

Money is magical, in the sense that a dollar ain’t worth the same to everybody. A thousand bucks represents a very different amount of time and energy for different people. Jeff Bezos can wipe his butt with a thousand-dollar bill every single day for the rest of his life and not even blink; I can spend a grand on a guitar (without even asking my wife!) after saving pocket change for a year; for my niece, an unexpected thousand-dollar medical expense could put her out of her house.

Sure, vintage guitars aren’t that expensive—for some people. And even if they ARE expensive, they’re worth it—for some people. I am not one of those people.

 

Haha good point.
Sort of, in terms of cool vintage stuff that collectors want.
I just sold my '56 Chevy gasser for $9500.
In terms of what that money means to me, it aint a lotta money!
Could I put a new roof on the house and get a set of dentures?
Nope.
Could I buy a new car?
Nope.
Add that to my years income, will I live more comfortably?
Not really.

Lose $9500 to an internet scam?
OK that would hurt.

Would I buy a '50s Tele for $9500?
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha what a waste of money!