Diving down the vintage rabbit hole!

Discussion of vintage Jazzmasters, Jaguars, Bass VIs, Electric XIIs and any other offset-waist instruments.
User avatar
MT
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 2221
Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:59 am
Location: Brisbane Australia

Re: Diving down the vintage rabbit hole!

Post by MT » Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:03 am

Remember that there are plenty of vintage instruments that are complete dogs. Vintage doesn’t mean it’s going to necessarily be better than a newer one. If at all possible, play them yourself before buying.

Have a think about what guitar you really want. If you really want a Jag or Jazzmaster then I see no real point spending money on a Mustang or whatever just so you can say that you own something vintage. That money is better off being put towards getting something you really want.

Don’t be afraid to refret a vintage neck once the fret wear is affecting playability. I refretted my 59 JM neck and it was the best thing I could have done for it. The guitar was 100% a better instrument afterwards. Just get a professional to do it properly.

If you are fine with non vintage parts then maybe look for a vintage body and neck on the sale forum here and then slowly replace things over time (if you actually feel the need to). Who knows, having the vintage body and neck with modern tuners, mastery trem and bridge and a great set of new “vintage style” pickups may work perfectly for you.

User avatar
UlricvonCatalyst
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 7193
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2009 4:05 am
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Re: Diving down the vintage rabbit hole!

Post by UlricvonCatalyst » Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:28 pm

bterry wrote:
Fri Jan 10, 2020 12:27 pm
UlricvonCatalyst wrote:
Fri Jan 10, 2020 1:38 am
bterry wrote:
Mon Jan 06, 2020 8:26 pm
Lastly, the UK is quite a viper’s nest of fake vintage Fender guitars. It’s notorious, actually. Do you know anyone who has vintage instruments you could spend time with or learn from?
This is news to me. What is this claim based on?

OP - as a happy Partstang owner I can confirm this is indeed the way to go. I got exceptionally lucky with a '66 Mustang body for a mere $100; I think those days are firmly in the rear-view mirror. Also $1000 Mustangs/Duo-Sonics may be a thing in the USA, but over here it'd be more like £1000+ if you can find a vintage one for sale.
Really? Almost every serious vintage guitar collector I know has the same opinion. At least half or more the custom color guitars I see coming out of the UK are fake. Denmark Street was notorious as well, lots of faked guitars came out of there for years. A certain London-based vintage shop is notorious as well, I've personally seen 5-6 guitars that came from that shop that were obviously refinished but sold as original in the past few years.
Oh right, I see. To me "fake" suggested something other than an undeclared refinish.

User avatar
timtam
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 2729
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2017 2:42 am
Location: Melbourne

Re: Diving down the vintage rabbit hole!

Post by timtam » Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:40 pm

So the risk/cost of a deliberate, recent 'faked' custom colour refin to bump up the asking price (since original custom colours command a premium price) is lower than keeping the real stock original finish and selling for a bit less ? Presumably this con is more likely with strats and teles than offsets, where the asking price/gain is magnified (but also the knowledge/ability of collectors to detect the con) ?
"I just knew I wanted to make a sound that was the complete opposite of a Les Paul, and that’s pretty much a Jaguar." Rowland S. Howard.

User avatar
bterry
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1351
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:53 am

Re: Diving down the vintage rabbit hole!

Post by bterry » Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:03 pm

Yeah offsets are somewhat less vulnerable but not entirely due to refinishing and other things like fake parts b/c offsets were often striped of their original finishes and parts taken for things like Strats which were more valuable.

The stakes were often lower because price points were lower but now that Jazzmasters are easily pushing $20-$30k for original and rarer pre-cbs custom-color examples it's getting harder to say that. The last gold guard '59 Jazzmaster in blond sold for over $40k USD, for example...it would certainly be worth someone's time to fake a finish or a few parts for that kind of cash!

This shouldn't bother the OP though as that's the rare stuff, not the kind of stuff he's after ATM.

Post Reply