Amid this series of tidbits on tone, I want to insert an article that is really more of an advice piece for inexperienced buyers who might be tempted into the vintage market. Plenty of instruments are turning up in all the usual used-guitar haunts, online and elsewhere, tagged as being “player’s guitars”, or “player’s vintage” — vintage guitars that, if in original and/or good condition, would be of great interest to collectors, but since they’re not, theoretically offer good value to players, and the opportunity to acquire an instrument from the golden age that can be gigged and not just stored in a glass case. If ever a category of used guitars deserved a fat, red caveat emptor tag, this is it. Let’s take a brief look at what “vintage” itself means, then we’ll differentiate “player’s vintage”, in theory and in reality.
A lot of guitars for sale on the secondhand market today are described as “vintage”, and loosely speaking the term can, perhaps, be applied to any “older” guitar, pre-1980 being a reasonable guideline, although not long ago the cut-off applied to guitars of the late ’60s and before. In the guitar world, however, “vintage” is usually more correctly used to describe a guitar that is of some interest to collectors, and which possibly has some elevated financial value above that of a mere “used” guitar. Several prized vintage Gibson and Fender electric guitars made in the 1950s and early ’60s regularly sell for $20,000 to $50,000 and more on the collector’s market, while a highly prized 1958-’60 Gibson Les Paul Standard, in good original condition, can fetch the price of a comfortable three-bedroom house. Too often, though, unscrupulous dealers will use the vintage tag to lure a customer into paying over the odds for a beat up old instrument that is only going to be harder to play, and cost more in repairs down the road, than a serviceable new or newer-used model.
This brings us to the subject at hand: player’s vintage guitars, usually just called a “player’s” guitar. Dealers and private sellers alike might promote a vintage guitar as a “player’s” instrument because it has suffered some alteration from its original state. Typical changes include refinishes, changed pickups, extra body routes, non-original bridges and tuners, and so forth. Also, with bolt-neck guitars, you will sometimes encounter instruments that have been put together from the parts of different guitars: a body from 1962 and a neck from 1967, with pickups from the early ’70s, for example. Serious guitar collectors maintain strict definitions of what is and isn’t collectible, and any change from original will dent a vintage guitar’s value, however slight — or even necessary — that change is. For example, a desirable vintage guitar that is in excellent and otherwise original condition, but has had a refret and a new nut to keep it in good playing condition, will still be worth less than a similar model in similar condition, with original frets and nut, even if the latter is less playable than the former (it seems crazy, but that’s the way it goes). In good condition, the refretted guitar might still be very collectible; give it a new finish and change it’s tuners and one of its volume pots, however, and it is far less collectible, and now worth perhaps only about 50% of the value of the all-original example, though it will still sell for more than a new or newer used guitar. This is the player’s guitar: it maintains some vintage value, but is more within reach of the gigging guitarist’s bank account, can be taken out to clubs and bars without as much risk of loss or damage, and most of all, it should play great… even better, in many cases, than the all-original vintage example that has been untouched for fear of harming its value.
The trouble arises with old instruments that are described simply as player’s guitars because they have been beaten and abused and modified over the years, and not necessarily to the end of making them play better. In fact, maybe they really don’t play very well at all, and they certainly aren’t worth anything to a collector, either. I encountered a perfect example of what I’d call a faux player’s guitar a few years ago. I was checking out a certain 1961 slab-board, three-pickup electric in a guitar store that was carrying the usual description because the seller was acknowledging a refin and non-original pickups. Outwardly, everything else at first appeared to be kosher… or nearly. Upon pulling the pickguard I found an entirely non-vintage (but factory fresh) humbucking pickup route in the bridge position, indicating a more recent replacement body, and closer examination of the tuning keys and bridge saddles showed that both had been pieced together from different sets. On top of all this, the frets were at the end of their lifespan. When I queried the dealer about these points in light of the several-$1k asking price tag, he told me, “Well, it’s a player’s guitar.” To which I replied, of course, “But it plays terribly. And it isn’t worth that much, whatever you call it.”
In order to do well in a “player’s vintage” purchase, you need to know proper, collector’s vintage guitars inside out in the first place, or to have access to a friend who does, and to be able to readily calculate the total reduction in value that any given example has suffered due to the alterations visited upon it. Keep in mind the original principles of the player’s guitar, described above, that can sometimes make a good and genuine example of the breed an excellent way for a player to get his or her hands on a sweet old guitar. But if an instrument doesn’t play well and has lost the better part of its investment value, buyer beware: that guitar is probably better headed for the parts drawer, unless it is going for a song.