Article by Harry Jesson
There are quite a few reasons to collect vintage guitars and one good motive is value. These pieces seems to keep and increase their value ever since it became popular to invest and collect them. It can be in comparison to investing in valuable metals like silver and gold and compared to shares they indicates much more stabilty. Of course not all vintage guitars are that worthy, it depends on brand name, rarity and condition but with specific manufacturers like Fender commonly most guitar from the fifties and sixties are vastly collectible.
Not just their value is a fine reason to assemble them but moreover their inventive value. In my belief they can be compared to paintings, all hold their history and marks that tells a story. A lot of enthusiasts as well as me hang up their guitars on a wall and look at them and admire them. They all looks to posess a soul and are carismatic pieces. In particular those that I know the history of and former owners, some of them very famous.
Not only enthusiasts and investors want vintage guitars but as well todays musicians. Why is that? That is because all own their own individual tone that is a effect of how they are produced. The technology that was used in early years was a bit primitive and pieces were usually hand made. That led to little variations between the guitars that led to different tones. It is understandable that musicians wishes to create their own sound and an instrument that tunes a bit atypical builds up that desire. These guitars were mostly made of mahogany, oak and som other top quality resources, some of them even had mother of pearl and gold inlays.
The most famous guitar brands are Fender and Gibson. Leo Fender established the Fender Electric Instrument Company in 1949 and produced the Broadcaster, soon to be renamed the iconic Telecaster about 1950. In 1951 Fender created and produced the first electric bass guitar and started promoting it and Gibson launched the Les Paul model of electric guitars in 1952. In the same year Fender released of three pick-up Stratocaster. Both are still building guitars but just guitars from 1950s and 1969s are precious as gathering objects. The later versions was mass manufactured and all machine produced so they all possess the similar sound.
If you come across a vintage guitar look for the serial number. Surf the web and find out what serial figures that was used in those early times and see if those guitars you find has a satisfactory number. Do not hesitate to purchase if the price is sensible. Using some skill obtained over time you will instantly realize if an elderly guitar is worth buying or not.A fine location to start hunting for vintage guitars would be online and I propose Ebay, where both dealers and private individuals sell guitars.