Vintage music gear commands a premium because they often sound better than newer production gear.  Boutique manufacturers are the exception.  A good electric guitar with resonance should sound like an acoustic guitar even before you plug it in.  Most of the time I pickup a guitar and its lifeless.  Modern electronic circuits also choke the life out of your tone.  

1985 Tokai Love Rocks


How about some vintage amps?

Early 64 Fender Vibrolux Reverb


62 Fender Princeton and Early 70s Princeton Reverb


59 Airline (a rebadged Valco Supro Super)


And a couple Marshal Lead 12 Mini Stacks from the 80s:

Great stuff!
I've been considering picking up a BF Vibrolux. If you ever decide to part with it, please keep me in mind.

Have a bunch more but these are fun!


My original 56 Les Paul Junior



64, 66, and 71 Fender Mustangs.


Early 74 Strat


Wall of amps! Missing a ton more in storage from this pic lol.

You rang? Kidding, I don't own it but a close friend does. There's also a guy on this site who has access to Leslie West's Les Paul Jr.

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Nice TV Yellow.

67 national varsity.   Grandpa bought it new, I ended up with it after he passed.   I took it into a guitar shop to figure out how much it was worth and they offered me $200.

I've seen map bodies occasionally,  but have not seen another varsity in person.



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Good friend of mine has one of those 70's bullet strats, it is a hardtail '73 and it is by far the best sounding strat I've ever heard. Could just be the way he plays it but it's phenominal.

This is a Googled picture, but my dad has a 1964 Fender Jaguar that looks exactly like this.  It will be mine one day .

Put a Buzz Stop on it. Makes it much more playable.

I play regularly, and make a little money doing so.  I do not have the time in my life for "vintage" guitars.  

My one dance with the vintage market was when a buddy told me to go to a mom 'n pop that was going out of business and look at an old Martin they had up on the wall.  I went.  It was a supreme hot mess with a lifted bridge, bad fretwork, loose neck joint, and was generally unplayable by any standard.  I offered the guy $1,000 and he said no.  Another friend went in and got it for $1,200.  It was sent to the luthier everyone around here who knows anything uses.  A couple of months pass...

My friend gets a call with the "good news bad news" thing.  The bad news; He'd never ever play that guitar.  The good news; when they were doing the initial assessment of the instrument they found the label where it had fallen and got stick in the bracing.  It was either the 10th or 12th Martin D-18 ever made.  The factory was kind of unclear on that.  It got sold in the condition it was in to a guy from Nashville.  My friend made a shit ton of money on that one.  

It was decided that I'd be the guy to take the news back to the shop owner since he'd been kind of an asshole to me in the process.  That was fun.  Really fun.  

Also, I played an old D-28 in church every Sunday for a while that was quite simply a perfect flat picker's guitar.  It was kind of an odd D-28 in that it had some D-45 trim.  The Martin factory tracked down the owner and offered him a shit ton of money for it.  He declined because I wouldn't have anything to play if he did.  He got it back right after that and lent it to a guy in Nashville for a recording session.  It spent some time in a guitar library of some sort and then he got it back.  I moved on and found a guitar almost as nice, but it will never be in the same class as that 28.  He got the guitar as payment for playing on tour with a bluegrass band in the 70's when the band leader either had to pay the band or put fuel in the tour bus.  

The most outstanding vintage guitar I ever personally played was Tony Rice's D-28.  He had me baby sit it for him one night while he was getting dressed to play with The New South.  Just handed it to me and said I could play it but nobody else was allowed to handle it.  The guy didn't even know me.  In my hands it sounded like just another guitar.  In his hands, well, it was just incredible.  He laughed when I asked him later if that was Clarence White's old guitar.

I've always wondered what happened to Buddy Holly's first Strat that was stolen.  Talk about the Holy Grail.

I have a near mint 1964 solid state amp with three Jenson 10 inch speakers dated to 1964.  The speakers are probably worth mroe than the amp as a whole.  Silvertone 1465, I think ... picture form a reverb ad - mine looks much nicer.

Probably routed for humbuckers and a Floyd Rose, given locking tuners and refinished hot pink in the 80s.

The amp belongs in the trash, but those blue label Jensons are great speakers.

So can any of you who have expertise in this, let me know what I have?

I've had this Stratocaster (I assume) for over 30 years. Got it in the Military from a friend I was stationed with that played in a band but, was broke (50 bucks). I've been told it is something special and told its just a run of the mill 1980's "Japanese Stratocaster"





I've never had the cable for the Synth

Why?  I can't see his toes.

I had a 1966 emerald green Guild Starfire that got stolen in San Francisco.  I sure wish I had that guitar back...While it had some buckle rash, I loved playing that guitar.

Is this vintage? Dunno but it is old.
1987 Ibanez RG550 in white. I bought as soon as they were released in Early 1988.
Has a Dimarzio DP-107 (MegaDrive) in the bridge and Blaze in the Neck/Middle.

Others in case you are interested:

Middle is a 2004 RG1527.

Back is a recent purchase - Schecter Km-7 Artist MKIII. Man this thing is the best guitar I have ever played. everything about it is just perfect.

Not a run of the mill Strat. Not sure of the value,  but the synth alone is probably over $1,000

ETA- The poster below me covered it, but yeah the guitar isn't a Fender.  It's a Roland G-505

Thats a Roland G 505.  Neil Schon played those for a bit.  Looks like someone slapped a Fender logo on it.

Jesus.  That guitar goes for big bucks.  Don't get rid of it or the synth.  You should be able to find a patch cord.

Look at videos of him in concert when he was with HSAS.

Damn

Awesome!

No guitar pics.

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I have one of these ....my grandfather gave it to me in ~76

The dreaded alvarez dove gibson's knockoff


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And that's just my Vintage stuff. Darn shame I don't actually play, huh?

Wow, I feel like a poor in this thread....My only guitar is a Takamine F385 12 string that I bought new in 1977.  Its a Martin clone so probably not worth much today.

Don't feel poor. While I have nice stuff now, a lot of it was from horse trading my way up to it.

What color are the Strats?

All just patent rubbish. What isn't subjective is just outright wrong.

You couldn't tell a '55 Strat played through a 59' bassman recorded with a $12,000 Neuman from my 2020 Telecaster played through a VST modeler and IR simulation if listening to the two blind....not if the player is any good.

Been playing modern and vintage stuff my entire life, in studio and stage settings, a good guitar sounds the same whether it's 50 years old or 50 minutes, and "tone" is mostly artistic choice not a limitation on circuits or wood. Mark Knopfler sounds incredible and unmistakable whether playing a 58 les paul, a Suhr that was just made, or a Steinberger with no body at all, and utterly modern guts.

Tone isn't a function of time, that's just wishful thinking by people who want to mythologize mass produced stuff from the 50's and 60's. Hell, some vintage stuff was pretty much crap, by today's standards...and sounds like it. Some vintage gear is awesome, some produced the next day by the same person is dull and forgettable.

I'm absolutely convinced we need to become friends

Two tone sunburst on the '56 (I wanted one ever since seeing Weezer's Buddy Holly video) and white on the '63 (but it has aged to an off white).

This.

You know why there ARE "mint condition" '57 Strats and '59 Les Pauls?  Because those were the DOGS of the production run.

With a few exceptions, the ones that felt and sounded good got played to death.  Hence the "relic" craze where new guitars are given the "thrown down the driveway" look.

Wow, I bet they are spectacular.
Your '63 sounds like it looks a lot like Howlin Wolf's '63!

That is BS! lol I have played and owned many perfect, mint, closet find vintage guitars. Back then most of these were just guitars and most humans lose interest very quickly. There are plenty of dragged down the driveway looking ones that also play like dogs because they could only afford one guitar or hand me downs. This is from 25+ years of buying and selling vintage gear not just reading what everyone post online. On other side of it Im not saying your wrong because Ive had some crap box amazing guitars I'm over 150-175+ guitars bought and sold easily so far in my life of a gear hound!

Why do you say that?

That's pretty much what color mine is, mint pickguard and all. Mine just doesn't have the dark spots on the lower bass bout.

My favorite era for Strats. I own a late '62 burst.

A 62 to early 64 Strat is my holy grail dream guitar. Id be happy with a refret player.

Thank you! It's always been a mystery to me what it is (it came from Europe) and everyone has told me different stories.

I got to looking at it closer and it appears the neck was replaced.  Still, the body and the synth are worth money.

How long have you been deaf?  

It's funny what you say about Knopfler because he uses vintage amps and guitars quite extensively!  Most of the musicians that inspired us, took tone very seriously and labored over it.  Almost all of them in interviews have a vintage axe as their favorite player.    

One time I bought some effects from a guy that was working for ZZ Top.  He would source piles of vintage gear for them and they would pick out the best of the best, even to the point of putting the signal on an oscilloscope.  It doesn't matter if they were in the studio or live, they always sound great, and it's not by accident.  On the flip side, I know musicians that are technically brilliant players, but they sound like shit live because they take the easier way out on their tone.  It's not just the player, it's the entire signal chain and the musician is only one part of the sum.  The more you labor over the details, the better you will sound in all contexts, whether recording or live.

Digital modelling has come a long way, but it still doesn't replace the organic lushness of tube amps.  I have an Axe-Fx rig.  This is the first technology that has come close, but it still doesn't match the organic richness of a tube amp.  I usually run a Mojave Plexi tube amp, ironically through a Bassman cab, center clean or slightly dirty to fill out the sterile tone.  While the final product may be subtle, it is discernable, and to a player the more things you get right, the more you will be inspired.  The listener may not notice it, but richer tone is less fatiguing and more satisfying.

You know you have arrived when you can plug in and get goose bumps from how amazing your rig sounds.

Here is an article about Ken Fischer.  He made some of the most desirable amps on the planet.

"Warren Haynes. Keith Urban. Brad Paisley. Mark Knopfler. Billy Gibbons. Though these guitarists all have unique signature tones, they've all used Trainwreck amplifiers in the studio and on the stage."  

"For an amplifier series that is reputed to approach the “holy grail” of tone, Trainwrecks are surprisingly basic designs: single channel heads devoid of reverb or effects loops. Ken Fischer’s circuits are so simple, in fact, that just about any amateur amp builder can make one.  Unfortunately, the final product won’t sound like a real Trainwreck. The key to the these iconic amps rests in the ears, intuition, and craftsmanship that Ken Fischer had himself."

"Fischer would use only aluminum chassis because he believed that steel would interfere with the magnetic field of the output transformer and negatively affect the amp’s overall tone. His concern with magnetic fields was such that Fischer spent an inordinate amount of time working on the layout of his circuit within the amplifier chassis.

In a far cry from today’s printed circuit boards, Fischer would individually solder all of the components, trying different three dimensional layouts until the amp sounded like what he (or his client) wanted.

Fischer also used solid core wiring because he believed that braided wires create phasing issues between the input and output signals of the amp."

Source

Everything is important, or nothing is important!

@Spaceboy
That's really cool. My dad was born in '53 and has that exact same guitar from when he was a kid.

Your steadfast belief in Bigfoot coincides with the idea that somehow wire, capacitors and wood are magical and sound different based merely on their age. You glossed over every point I made to post more gibberish that doesn't refute anything. Again, your ears aren't good enough to tell a '62 strat from a re-issue, in a blind test. No way, no how, you'd be fucking guessing (like all of us would), and you could have 12 different 62's and they'd all sound different (from awesome to meh), which is another issue that dogged the early electrics - piss poor QC from day to day (notorious in pickup windings alone, probably the single most important aspect of tone in an electric with low-output).

Musicians are insufferably gullible and subject to insane confirmation bias, even pros.

Fisher is a hokum spewing idiot...as bad as the boutique audiophiles and their 8 gauge, 3' long speaker wire for "more clarity". Oy.

Literally everything you think you know about guitars and audio is suspect, rethink it all. Seriously. It's all wrong.

There are some badass guitar shops in Nashville. Cue up the Matt Mason -Guns and Guitars or Guy Clark- The Guitar. Take your pick ...

Carters/Rumble Seat/Gruhn's makes for a nice walk....spent almost 12 hours in those three alone just playing stuff and shopping. Last time I was in Gruhn's last January Vince Gill sat beside me and played a Relish, hadn't seen one in person and wanted to try it out.

Always awesome hitting the Nashville shops....but humbling, cause some seriously good pickers are in and out of them all day long.

I may be eccentric, but I am extremely thorough.    

It is funny that you mention cabling.  How much time have you spent in a studio?  Because if you have that experience, then you most surely have A/B'd all kinds of different things and know that things that are electrically equivalent, can sound different sonically.  I always thought cabling was a scam until I A/B'd them.  One time I needed a replacement mic cable, the guy at the candy store was telling me that the expensive cables sounded better over the cheap cables I was buying.  Having nothing to lose, I tried it out.  Sure enough I A/B'd them, the more expense cable had less noise and more fidelity.  Having been around the block, things that are not directly part of the signal chain influence the quality of the tone.  Things like power conditioning and even switching the type of wiring in the transformer from copper to silver has a discernable effect on the amp tone.  

I have followed a similar tone quest path like guys like Fisher.  Had some guitars and amp, but never satisfied with what I was getting.  Always wanted to find that higher tonal nirvana.  So I went through a long procession of gear.  I went through a modelling phase when it first hit the scene.  An amp that could do everything sound wise, couldn't do anything great.  Then jumped into vintage gear.  I built up a collection of them, but I got tired of the noise and the periodic shocks, and starting buying boutique amps.  The boutique amp builders were surpassing what you could get out of the vintage amps.  

After I built up a collection of them I started getting more serious.  I enrolled at the local community college and started taking electronic courses.  I started networking with the amp building community and guys that were literally writing the books on transformer and amp design.  On my first collaboration, I had a rig built that solved how I wanted to achieve power tube saturation, but the rig lacked great tone.  Ironically the builder was a believer in electrical equivalent parts equal the same quality in tone.  He was very wrong.

Then I found another builder who was doing some insane stuff with old HiFi amp transformers and unconventional tubes.  We collaborated and incorporated a circuit from the first design.  That was were I finally found my tonal nirvana in amplifiers.  Through all that I A/B'd the hell out of everything always improving the chain along the way I learned that different cables, caps, and resisters sound different in the same circuit.  The interesting thing is that while each improvement is subtle, the sum of those improvements is really amazing.  Guys like Fischer took it to an even higher level.  He was reported to be picky about the color of hookup wire he used.  It's not something you understand until you do the A/B'ing.  Then you get it.        

I went through the same evolution in guitars and effects as well.  

I have invested a lot of time and money into this because it was a great joy to do it.  And once I got it dialed in.  I haven't purchased a new amp or guitar in nearly two decades.  Although I did add the Axe-Fx to my setup.

Say what, refin?  Too damn minty to be original.  It's not impossible, little old lady only played it at church, but generally unlikely.  Maybe a more close-up picture would change my mind.

------------

To the broader discussion, seems people are talking past each other somewhat.  Vintage guitar gear isn't "better" because it's aged, the good stuff was good when it was new.  And there has always been good and bad gear made.  But quite a few items had better average quality at some point in the past.  Think of Fender guitars from the 50s, when they used mostly very lightweight swamp ash.  It was cheap and plentiful then, but resonanted far better than most alder or the heavy ash that they used in the 70s.

Ever play a real PAF?  Whether it sounds good is a matter of opinion of course, but nobody is able to recreate them today.  Can't get magnets that sound the same.  I can't tell you why.  There are some available that LOOK the same, but don't have that sound.  Dick around with an original, and you instantly recognize tones from 1950s recordings, that were made whan those magnets were new.

I'm a tube amp freak.  I build my own (and pedals too).  Tube amps should always be hand-wired, not because it sounds better than printed circuit boards, but because of the voltages, currents, and heat involved.  And tubes fail, sometimes violently, and one shorted power tube will smoke a printed trace in an instant.  Wire holds up.

Capacitors?  Yes modern ones are generally more reliable.  Certain old types shouldn't be used for anything, some are okay in low voltage or no-DC applications.  There is a wide range of "sound quality" among old and new types.  There's a lot of "mojo" associated with tone caps in guitars.  I have a shit ton of old caps from working on gear for years, one day I decided to hook jumper wires to my Tele guts and try a bunch of different ones, old and new.  Some better than others, regardless of age, but a few are really crappy, and a few are exceptional.  Sprague PIO caps really do sound good as guitar tone caps.  But don't use them as coupling caps in amps!  OTOH, the blue "molded" Ajax caps from 60s Fender amps rarely go bad, sound great in amps, but are nothing special as tone caps.

Electromechanical parts have gotten WAY shittier over the years, on average.  Basically thinner materials, weaker, can't hold up to normal use.  It doesn't matter so much for, say, a pot on an amp, it only gets turned every once in a while.  But pots on guitars get slammed from all the way on to all the way off constantly, with the mechanical stop being the back cover essentially, and only CTS makes pots that can hold up to that now.  There used to be many brands to choose from.  I use CTS, CRL, and Switchcraft parts ONLY in guitars.  Again, that's about durability, not tone.

We have a tube problem.  The choices these days are Chinese, Russian, JJ, or NOS.  Try to find a decent 12AX7.  The NOS ones are expensive and likely noisy or microphonic, why they weren't used already.  The Russian ones have gone to hell in the last 10 years, they develop "frying bacon" noises within a short amount of time.  JJ will develop grid emissions, and are the only brand of preamp tube I've ever seen go H-K short.  The Chinese Xs tend to work, but have no tone and are often microphonic.

There are still wonderful guitars made today, but you have to go through them to pick a good one.  I guess it's especially true for solidbodies, that each piece of wood is own animal.  But there was a time, when production numbers were smaller, enviromentalists hadn't limited the available wood species so much, and maybe the manufacturers were a little more conscientious about wood selection, that the average instrument for a given brand/model was just better quality.  And lacquer finish was the norm back in the day, and beats the shit out of poly-whatever, being thinner and not dampening vibration so much.  It doesn't hold up as well physically, but wins for sound.

That said, entry-level guitars are generally better than they used to be.  Most now can be set up to be playable, whereas back in the day you might be looking at 1/2" action on many of the cheaper guitars.

I could keep ranting on about this stuff, but fuck it, this is a gun forum y'know.

I have a copy of this which is well worth the cost if you have the interest.


History of the American Guitar