MADE TO BE PLAYED
From pickup swaps and body chops to refins, dings and underlings, our panel of industry experts delves into the ever more enticing realm of vintage non-collectables
As much as those golden-era classics capture our imaginations, when it comes to everyday music making, a guitar’s worth is measured by its value as a working instrument. “People are often too scared to go for these collectable museum pieces,” says Scott Cameron of SC Relics. “They don’t want an immaculate 1963 Strat because when are they going to use it? They don’t want to put a chip in it! People don’t want to be held back from playing by being scared they might devalue their guitar. ‘Player’s-grade’ guitars on the other hand aren’t museum pieces. They’ve had a life. They look well used and well loved. A player’s-grade guitar normally shows definite signs of wear and you tend to find something has been changed, or maybe the neck is really played in. Of course, they’re often some of the best-playing guitars. And people aren’t so worried about dinging them off a drum kit!
“Whenever I read about a player’s grade guitar online and look at the spec list, it might say something like it’s ‘had a refret’, ‘one of the tuners is not original’, ‘one of the pots has been changed’ – that sort of thing. We’ll often see player’s grade [pre-CBS Fenders] with nasty old refinishes. They can be really hammered old guitars with a terrible refinish from the 70s, like leftover kitchen paint. We had one in for a strip and refinish recently that smelled of old paint and cigarettes and spilled alcohol but we were like, ‘This thing is so cool!’ The guy who brought it in said, ‘Yeah, I bought it for two grand about 10 years ago and I’m just getting around to sorting it out.’ Bargain!”
“There was a 50 per cent rule of thumb with respect to the value of refinished guitars but I think the gap is closing,” Luke Hobbs of Gardiner Houlgate tells us. “Especially if it’s a really goodplaying guitar. I had a ’63 Strat in an auction a couple of years ago and it was refinished in black. It had original pickups but it’d been routed out for a humbucker and had cavity repairs. It had a replacement scratchplate, because the original had been butchered to allow for that humbucker; a couple of replaced pots; a replaced switch; and a couple of the tuners were repros. Plus the neck had been refinished. And it had had a refret. But it was a phenomenal player.
“There was a 50 per cent rule of thumb with respect to the value of refinished guitars but the gap is closing”
“Player’s-grade’ guitars aren’t museum pieces. They’ve had a life.… And they’re often some of the best-playing guitars”
It sounded incredible! There were two people bidding against each other and it fetched nearly double what we were expecting. If it’s not original, it’s got to be a good-playing guitar.”
While it is common for people to set about gradually restoring such guitars back to a more period-correct condition, this does not necessarily guarantee improvements in terms of sound and feel. Matt Gleeson of Monty’s Guitars explains: “If you’ve found a guitar with, say, a 50s neck but the other parts are non-original, you could keep your eyes open and gradually obtain a 50s body, bridge, pickups and so on, so you eventually end up with a 50s guitar. It’s a more affordable way to get something ‘golden era’. But be aware you might get all your 50s bits, put it all together and find it sounds like toilet! You might even find you want to put it back to how it was when you bought it. But the beauty of doing things like that is the journey through it all – you learn so much. It’s a real treasure hunt.”
“Back in the 70s, when a 60s Strat was just a secondhand guitar, a lot of those so-called ‘golden era’ guitars did have mods done,” recalls guitar dealer Richard Henry. “People added different tuners and bridges, swapped out pickups, they cut up the old celluloid ’guards for different switches, they refinished them, and they stripped them down to natural and oiled them. And where are all those guitars now? I’ll tell you where they are: they’ve mostly been restored to their original condition. A lot of people don’t really care, as long as they can get it at the right price. Everybody likes a bargain.
“They’ve got a bad rep but I think some of the 70s Gibsons are cool guitars,” Richard adds. “In the 80s, people used to say, ‘70s Gibsons are rubbish,’ because of the volutes and pancake bodies. But it
“If you’ve found a guitar with, say, a 50s neck, you could gradually obtain the 50s body, bridge, pickups and so on”
“Early 70s and prior used to be ‘vintage’ as far as guitars go but now people are calling 80s guitars ‘vintage’”
was just a progression from the late-60s reissues. They might have a laminate construction but they were still being made in the Kalamazoo factory. People like Clapton and The Stones were buying guitars that were made in the 50s and 60s but a lot of those classic 70s rock bands, like Thin Lizzy, used Norlin-era Gibsons. And the Sex Pistols redefined rock music in the 70s with their Norlin-driven wall of sound.”
Although the guitar building industry has had its share of ups and downs over the years, there are always plenty of hidden gems available on the used market that are all too easily overlooked. “If you’re not looking at the classic models like Strats, Teles and Les Pauls, I’d say the key thing is to approach guitars with an open mind,” advises Paul Tucker of Vintage ‘n’ Rare Guitars. “If you buy an ES-120T, for example, don’t expect it to play like a 335. As far
as Gibsons go, I think the best era to buy today with respect to value for money is the late-80s stuff. It’s a bit of a sleeper era that often gets overlooked, particularly when it comes to Les Paul Standards and Customs. The quality is fantastic after Henry [Juszkiewicz] went in and shook things up. He took it back to a more historic ethos in terms of design.
“I like the term ‘practical vintage’ because that includes some of the more under-the-radar guitars. Practical vintage is a good way of describing those guitars, which are very usable instruments but don’t have the hefty price tags of the collectible stuff. If you’re shopping around, you might not necessarily want a player’s-grade guitar; you can buy a practical vintage guitar that’s still in fantastic condition and is all original. What’s important is how you get inspired by the guitar. There’s a guitar out there for everybody.” [RB]
“If you’re not looking at Strats, Teles and Les Pauls, the key thing is to approach guitars with an open mind”
“‘Practical vintage’ includes some of the more under-the-radar guitars. Very usable instruments but they don’t have the hefty price tags”