Old Flames

The question of how to get the vintage vibe from your guitar is getting more complex by the year. A high-end reissue should be an obvious choice for the vintage guitar fan who can’t afford the real deal. But, as usual, things aren’t quite that simple. Just to muddy the waters further, the price of the most prestigious reissues is climbing to be almost on a par with tatty examples of the real thing. This doesn’t hold true of the most sought-after electrics, such as sunburst Les Pauls from the late 50s, but get into Gibson’s less-prized 60s models and the picture changes. For example, a 1961 Les Paul/SG Custom with maybe a refin or some other non-original details can often be found for around the same price as an aged Custom Shop version.

We wanted to explore these issues in a bit more depth than usual so we produced a couple of unique videos you might want to check out – firstly, we visited the incredible collection of collector Andrew Raymond (see page 96) to try some original 1959 ’Bursts to see how the ‘Holy Grail’ genuine article felt – with incredible Welsh guitarist Chris Buck as our test pilot for these awe-inspiring instruments. Are they really as good as the legend suggests? We also sent Nev Marten over to demo the Gibson reissues that grace this month’s cover with tone maven Mick Taylor of That Pedal Show (see page 38). So once you’ve read the review be sure to check out those videos to get the full measure of how close the best of reissues get to the real thing. Enjoy the issue and see you next month.