Jump to content

Anyone here actually PLAYED a vintage guitar?


One-armed Alec

Recommended Posts

  • Members

Did you ever get to spend five minutes plunking away on a pre-CBS Strat?

 

Or perhaps today you are the lucky owner of a '59 LP flametop?

 

Either way, what was it like? How did it compare with its modern equivalent (if indeed there is one)?

 

For the purposes of this thread, let's consider anything that was manufactured pre-1970 as 'vintage'. I know this isn't the official definition of 'vintage', and it may not be everyone's idea of what it should mean, but we gotta draw the line somewhere. Exceptions shall be considered if accompanied by a particularly interesting anecdote, insight, or pic of a bird with a nice arse ;)

 

:thu:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 155
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

I've played several vintage guitars that were highly valuable and absolutely none of them played well. Granted it could just be that they haven't been setup in 40 years but they didn't have the feel that you get with a newer/modern guitar.

 

It was pretty cool to hold it though...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Interesting.

 

Closest I've come so far is holding a '52 Goldtop which had:

 

- Replacement tuners

- Replacement nut

- A refret

- Replacement pickups

- Replacement hardware

- Replacement electronics

 

Basically a 55-year-old neck and body. What I will say is that it was a damn sight lighter than a modern solidbody LP - almost as light as a modern chambered LP Standard.

 

Not many pre-CBS Strats around these here parts. I only know of one for sale in Scotland!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Had a few 60's Voxs. Dreadfull things. Not a patch on the reissues like Phantom guitars in the US

 

I think old is overrated in many cases. Top of the line stuff maybe. But old for old, not for me. The 70's Japanese stuff can be pretty cool though.,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I can spend five minutes plunking on a pre-CBS Strat whenever I want to. In fact, I can plunk on it as long as I like (provided volume levels are tolerable to my psychotic neighbour, and to the lady of the house). My beloved black 1963 Strat is currently the only vintage guitar I own*, tho' in the past I've had:

Another 63 Strat (stolen, sad to say)

1968 ES355 (traded for the above stolen 63 Strat)

1967 Gibson Trini Lopez Standard (sold due to financial emergency)

1963 SG Jr (sold because I was a dumbass, and to offset purchase of ES355)

1966 Jaguar (sold because, frankly, I didn't like it much)

1963 Gibson B25-12 acoustic (stolen)

Two different '76/'77 Telecasters (not really vintage at the time -- it was in 1977/8)

1967 Mustang (ditto -- it was 1968)

 

All of them -- apart from the Jag and the Mustang, which didn't suit me and which I don't miss -- I preferred to their modern incarnations. They seemed -- how can I put this? -- looser. Funkier. More relaxed. Slinkier. Not so stiff. Compared to a modern guitar, a vintage one seems to have smoked a joint, had a couple of glasses of wine and started to feel slightly horny.

 

After a decade or so in my custody, my 1997 MIJ Jerry Donahue Tele is starting to feel like that. And my Custom Shop Jeff Beck was well on the road to that kind of vibe the moment I first pulled it out of the case (I guess that's a large chunk of what you pay for when you go CS).

 

*And, at current vintage prices, it's safe to say that I'll probably never be able to afford another one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

A refin 1960 Strat [original parts]

2 chopped Teles [1965 Tele Custom and 1966 Esquire] [both were really unoriginal]

1969 Tele [stock]

1968 Mustang [stock]

1968 LP Goldtop [stock]

others I can't remember

and about 35 different 70s Strats, Teles, Jazzmasters and the odd P Bass.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Had the opportunity to purchase a '69 LP Custom for $2G a decade ago.


I played and played that guitar...but in the end, I couldn't afford it. It was magical.

 

 

A friend of mine owns one. It was valued at

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I played 1955 Gibson Gold Top Les Paul and a 1956 Fender Stratocaster at Paul Unkert's shop (www.unkguitars.com) and they were the best solid body guitars I've ever played in my life. My cousin let me borrow a mid 60's Gibson Johnny Smith and a 1984 Jimmy D'Aquist blonde New Yorker. IMO, the Johnny Smith was much better than the D'Aquisto New Yorker.

 

Vintage collectors seem to prefer American guitars made up until 1965.

IMO, American craftsmanship and pride is very noticeable in pre 1965 instruments. IMO, companies like: Don Grosh; Tom Anderson; Terry McInturff; Jim Triggs; Robert Benedetto; Steve Grimes; Mark Lacey; Bill Collings; Tom Ribbecke; Linda Manzer and Paul Reed Smith have the ability and talent to make an instrument just as good as a quality pre 1965 American instrument.

 

Gibson; Fender; Martin & Rickenbacker can still make a great guitar. They just cost more.

 

I own a few nice vintage guitars too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I can play this '64 Silvertone/ Harmony anytime I want to, although I've barely touched it in the past 8 or 10 years:

 

1402253686_edfcb89ca5_o.jpg

 

I picked it up in the mid 80's at a yard sale for $30 complete with case/ amp (which is long gone). I keep holding on to this thing hoping that one day it'll actually be worth something to a collector.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

All of them ... I preferred to their modern incarnations. They seemed -- how can I put this? -- looser. Funkier. More relaxed. Slinkier. Not so stiff. Compared to a modern guitar, a vintage one seems to have smoked a joint, had a couple of glasses of wine and started to feel slightly horny.

I hear ya. And you could have just as easily been talking about old birds there (looser, funkier, more relaxed, not so stiff, slightly horny, etc, etc).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I played a '57 Strat around 1981 or so. A friend sold it for $800.00 to another friend. It was the best Strat I ever played. I also knew someone with a pre-war Martin, and that guitar was certainly in my top 5 acoustics that I've ever played. The finish was all cracked to hell, but it played so easily, and sounded very sweet. I had break and enter fantasies for a month.

 

Cheers,

 

Glenn

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I hear ya. And you could have just as easily been talking about old birds there.

 

 

You might say that. I couldn't possibly comment.

 

That's the great thing about being back in a band. I can take The Old Bastard off the leash -- AND the 63 Strat, heh -- and let the 1969 Super Reverb out to play, too.

 

The problems with gear like that are (a) it's a little temperamental and fradge (but then so am I, heh), and (b) if you sound like {censored}, you have absolutely ZERO chance of blaming it on inadequate equipment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I thought about 'investing' in a refin early sixties Strat a year or so back, but I doubt whether I'd have been any happier with it than my EJ Strat. The skinny vintage frets and vintage magnet stagger just don't work for me. Too used to the modern stuff. I had a CS '56 Strat for a while and it had to go, primarily because of the fret size.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...