Friday, October 31, 2008

Vintage Guitars as an Investment

By Chick Tommason Bert Marshall Hoppy Jackson

Have you ever thought about using vintage electric guitars as a way to beat inflation and present devaluation of the bond market to invest in your future? Putting your money in an original flying v or an original Paul McCartney left handed guitar should retain or increase value in your vintage electric guitar beyond what can be found in financial markets today.

The high demand for Fender's vintage sunburst Stratocaster, vintage Fender guitar amplifiers and vintage Gibson hollow-body electric guitars keep their prices up and rising. The unique sound produced by vintage guitars, not only nostalgia for early rock and roll history keeps their value high among collectors.

Experienced musicians know guitars made decades ago are unique and have a sound all to their own. Vintage electric guitars were made when the technology to do so was in its early stages. Electronic pick-ups were either hand wound or partially machine wound leaving each to be a little different from the next. A few less turns, a few less or more strands of wire made each pick-up different on every vintage electric guitar. Early electric guitars were partially or fully hand-made with wood stock that was not exactly the same from guitar to guitar making sound boxes reverberate a little differently from the next. That meant that pick-ups and sound boxes were unique to each vintage electric guitar making them sound different among similar product lines. Through time, some of the varnish surrounding the wound copper wire in the pick-ups degrade causing a little natural distortion in the electronic pick-up further differentiating the uniqueness of each and every vintage electric guitar and extremely sought after by master musicians trying to find "the vintage electric guitar" that sounds perfect to them.

Marshall and Yamaha solid-state amplifiers on the market today are cleaner, unlike original Fender guitar amplifiers which were made with tubes. Fender and Epiphone tubed vintage amplifiers had tonal qualities that are prized because they are not "clean", but sound unique. Guitarists playing vintage guitars and vintage amplifiers can be identified by those with good ears.

The best way to chose a vintage electric guitar and/or vintage guitar amplifier is to play it to hear its unique sound qualities. Hearing the sound a vintage electric guitar produces or the unique sound of a tubed vintage guitar amplifier assures the investor of the musical demand an electric guitar may have. Low Fender serial numbers on the back of the body indicate more of the historical demand a vintage electric guitar may have. If your potential investment has both a low serial number and that unique and "special" sound of a fine musical instrument, you have struck gold! - 15275

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