Thursday, October 30, 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.

Each guitar was just a little bit different when these vintage guitars were made decades ago and the technology to produce them was in its early stages. Many of the electric pick-ups were hand-wound, or if they were machine-made, just a little different from the next. If the pick-ups had a few less strands of wire, the sound would be just a little different. Sound boxes as part of the bodies were not made exactly uniform either, making the guitars sound just a little different from same product lines making each guitar just a little unique. Finally, the electronics degraded over time causing each instrument to be a little different from the next.

Don't forget that vintage guitar amplifiers have similar characteristics as vintage electric guitars. Because of their age and time of manufacture, their tube technology and method of fabrication allows for variation in their sound too, making them as unique as their instrument counterparts. Today's electronics favor clean and uniform sound and any variation to come from synthesizers or other modification techniques. Vintage amplifiers were "dirty" and different from unit to unit and not uniform at all, a prized feature of vintage electric guitars and Epiphone or Fender vintage guitar amplifiers.

Look for low Fender serial numbers on the back of the body when buying a vintage guitar or vintage amplifier. Web-sites of Fender, Epiphone, Gibson, Jackson Guitars and Yamaha vintage guitars will guide you to when a specific vintage serial number occurred which will help you in your purchase as to when it was made and possibly for whom. In order to be sure your investment will continue to increase in value, know as much as possible before making the decision to buy a vintage electric guitar.

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