Quote:
Originally Posted by bufflehead
Guitars wear out. We shouldn't think of a vintage guitar the same way a violinist thinks of a vintage Stradivarius. While many vintage guitars are worth considerable money because of their value as collector's items, few will be as playable as a high-end modern guitar properly dialed in.
My first love was a Guild D-25 I purchased new in Santa Fe in 1973. I performed on that guitar hundreds of times, travelled with it extensively, and lived with it in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and then coastal California. When it got to the point where a renown luthier deemed it "unplayable," and advised me that I could purchase a better guitar for half as much as it would cost me to restore it, I simply stopped playing for a couple years.
This was a huge mistake.
While there's certainly something romantic about owning an historic instrument, once the lights go down it's all about the music.
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Not my experience at all.
Sure, an older Martin might need a neck reset and that might cost you $500-$600. I found a ‘67 D-18S a few years ago for a friend who had always wanted a slot-head Martin. It needed a neck reset and I got that cost knocked off what they were asking for the guitar. The work was done and now he has a killer vintage guitar with about 2K invested. It’s worth more than he has in it, and irreplaceable to him.
The music is there with whatever you’re playing, but the tone isn’t. And with guitars, it’s “all about” the tone.