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#1
08-13-2022, 06:48 PM
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Vintage guitar searching - what’s the best bang for your buck?
I’m starting to go down the rabbit hole of vintage - as anyone would expect my initial thought is a banner J45…but price wise that’s just a little much to get a really nice example (although I’m not against getting a bit so great example and fixing it up).
Let’s say you have $5k to get a vintage guitar - where would you look? What would you look for? What brands? Anything outside of Gibson or Martin? TIA! 
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#2
08-13-2022, 06:54 PM
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If you're looking for bang for your buck, a Vintage Gibson with an ugly but solid headstock repair is the way to go. It'll knock almost half the price off of what a clean example would sell for and can play and sound just as good.
If you're looking for a clean example, look at 50's and even 60's Guilds. Excellent bang for the buck.
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#3
08-13-2022, 07:00 PM
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Also, 5K will get you a really nice 1962-1964 Martin 00-21NY. These are wonderful and somewhat overlooked guitars. They're maybe too new for vintage collectors but they sound fantastic. Think of them as the first golden era reissue. They were essentially built to the spec of a late 20's Martin only with a Sitka Spruce top. Thin braces and a small bridge plate, 12 fret neck 1 7/8" nut, Brazilian Rosewood back and sides. They were still made at the old Martin factory with hide glue etc....
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#4
08-13-2022, 07:03 PM
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If your budget is 5k, you are better off getting a used recent guitar imho. Spend 2-3k more and you can find some "real deal" players guitars from Martin/Gibson, but they won't likely be dreads...
5k budget- forward braced authentic martins etc... 8k budget- players 30's-40's smaller bodied gems that are better than anything new
__________________
1938 Martin 00-21 Fraulini Erma #19
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#5
08-13-2022, 07:51 PM
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Quote:
I have custom shop hummingbird and 1942 reissue LG2 - thinking about slope shouldered
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#6
08-13-2022, 07:55 PM
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You don't really give a lot of information about what you're looking for besides it being vintage.
If I had $5k and wanted to buy the coolest vintage guitar that money would get me, I'd keep an eye out for a Larson Brothers build. $5k won't get you the best of the best of them, but examples pop up occasionally in that range. This is very nearly what I did when I was considering going vintage. If you want the best guitar that $5k will buy, I genuinely believe that the answer is a used Martin Authentic. You also could get a 18GE and put the other $2k back in the bank.
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#7
08-13-2022, 08:00 PM
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Seems to be lots of folks all of a sudden deciding they want a "vintage" guitar. In some ways that ship has sailed as I could not afford guitars like my 1942 Gibson J50 if had to buy them at today's prices.
First off you have to decide if you want a guitar in 100% original condition or a player's guitar which may have some parts changed out or have been subjected to an overspray and such. In terms of Gibsons though if you want a pre-War guitar for under what you are wanting to spend there are always the off-brands such as Kalamazoos, Cromwells, and Capitals, These flattops will be ladder braced and have necks without truss rods. Pretty easy instruments to identify and find. In other cases though the learning curve gets a bit steeper. Gibson, as example, built guitars for National in the 1940s. Whie these can be had for less than what you want to spend, Gibson only built the necks (again without a truss rod) these guitars sported for a short time after which National started going with their own Stylist neck on the Gibson-made bodies. There is a big difference between the two. And that learning curve gets even steeper when you get involved with instruments such as the above-mentioned Larson Brothers guitars.
__________________
"You start off playing guitars to get girls & end up talking with middle-aged men about your fingernails" - Ed Gerhard Last edited by zombywoof; 08-13-2022 at 08:06 PM.
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#8
08-13-2022, 08:44 PM
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Welcome to the drama, fun and adventure of vintage guitars!
At your stated 5k limit, I think you have some viable options available to you. You could consider: - A Kalamazoo built by Gibson, from the 1930s or 40s - A Gibson LG-2 or LG-1 from the banner years, if you're lucky with an issue or two to reduce the cost - A Gibson LG from the Script-but-no-logo 1946-7 period. If an issue or two, I suspect these could also fall within your target range As others have suggested, an issues/player guitar might be just the ticket. Best of luck in the quest, but do be prepared for some disappointments, letdowns and a lot of learning! Fred
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#10
08-13-2022, 11:25 PM
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You might even get an actual vintage Banner LG-2
__________________
"Here is a song about the feelings of an expensive, finely crafted, hand made instrument spending its life in the hands of a musical hack"
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#11
08-14-2022, 07:40 AM
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Quote:
__________________
Emerald X20 Emerald X20-12 Fender Robert Cray Stratocaster Martin D18 Ambertone Martin 000-15sm
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#12
08-14-2022, 09:58 AM
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$5K is a considerable chunk of money, even in the current market, which raises the question, what exactly are you looking for in a guitar? "Vintage" is marketing talk for "old," and when it comes to sound, "old" does not necessarily mean "excellent" or even "no longer obtainable" (though it might mean "now rare and really, really expensive"). And the market for old guitars is seriously affected by its collector segment, which has been known to push the dollar-valuation of target instruments in ways that do not apply to newer items. It is not inconceivable that a 70-year-old name-brand guitar will be inferior in sound, playability, and stability to, say, a 20-year-old example with the same name on the headstock. (And, to be fair, vice versa.)
I've acquired old guitars for several reasons--historical interest*, hard-to-find/now-expensive features (Brazilian rosewood, for example), interesting voices--and I have two that are excellent examples of their design/build formulas and whose voices I love. They get played along with much younger guitars that I enjoy for the same reasons. And neither of them would command a $5K price at the moment. Though to be sure, if one were, say, a pre-1940 Martin OM rather than a 1920 0-18, it would be a different story. * I had the good fortune to spend some time as a music journalist, which gave me reason to indulge in my antiquarian interests. Our house is also full of old chairs, lamps, bookshelves, and tchochkes. We just enjoy old stuff. None of it is museum-grade, though.
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