gerrywm

I never bought into the whole vintage thing UNTIL.......
I was getting some gear serviced at a local Luther and he let me play some proper vintage acoustics, I'm talking 1946 0018 Martin acoustics, 1907 french gypsy jazz guitars up to early 70's jap yamaha's - my god there is some difference....His opinion, with acoustics anyway the wood just has to age, the guitar will become more resonant and a LOT louder, as the guitars age a lot of factors change and a good guitar will get better and a badly made guitar will warp and degrade... His opinion as well, even with his own guitars (which are collectors items now in Ireland as he has retired) that it takes about 10 years for a guitar to find its own voice and its tone should really start improving from then on....

Now I am not sure how this translates with electrics, there should be a difference but how much? its really obvious with acoustics. I think a lot of the hype around vintage stems from the hand built aspect. Quality was more variable, the good were really good but stinkers were possibly more common and probably haven't survived this long resulting the cream surviving and thus the notion of vintage = better being put around

__________________
07 Gibson Les Paul LE
06 Fender Mex Strat - SDJb Jr, duckbucker, lil 59
Floor
Cry Baby 95Q-> Digitech Whammy -> DD3 -> MXR Micro Amp-> TU 2
Loop
Holy Grail ->Boss Rc20 Loop Station
Amp
Laney GH50 with Zilla Fatboy 2x12 (celestion g12-65)

gerrywm

This is true, the guy I mentioned fixed a lot of vintage guitars sent to him from around the world as he (being building guitars since the 60's) had small supplies of these timbers left in stock - just enough for repairs and patch up jobs not for new builds

__________________
07 Gibson Les Paul LE
06 Fender Mex Strat - SDJb Jr, duckbucker, lil 59
Floor
Cry Baby 95Q-> Digitech Whammy -> DD3 -> MXR Micro Amp-> TU 2
Loop
Holy Grail ->Boss Rc20 Loop Station
Amp
Laney GH50 with Zilla Fatboy 2x12 (celestion g12-65)

Ruark

Sometimes a certain line of guitars was made in different countries in different times. Maybe from 60 to 68, they were made in one country, from 69 to 75, made in another country, and so on, with sometimes dramatic differences.

__________________
------------------------------
Ibanez Artstar AS80
Yamaha CG151C
Yamaha YPG225
Yamaha FG720S
Peavey Special 212
Vox Pathfinder 15
DR Pure Blues .010s, Dunlop Gel Heavys

marjoriefish

Without sound samples, any claims about vintage guitars are unfalsifiable and can be disregarded.

"Old growth wood" sounds like bullshit to me. In a solidbody electric guitar, the wood just doesn't matter that much. Basswood might sound different from alder to the trained ear. But different degrees of alder? No way. I'm convinced that if you blindfolded a good player and handed him a real vintage 62'Jazzmaster and an AVRI Jazzmaster, he couldn't tell the difference.

The value of a vintage guitar is that it's vintage. Some people are willing to pay more -- sometimes a lot more --for oldness or perceived genuineness. Others aren't. That's fine.

gregs1020

1 - have you not heard or played any vintage instruments?

2 - if your answer to #1 is no then you're speculating here. what does someone being able to tell the difference matter? tighter grained wood that's long dried can be more resonant and lighter weight. both of which people find desirable, at least i do.


3 - totally agree. like roc8995 said, they aren't making any more original '57 strats or '59 les pauls for that matter. so it's a supply/demand thing.

marjoriefish

Yes, I've played lots of vintage instruments. I've played 50's Strats that sound great and 50's Strats that sound awful. Just like today's instruments, some have it, some don't. Regarding long-dried, the wood is already dry when they make the guitar. Not sure how it can get any drier, especially under paint and laquer.

And since someone compared it to Stradivarius violins, here's what happens if you mix up some Strads in a pile with some new violins and give them to some world class players. They can't tell the difference. http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivec...-pick-the-strad

The term to sum up this whole thread is Confirmation Bias. If you're convinced that there's magic in a 1959 Stratocaster, you'll find magic. It's like the Virgin Mary in a piece of toast.

Axe Murderer

They dry the wood enough for working/building purposes. The wood continues to dry after that. Wood takes a very long time to dry out. Older guitars are usually lighter as a result of continuing drying. Also,as the wood dries, it shrinks, so a lot of older guitars have "damaged" finishes due to the paint not being able to flex or shink with the wood, so you get cracking, flaking etc. on some older guitar finishes.

gregs1020

it's funny how a person can post a couple things and you're like, i'm not going to waste any more of my day with this.

que Ron White.