Anyone here actually PLAYED a vintage guitar?

[dcindc]

Roy Brooks, you have some great old guitars there....

Yup. That pic kills me everytime.

[outtahear]

You don't think the budget stuff is better these days?

 

No.

 

But you'll hear different from folks who've tried both and prefer/don't prefer one over the other, as well as, (welcome to the web) some broke-ass, hatin' half-wits that claim it's bull{censored}, they're crap, or, that it's a liberal plot.

Also claim a cheap clone of a vintage amp sounds EXACTLY! like an original example.( Physics be damned!)

Who, more often than not, have even bothered to find/play one.

 

Truth is, the average bottom feeder plank has gotten way better (due to CNC-type manufacturing more than anything) in the past 20 years-as far as playability, non microphonic pickups, ect.

 

I've played a few old dogs, true, but I've been a tech, professionally for over 25 years. Set up is crucial on all guitars-old 'uns included, and well set-up oldies were few and far between. Combine that and the fact that all models have unique fearures that respond to tweaks, the 1-size-fits-all set-up, and with get-em-in-get-em-out techs, lotta potential

gems were pretty turdish.

 

(example-the black Strat pictured was a good sounding guit when I got it. A year or two later, I dropped the pickups a screw turn or two, and completely different guitar-more bell-like than snarl)

 

Tonewise, (IMHO...) can't beat old wood. Or wire for that matter.

I also like gear with a past, and the fact that all guitars change the first year or so, and usually for the better. 20+ years,.....

 

Average/low$$ new gear is better than it ever has been (save Fenders fiasco of stripped trussrod nuts, and using state of the art tech to produce strats that won't intonate with .010s, and the trem flush. Something my neighbors' sons' First Act does..).

 

My brother in law found a white Squier strat in the trash-apparently, a string broke. Dropped it off, did a re-string, die cast tuners, replacement pots/switch (Hello GFS....) dinked the stock nut/bridge, and holy {censored}-great little guitar:wave: Against my 2 oldies, the little bastard sounded eerily like a "real" Strat. Bit brighter, less detail/chime, but $50-vs-$40,000? Was gonna try some new pickups, but in this guitar, the stockers are fine. (And yes, I was shocked too) For his purposes (Commercial work.demos') it works great, and yeah...people ask about his tone.

 

I do own new gear as well-the same set-up rules apply, and bet your ass it makes a huge diff as far as $ vs $$$ gear. To me,new stuff really shines for giggable gear that's affordable, and (somewhat) replaceable.

 

Prices have gotten stupid, no doubt. If I had the cash though, I'd still jump in. These have appreciated better than blue chip stocks, and I trust the guitar market more than Wall Street, and the S.E.C.

 

Now amps, on the other hand.........

[bigfatmonkeyboy]

I had a yamaha SG500, and was chatting with the guy who ran the rehearsal studio's we used to use..

He said; "hang on", and disappeared into the murky back room, before producing one of the prototype Yammy SG's - no serial number. It was amazing, and weighed a ton - sustained for ever.

[V-Type]

Heres my vintage guitar. I picked it up in the late 70's from a Pawn for cheap.
1965 Fender Jaguar. Fender doesnt reissue the bound / block inlay neck variety sadly. Ive played the New USA dot neck reissues but they just dont feel exactly the same.
Funny these were originally designed by Leo too replace the Strat but in a Deluxe format.
Ive yet too see another on this forum yet.

[csm]

Hey csm, don't take this the wrong way, but man do you look like a soccer hooligan.

 

 

Yep, you certainly find a lot of elderly Jews punching it out on the terraces ...

 

Don't be fooled by the cropped hair. I'm just an old punk ...

 

Who's never been to a football match in his life, never watches it on TV and in fact has zero time for (or interest in) the game whatsoever.

 

It's just that my hair only looks good at two lengths -- very long and very short -- and I haven't got the patience to spend the next year looking like a mad old wizard just to find out if a 'fro still suits me at age 57. I suspect it won't, since silver-grey 'fros not be where 'tis at.

 

'Sides, today's football hoolies are younger than some of my guitars.

[jason]

I played an origional Dano from the 1950's about 10 yrs ago.It may have started out as a cheapo, but somewhere along the way, it aquired some serious vibe or something.Fantastic, but it was a little overpriced ($1300 for a rare 3pu version of some model).

Amazing resonance.Then I played the reissue that was right next to it-it felt like a toy, w/none of the resonance or feel...

[workinclasszero]

I played a real 57 Strat once. It was really underwhelming. The pickups sounded like they were ripped from an Affinity Strat and besides the historical reasoning, nothing special.

[One-armed Alec]

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...

I like your Avatar. I knew they'd made a US version of 'The Office' (hmmm), but I didn't know they'd broadcast the original over your way.

[One-armed Alec]

I played a real 57 Strat once. It was really underwhelming. The pickups sounded like they were ripped from an Affinity Strat and besides the historical reasoning, nothing special.

Have you any idea how much a vintage Affinity Strat goes for these days?

[rvschulz]

Is 1976 considered vintage? If so, then yes I've played a couple of vintage guitars. However, they weren't vintage at the time. They belonged to a couple of friends of mine in high school.

 

 

i have an old LP Deluxe ... i like it but not as much as my much newer ES

[Phishmonkey]

I've played a vintage goldtop LP, not sure of the year. Had humbuckers if that helps. 60s strat too. Both were nice but it wasn't the religious experience you'd expect for the prices. The thin finish on the LP felt nice and the strat sounded great, but not $20,000+ nice.

 

I've also got my dads 77 LP Special if that counts as vintage

[Dogsinotpalc]

My dad salavaged something similar to the Silvertone (bigger pickguard, slanted pickups, but everything else the same) above when he went to 'Cuse from 63-68 (the five year plan of course). That was my first guitar. I played a heavily modified, barely playable, but really cool '63 Strat that belongs to a great musician friend of my parents. Strummed a few chords on an early '60s Jazzmaster owned by me friends step father who bought it new back in the day...oh, I also messed with his Guild read too and that was a '60s model as well. For about a year I owned a 1949 ES-125 (non-cutaway). I was inclined to jazz it up, but I hated the lack of upper fret access.

[Dogsinotpalc]

I also forgot the newest vintage was a black '72 Strat with the black guard and pup covers and a maple neck. The neck was really narrow and felt weird to me at the time. It was mint thought and only like $450...I shoulda bought it.

[jds2005]

I use a 1973 Gibson L5S on a couple songs...not mine, it's the acoustic player's. It's 100% original except for the jack and has more mojo than you can shake a stick at. That's the closest thing to vintage that I've played a lot, other than the Eko 12-string acoustic I have that was made sometime between 1970 and 1972...i LOVE that thing's sound.

 

I've played a bunch of CBS-era Strats, early and late, and for the most part, they were garbage. A lot of them were badly modded, uber 70's style, though. I'd take either of my modern Strats over any of them. I never have had the chance to play a pre-CBS, yet, anyway.

 

I've recorded with some early 70's Fender amps...my favorite was a modified silverface Twin that sounded like no other silverface Twin I've ever heard.

[Motorcycle]

Currently I have a 55 Les Paul Jr which I call the butcher block cuz it looks like it spent some time in that function, I've owned it for 30 years. IT plays loverly, but I like my 2007 R9 VOS Les Paul much better. Being 53 and having played since I was ten years old. I can safely say I've spent half my life on vintage instruments including two Les Pauls: a Black Beauty, a 73 Deluxe sunburst, two Strats, a Mosrite, a fender P-Bass, Gretsch Chet Atkins, a first year monkey grip Jem, and still more than I can remember.

 

For the most part they were all good guitars. Like today, some I got bored with, and some weren't what I expected (Mosrite & Jem). But it's all relative. To it's time. There are guitars today that we could not have imagined back then. I'll call it a wash.

 

I'll say this much, cheap guitars are so much better today than they were in the 60's. I do not miss 1 inch off the fretboard action. I still hate Kent guitars.

 

My favorite guitar of all is my R9 (2007) LP followed by my GE Smith Tele.

[mymindsok]

Sure, Ive played a buncha old guitars...

Around the end of the 60's a lot of the older guys from my area were taking trips to kentucky and West Virginia to hit the rural and small town pawn shops and were bringing back car loads of old pre-war Gibsons and Martins. Very few of them cost more than about $50.00 Thats what we were all looking for, cheap old guitars that sounded great.

I have played and owned several very classy Martins and my best friend and his brother were into Gibsons. They had some nice ones too... but I have never played a new guitar that sounded like those old dryed-up tinderboxes. With the very best ones the notes seemed to bloom from the guitar like the smell of a flower. Sometimes I'd just sit there plunking the same note over and over just to hear it ring. Of course, some of them were dogs and I owned a few of those!

I remember being offered a Mint National Duolean with the original mint cond case for $350. Unfortunately, that was a lot of money back then and I didnt have it. I had to wait another five years and pay $850 for my 1932. Fortunately, Nationals never sound better. They just sound like heavy duty tin cans!

Back in the day, I played some old electrics but I never thought that any of them were anything special... Except for this one guy's 335. He was a rocker from Columbus, O and he had a guitar that was pretty special right from jump. Played like hot fat and sounded like the Devils organ. I hope he still has it...

To be truthful, I have played a buncha Fenders lately and out of maybe 12 axes, two have been really really nice. One was myEJ (That just got distroyed.) and the other one belongs to the owner of my local music store. He gets to pick through the the couple hundred Strats that his store sells every year and pick something if he wants it, plus he has people coming in and trading stuff. He has some nice guitars (Both accoustic and electric!)

Compared to the 60's, 70's and 80's, there are so many good playing and nice sounding guitars around these days, that I can hardly beleive it. The other thing is that today, even inexpensive guitars are pretty nice. I just fold my old Alveres G-20 for $100 and honest-to-god, it sounded very close to a decent Martin. I shoulda kept it...

I guess that why those old classics are so expensive now is because not many survived and not many of the survivors were anything special. Add in the need of some folks to own everything and there you go...

[Fendercaster]

I just put new strings on my '61 Strat. I'll probably take it to the job Saturday night, maybe my '61 ES355, too. The ES is probably my favorite guitar to play, the tone is amazing. I love the Strat, too, though I've been playing my Teles more lately.

[gadzooka]

I've only had the pleasure to play precious few pre-1970 guitars, one of which I sold ('68 ES-345) and the other I own now and plan to never sell ('67 ES-335). The tone of the 335 is real nice; I wouldn't be surprised if it would stand up well in comparison to a decent number of the older and more collectible PAF 335s.

[Bbreaker]

I wince when I think about that 1955 Cadillac Green Gretsch Country Club I once had.
It was very cool to look at.
Like many Gretsches, it needed a neck reset.
Didn't do the neck reset but I traded it for a 1982 Gibson Les Paul Custom back in the mid 80's.
I could have just kept the Gretsch just as it was but I had a boner for the LP Custom.
The Gretsch cost only $150.00 (late 70's).
I still have the LP Custom.
I like it.

[L5CES_Player]

It wasn't vintage then, but it was the most unforgettable guitar I ever played..

A 70's D'Aquisto New Yorker played in the 70's..(I guess that makes it vintage now..LOL..)

Tone was stunning....

[sylvesterlowery]

Yes you're probably right. I think those are Shector saddles, I put those on around 1979. I still have the original saddles somewhere. Back in those days I did a lot of changes to it. Shaller tuners, dimarzio SDS1 in the bridge, blocked the trem, removed the tone pots, added another string tree, installed straplocks, and for a while in the eighties I had a Stratoblaster in it. Somewhere around 1985 the switch went bad and I put a 5 way in it. It's also been refretted twice and the neck radius is much flatter. I don't really want to fool with anymore because for me it plays like a wet dream. If I was a famous rock star like Clapton or Jeff Beck, Fender would probably do a Strat modeled after it. I guess if they can reproduce Rory Galleghers Strat they could do the same for this old beat up piece of {censored}.

That is so cool. Good to see someone just rocking out and doing whatever the {censored} they want with their guitar. Damn the vintage police. I can appreciate a nice vintage all original guitar, but some of these things are worshiped to a ridiculous level. I would rather have that than an all original guitar sitting in a glass case any day.

[One-armed Alec]

Damn the vintage police.

I think it's probably more the non-playing vintage 'collectors' who are the problem, but yeah - damn them too.

[Ferdinandstrat]

Yep, you certainly find a lot of elderly Jews punching it out on the terraces ... Don't be fooled by the cropped hair. I'm just an old punk ... Who's never been to a football match in his life, never watches it on TV and in fact has zero time for (or interest in) the game whatsoever. It's just that my hair only looks good at two lengths -- very long and very short -- and I haven't got the patience to spend the next year looking like a mad old wizard just to find out if a 'fro still suits me at age 57. I suspect it won't, since silver-grey 'fros not be where 'tis at. 'Sides, today's football hoolies are younger than some of my guitars.

 

 

Do you have pics of your fro?

 

And random fun fact:

 

Did you know that Jewish males get balled faster then Caucasian males?

[csm]

Do you have pics of your fro? And random fun fact: Did you know that Jewish males get balled faster then Caucasian males?

 

 

Yes to both.

[DADGADammit]

Yes to both.

 

 

damn. you looked like a badass mofo back in the day!