• From: Nottingham, UK
  • Registered: 2006-08-08
  • Posts: 690

Topic: The Collecting Bubble

I'm coming on like Grandpa Simpson here; 'Ha in the old days you bought a guitar to play not hang on yer wall or sell on eBay!'.


Anyone else disturbed by guitars becoming an executive version of trading beanie babies? The whole market seems based around 40-something collectors and recreating historical axes. Now this is fine but there are few clues to a newbie on what a 21st Century guitar is like.


And relics?!? I'm reminded of the heady days of 80s comics when you couldn't actually read issue #1 because collectors had bought a dozen of it each. Will the guitar collecting bubble burst soon?

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'
  • From: Starkville, Mississippi USA
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 2,069

Re: The Collecting Bubble

Anything is 'collectable', musical instruments included.  I don't begrudge anyone finding pleasure in owning any object and being fascinated by the details of it's construction and historical context.  The phenomena of guitars being highly prized is a natural result of people loving the music they can create.  So - folks who find such things interesting - hey, let them have their fun - it's neat stuff.


I do however strongly agree with you regarding the effect it may have on progress in creating new and possibly better-designed instruments.  Recent innovations in ceramics, carbon fiber compounds, polymers, metalic alloys have yielded woundrous possibilities for creating instruments using these new materials.


However, the primary focus of most manufacturers is to churn out 'new antiques'.  The Model T was a great car in it's day - but modern cars are constructed from better materials and have refinements that make them better cars.  I trust that some creative luthiers are experimenting with radical 'concept instruments' (just like the 'concept cars') using new materials and new ideas . . . but the guitar industry seems mired in a rut of nostalgia.

"That darn Pythagorean Comma thing keeps messing me up!"
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_comma[/url]

James McCormick's Website

  • From: Bellevue, WA
  • Registered: 2006-06-15
  • Posts: 3,336

Re: The Collecting Bubble

I think it's great.  It ensures a whole lot of low use, low cost guitars on the market when this particular fad has run it's course.  Kind of like beanie babies and Harleys.  The market will eventually saturate, supply will meet demand, and then I win!  <img src="images/smiley_icons/icon_biggrin.gif" border=0 alt="Very Happy">

Someday we'll win this thing...

[url=http://www.aclosesecond.com]www.aclosesecond.com[/url]

jerome.oneil's Website

  • Registered: 2007-01-29
  • Posts: 533

Re: The Collecting Bubble

<font color="blue"></font>I really get frustrated at the collecting craze. Recent guitar show in Dallas Tx had beat up old 70-80s Fender Strats and Gibson Les Pauls for 10-15-20 thousand dollars! It was ridiculas! Some of the older ones were listed for over 50 thousand. They looked like someone had thrown them in the back of a pickup truck for several years...! They said "It's the sound"...only a vintage has "That sound". I think it's crazy to spend that much money for junk!

Middleaged Redneck sorta guy who refuses to grow up...passion for music, especially Southern Rock but like bout everything cept Gangsta/Hip Hop. Collect guitars, mandolins, and love to ride Harleys.
  • From: Nottingham, UK
  • Registered: 2006-08-08
  • Posts: 690

Re: The Collecting Bubble

Thanks for your optimism Jerome. Glad you can see where I'm coming from Jay. I'm very suspicious of this 'tone' business but it's an elite thing. - I haven't handled a pre-65 stratocaster so I can't gainsay a dealer who claims it is worth as much as my house.


Same goes for some of these battered genuine relics from the 70s, they might have a good sound if a luthier straightened them out and upgraded parts but collectors won't do that, they want an 'as played then' claim. Now I seem to remember alot of 70s guitars were rubbish but again it could be I was handling the cheap stuff my friends parents could afford not whatever the dealers want me to buy today.


Does body block or neck tonewood improve with age? On my Seagull the top board will flex with playing and get slightly more elastic/resonant and so the sound improves a tad over the years. The bizarre thing is if I tried to sell it on eBay the knocks and scratches of playing would make it less sellable that one that had been left in the box untouched...

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'
  • From: Pico Rivera, Calif. U.S.A.
  • Registered: 2006-10-26
  • Posts: 785

Re: The Collecting Bubble

The tone will improve as your guitar wood is seasoned(aged) also different woods will give you different tones. But you also have to remember that the amp and effects you play also have alot to do with your tonal shaping(electrics). As far as the reply by jaygordon75 he is hitting it on the head. If you go on the gibson or fender web sight you can find the years that serial number secquences were issued. Cruise pawn shops and look at the paul's and strat's.


You can also find a luthier that has some seasoned wood and have him build a custom for less than you can find one at a guitar show.

You also have to distinguish what you want a guitar you can play or a guitar you can play.


Bootleger.

  • Registered: 2007-02-12
  • Posts: 52

Re: The Collecting Bubble

I don't care what it sounds like, no electric guitar should cost $75,000 dollars like a '50s strat I saw in guitar center on 23rd street in Manhattan.  Maybe Segovia's Hauser is worth more than that...But it's in the Met museum of Art.


I also hear that if you buy a classical guitar from a luthier, they will charge collectors more for a new unstrument...

  • From: Pico Rivera, Calif. U.S.A.
  • Registered: 2006-10-26
  • Posts: 785

Re: The Collecting Bubble

It is not a question if you care or not. If someone has money to spenf friviously they will and thats what drives the collectors market. People with money to spend!