Vintage, Rare And Collectable Guitars
Perth, West Australia
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Collecting Vintage
Musical Instruments
An Overview of
Collecting
Fine American-made vintage guitars, banjos, and mandolins are the ultimate forms of collectible art. Whereas a painting can be experienced only visually, and a piece of sculpture may be seen and touched, a fine musical instrument can be appreciated visually in much the same manner as a painting, can be handled or touched as a sculpture, but also produces sound.
Each individual player produces a somewhat different sound even when playing on the same instrument. It is an entirely different experience to listen to an instrument played by a series of different musicians and then to play the instrument yourself - a good instrument comes alive when played and has a distinct personality and soul of its own.
Collectible instruments may be appreciated as beautiful visual art, important pieces of history, technological marvels, acoustical wonders, and great investments. I can think of no other form of art which can be appreciated on so many different levels.
High grade American guitars, banjos and mandolins are sought by collectors in the US, Western Europe, and Japan to such an extent that the market is truly global. In today's world of instant communications, easy money transfers, and rapid air freight, market prices are determined every bit as much in Düsseldorf and Tokyo as they are in Nashville, New York or Los Angeles.
The pieces most sought by collectors are pre-World War II flat top acoustic guitars by Martin, Gibson, the Larson Brothers of Chicago, and Lyon & Healy of Chicago as well as arch top acoustic jazz guitars made through the 1960's by Gibson, Epiphone, D'Angelico, and Stromberg. The golden era for collectible electric guitars was the 1950's through mid 1960's. Electric guitars by Gibson, Fender, and Gretsch are particularly sought after. Pre-World War II mandolins by Gibson and Lyon & Healy are considered to be a worldwide standard of excellence. Pre-World War II banjos by Fairbanks, Vega, S. S. Stewart, Gibson, Vega, Paramount, Bacon & Day, Ludwig, and Leedy are highly sought after due to their beautiful artistry as well as great sound and investment potential.
While the music industry prospered during the 1960's and 1970's, guitar manufacturing went in a highly commercial direction such that most instruments of the late 1960's through the mid 1980's are not highly regarded by collectors. They tend to be mass produced, commercial products. During this period many professional musicians used vintage instruments in performance simply because the new ones did not suit them.
Today the quality of new guitars from major manufacturers is greatly superior to what they were producing 20 years ago, and in fact, it could be said that we are experiencing another golden age of fretted instrument manufacturing in the USA. In addition to old established companies such as Martin and Gibson, we now have highly successful newer companies such as Taylor and Paul Reed Smith as well as hundreds of independent builders of high grade hand made instruments. Never before in history has the buyer had so many options..