Cool thread. Figured there were quite a few guitar guys around here. Closest thing I got to vintage is my '68 drip edge Super Reverb. Missed it by that much!.....
My partner and me in the early 80s in Hollywood. My vintage guitar store was on Sierra Bonita, 1 door off Sunset. When the Sunset Grill was around the corner, and 'ol Joe hobbled around slapping burgers with velveta on 'em...and slop some chili on it...I'm wearing the Supro t-shirt, and looks like I'm playing a Gmaj7. My store was called WeBe Guitar, and was named Image Guitar for a bit...I have a lot of funny stories, but once Little Richard parked in front of our store and looked in the door, he said, "Oh my, lookie at all those guitars...what's the name of this place?", "WeBe Guitar", I said..."WeBe Guitar, what kinda name is that?" Little Richard replied...I said, "It's a store name..." and he laughed..."You got me there..." This was when most vintage dealers laughed at us for even carrying Supro, National, Airline, Valco, Danelectro, Silvertone, et al We sold a lot of lap steels and pedal steels occasionally, but we had everything from Rickenbacker frypans to Dobros, old Ukes...tenor guitars, we had it all... Of course I sold hundreds of Fenders, Gibsons and Martins...but we carried all vintage and everything, amps, parts, etc...
That's cool, but not an original. Still, those 70s explorers are worth some bucks today though, or is that newer? It looks like the reissues from the 70s. One of my old partners sold an original explorer (I think it was a '58) to one of the guys in Metallica, it was not pristine and didn't have the original tuners. He sold it for $400,000, about 5 years ago.
It was indeed. Although music was going through some strange "hair band" era, my partner got more involved in managing and producing bands, and when I moved to Japan he was the original manager for Poison. The guitar player used to hang out at our shop frequently...his name was Bruce, but he went by the name of cc DeVille...Steve Hunter worked for us, he's kind of famous...he played with Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, et al...but this is to say, I had a very unusual shop...it was pretty small and it was so packed with vintage guitars you can barely get into the shop, we had to move amps out in the morning...but guys would come around and play...Howie Epstein (R.I.P.), Bernie Larson, Brian Ray, Phil Chen, David Lindley, Glenn Cornik (R.I.P.), et al...and a host of others...There was often famous people because that is mainly who we sold to, and other vintage dealers. We were the player's shop, not posers. We sold mostly everything vintage...guitars, amps, parts, new parts, I lived off selling DX7s for about 4 years of my life...(first of what they called "digital keyboard"). That was after I closed my store and lived in Japan. I used to trade vintage guitars for light music equipment when I lived in Japan, ship vintage guitars over, ship equipment back... I moved to Japan in '82, that was when my partner was managing Poison. We closed our shop and I shipped everything to Japan. Not in the business at all anymore, but still friends with a couple that are. My old partner is not involved in music anymore either... One of the rarest and most sought after electric guitars. Less were made than Flying Vs. I once sold a sunburst les paul for $20,000 and was shocked that people would pay that...now, some of those would be north of $250k. I often sit here and ponder had I saved more guitars, my life would be much different,..but life is always coulda, woulda, shoulda...I have just one old p-bass left, everything is '59 except the body, which is '63. It's beat to crap, half the paint is missing, but it's the one bass I loved the most. I haven't done too bad in life, but not like some of the others who sold vintage guitars...who knew they would get so expensive?? I never dreamed that guitars would literally be 10x the price I was selling them for 30 years ago. But there is one thing I did get out of going to Japan, and I wouldn't trade it for all the vintage guitars in the world...it's my wife.
I have a saying about vintage guitars...I like to say..."It's all about the smegma". So many people buy guitars because someone famous played them, or that it is rarer than other guitars...but I like to use Mosrites as one of the best examples. Mosrites were some of the worst playing guitars (not to mention what a thief Semi Moseley was), but at the time one of the most expensive in Japan. Why you ask? Because the Ventures played them, Nookie Edwards played a sunburt with binding. I was selling those for as much or more than 50's maple neck strats in the 80s. The Ventures was the 1st rock bands to go to Japan, even before the Beatles. And there is another good example, the Beatles, Hofner basses, Casinos, Country Gents, Rikenbachers, et al. Those were not high end guitars, people buy them because the Beatles played them...I won't go into the story about them getting their equipment stolen and ending up with a mixup of instruments they could get quickly...but they were not the best instruments in their classes. Not bad, but not high end. White strats...yet another perfect example...(i.e., Hendrix) I once sold a '68 white left handed strat to Ingwie Malmsteen, I am sure he still has this guitar today. He bitched and moaned about paying $1750 for the guitar...and even though it was a CBS guitar, it was exactly like Hendrix played but left handed. Flip it over and you have a right handed Hendrix style guitar. I bet he wouldn't even sell it to this day, but if he did he would want an outrageous amount of money for it, IMO. I once had a crappy guitar I bought from Ingwie, he signed it on the back. Took me a long time to sell, but I finally did. Based on the smegma (his sig). It wasn't the guitar... If you find a black maple neck strat from the '50s, some Clapton fanatic will pay enormous amounts for it... Hofner bass? Those things are crap, rarely do they not have a bowed neck on them...and if they don't they're waiting too...LOL How about Danelectros, you literally bend the neck to straighten them out, there's no adjustment on the truss rod...still those lipstick pickups are sought after cause people like Lindley, Browne, Stevie Ray Vaughn all used them. The rest is history. Very few people looking for the super high end Gibson Jazz guitars, those guitars are so much nicer...an L5 or a Super 400, those are frickin' nice guitars...What about a D'Angellico? Expensive but way less than smegma guitars. And even those are sold on smegma...Herb Ellis plays it, or Joe Pass played one, Barney Kessell...the list of famous players that have sold instruments is about as long as the one for instruments being made... "It's all about the smegma..." But at the end of the day we all have a favorite, or a few favorites, we play...because it just feels right...and for me that's my '59 p-bass.
I must have one of the rare ones. I've owned mine for almost 40 years and the neck is still straight as a string. That being said, It is the worst playing and sounding bass I have ever played. I tried several times through the years to play it at a gig, I always ended up putting it away and grabbing my music man. TraditionalToolworks thanks for posting on my thread, very interesting stories. It sounds like you have a lot of knowledge to share.
I could just be full of BS...that is the way the Internet works, heh? LOL On the Hofner bass, didn't mean to imply they were horrible basses, but certainly not *MY* faves...like all instruments, you could play a broomstick with a shoelace on it if you got used to it. Many, many, many of them had the necks warped over the years.
BS or not, I like reading about old stories. I’m not a guitar player (learning in my 50s is going slow but I’m practicing) but there’s something about guitars that is pretty compelling. A lot of parallels between guitars and cars/hot rods, the reasons we’re attracted to them, collect, play, build, modify. We grow up looking at them in magazines, in movies, going to shows, wanting to be like the guys we admire. And of course, like cars, I like the old beat up ones, they’re not necessarily valuable but they’ve got soul.
Well, I typically don't BS around, but I just wanted to toss that out as often these music stories start sounding like fish stories and the big one that got away. Indeed. Of course the aspect about taking $#!T apart will never end for me. I don't even care if I break it, as long as I get to take it apart...LOL The collectable aspect with both vintage guitars and vintage cars are close, no doubt. The tinkering draws a close parallel as you point out. What can I say, I'm guilty! I have a lot of great stories...nothing better than drug and rock 'n roll, heh? This is in the early 80s, which most of my good music stories are, that's when I was trading vintage guitars. One of the locals bands that a couple of the players would stop by in Hollywood was the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They were playing the typical dives in those days, The Whiskey, Starwood, Troubador, et al well, one day Anthony Keidis came by. Both Keidis and Flea used to come by when they needed cash, or wanted to trade a guitar. Anthony had an Ampeg electric bass, the ones with the big scroll headstock. Not the upright, but the electric guitar style. Those were notorious for having cracked necks...and it had been cracked at the headstock and it was a pretty bad repair...I really didn't want it and I didn't even want to take it on pawn, however, I could see the pain in his eyes...I could see the grief...and even though I knew he would tell me anything to get a few bucks for a fix, I gave him some money and he swore to me he would come back in a couple weeks and get it. To his credit he did come back a couple or three weeks later and picked it up from me. That wasn't always the case, but this time it was. Shortly after I moved to Japan for 5 years. Just after I moved back from Japan in '87 the guitar player died of an overdose. I honestly don't remember him very well, and even Flea only came by rarely, but Kiedis came by frequently and I mostly dealt with him. That bass must have belonged to Flea, but it's water under the bridge, cause Kiedis made good on his word.
I'm glad I'm not the only one in my 50's attempting guitar....I couldn't be slower. My wife told me the other night at this rate I will finally be able to play adequately just in time to join the angel band. LOL A couple years ago the ladies at work got tired of me saying someday I'd like to learn guitar so for Christmas they chipped in and got me a guitar and some lessons. I keep plugging away but I'm not getting very far upstream. LOL Loving this thread and all you guys have shared. I don't know squat about guitars but my OCD collecting gene could easily go crazy gathering a pile of them based on nothing more than I think it's cool or is a neat color or whatever. Of course, I'm sure that wouldn't go over well since I can't play any of them. LOL
Hey, drdave keep pluggin away! Youtube has lots of really good lessons and a lot of them are free. I wish youtube would have been around when I started playing. I had no lessons and learning was really slow, or it seemed that way. Good luck and don't give up.
Hey guys, I'm missing my 'ol '46 as I've been in Japan for the past couple weeks. I'm heading home on Sunday, looking forward to getting the front brakes back together and getting the pickup on the road again...I left the drums and shoes to be refurbished when I left a couple weeks ago. Anyway, I met up with an old friend of mine, he used to be the manager for vintage guitars at Ishibashi Gakki, one of the largest instrument dealers in Japan. He left Ishibashi about 30 years ago, a year after I left Japan, and he opened up his own shop in Nagoya. Now he has another store in Shibuya, which is in Tokyo, where I used to deal with him. He has some cool guitars, but this one I think some of you will find pretty cool. This is a 1955 Fender Telecaster which Keith Richards signed and gave to him in 2003. He helped out the Rolling Stones on several occasions, so Keith gave him this guitar. I didn't know but he told me that Keith travels with 50 guitars when he's on tour, and he owns about 1000 vintage guitars. On stage Keith plays with 5 vintage tweed Fender Twin amps, using a mic and the sound crew pumps it through the sound system. Anyway, a cool guitar none the less. He wrote this book in 2005, it's mainly a book of picture, and mostly has Gibson guitars...he's really fond of Sunburst Les Pauls and has a few... Can't wait to get back to my jalopy! LOL
Cool story and very cool guitar. I was lucky enough to be the care taker of a 57 Fender Telecaster back in the 80's, I had it for 6 years. My Uncle owned it, him and my aunt got divorced and he went middle aged crazy for a while. He called me one day wanting to know if I still had his guitar because he had a buyer for it. I could have bought it for $1500.00 the same price this guitar dealer was offering, but at the time I just didn't have the money. So away it went, that was a sad day for me I loved that guitar. The dealer sold it a week later to a guy in Texas for $18000.00. If I had only known it would bring that much money I would have got a loan and bought it. Young and dumb I guess.
Now they are crazy, most anything from the 50s is through the roof. Some people like the 60s rosewood neck Fenders, but I like the 50s. I've had a couple Broadcasters, made around '49/'50, the very first year of the Telecaster. Fender had to change the name as Gretch had already been using the Broadcaster name. Those were more back then as well, since they were always rarer, but I can only imagine how much those are worth now. If you had it today and it was all original it would go for about $25k-$30k most likely. In 30 years it's gone 10x in price. That is not true of all the guitars, but many of them. The sunburst Les Pauls from the 50s were about $20k-$25k in the 80s, my friend above bought about a dozen of them from me. Those are now around $250k-$300k. That's nucking futz... Many things are like that in life though, and the really clean ones have appreciated even more so...really clean guitars always draw a premium. Really clean original cars do as well... When you think about appreciation, old cars and trucks have also appreciated in a similar way. It was way easier to get a the '40s and '50s trucks in the '80s, those have gone up quite a bit, but not like guitars. At least in regards to cars and pickups, I'm surprised they aren't worth more... Of course the original ones will always be worth more in the long run, unless someone just throws silly money in a resto-mod. I just like old ways, old $#!T, old times...I guess...vintage guitars, vintage vehicles, log homes...I like working wood by hand, without power tools...I just want to be sitting on my porch, picking a Martin, not having to worry about modern headaches...
Oldest one I've got is my 1950 Kay Archtop. I added the cheese grater pickups to it.. needs rewiring since I did that a long time ago. Next in line is my 1960 Silvertone (Sears) Archtop (built by Kay). I also have an ancient Tenor Banjo, but no idea how old it actually is. Belonged to my grandfather and was passed down to me by my uncle.
The top has a very familiar grain like my Kay upright had. It was my first upright. That's a cool guitar, what would be considered the higher end of Kays. Thanks for sharing.
Great thread. Without being very knowledgeable (which I’m not) it would be difficult to pick up a true vintage guitar. Just so many reproductions out there. Here’s a picture of my first guitar taken about 63 years ago. Looks to be a Stella. Probably from Montgomery Ward. I’m channeling my best Elvis there. The other pic is one of my current projects. Started building cigar box guitars. Fun winter projects.
Not exactly vintage guitars but i 13 of em might post pics of em later Sent from my LG-M327 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
There were many times back in the late 70's and early 80's I could have bought late 50's and early 60's Tele's and Strat's for $200.00-$300.00. You know what they say about hindsight, I could have helped my retirement fund for sure.
Yep, as I always like to say...coulda, woulda, shoulda...it's all about hindsight...Put yourself in my shoes, I have had hundreds of vintage guitars run through my hands...to say I should have some more of them is an understatement. But it is the same for all things in life, people say that about real estate all the time...you will hear them say, "had I bought a house here 25 years ago..., I'd be rich now...". Life is full of coulda, woulda, shouldas...it's endless...Or what about cars and trucks..."Had I only kept that '67 Mustang GTA Convertible..." Yep, I've said that so many times...but the reality is I sold it to get my house out of foreclosure, which in turn I sold and bought the house I own now... As a famous song once said... "and if you can't be with the one you love honey love the one you're with.." It's a very rare occurrence for any of us to be with the one we love...that's reality.
I have my great grandfathers 1947 National lap steel electric guitar (New Yorker model) and original amp. Man I need to learn how to play the damned thing. Denny
Denny, Those are cool, they kind of resemble the Empire State Building to me. I've sold a few of those lap steels in my time...probably made of bakelite, the majority of the Nationals were. Very cool instruments.
The Jalopy Journal
