Will "Vintage Guitars" be worthless when all the boomers are dead?

[sleewell]

i'm 40 and don't have much interest in them.


i don't even see much value in recreating vintage guitars either for that matter. huge jerry garcia fan and love the dead to death but that $20k strat didnt really do much for me.

$250k or more for a old les paul is not something i would ever be in a position to buy but even if i was i really dont think i would.

 

[Bob411]

Feel, status, luxury, etc. Tone wood has very very very little to do with the final electric guitar sound, but guitars made with “good wood” do resonate differently—in your hands and against your body. Which does change the experience of playing. Is this all the wood or a combination of factors? Probably the latter. But there will always be a market for splinters of the true cross.

You and Mike are right on one point — fancy vintage amps and drool worthy tube monstrosities are probably on borrowed time because the alternatives are improving rapidly, how sound is done at venues and in studios is changing, and the wall of raw power isn’t necessary/practical/safe to operate re: hearing damage.

I mean, playing through a cooking Marshall half-stack is a ton of fun. But it’s very very very silly and impractical.

"guitars made with “good wood” do resonate differently—in your hands and against your body"

I get that. I don't even play myself, I test and sometimes goof around, and I like a guitar that's a living being.

Now, I'd like expound on the "combination of factors".

The pink, formally blue stained MIM Deluxe Payers Strat- I am possibly the world's worst painter but, taking off the polyester finish and painting it with nitro cellulose lacquer made a huge difference in resonance. I blocked the trem because nobody ever uses it, that was too much, had to take it out. Still the same ash body.

The purple Tele- I bought a crapily done ash body on Ebay, it was cheap and had 2 P90 routes. Used the neck from a Tele that was beyond dead. I could see the body was made of plywood and thought ash would be a huge improvement. I had some fun doing it but, resonant? Zero improvement. What helped tons? A bone nut.

Just food for thought if you ever have a guitar that you really like but, it's not resonant enough for you.

 

[Lerxst]

There will probably be some revaluation when it comes to other stuff without clear OMG historical significance and/or insane quality. I suspect some guitar hoarders are in for the same “oh shit” realizations as people whose Elvis memorabilia or 1950s car hobbies bottomed out as the market simply died. Pre-CBS Fenders and certain classic runs of vintage instruments like the Bursts are probably going to be valued highly for a long time. But some of the “vintage” prices attached to 70s three bolt strats or amp in case Silvertones or whatever will probably fade away.

Classic cars is an interesting comparison because while the market might shrink it doesn't show signs of completely dying as there are other factors besides 'being of a certain age' that influences peoples attraction to collecting some things. It's not unusual to see boomers kids get into collecting things their parents did out of sentimentality or their own by-proxy nostalgia. "When I was a kid my dad has this <whatever>, that was his pride and joy, so I had to find one when I had the means." When something becomes a focus of popular media, that can also generate interest...a movie franchise like the fast and furious made the interest in certain cars go way up for quite a while and can bring a whole new generation of people into the mix.

 

[Denverdave]

There are plenty of Gen-X guitar players with interests in vintage instruments. The market might shrink a little, but less than you might think.

I personally have never had any interest in paying stupid money for anything 'vintage' music gear wise. I got to play a very early Fender Esquire that an older gentleman in our church owned. What ever the 'it' factor older guitars are supposed to have, this one had in spades. There was a feel playing it I have never had repeated since. That said, I'm not paying $25k - $100k or whatever those instruments run.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

I would say taper but not crash or go away. For many of the reasons stated above. And yeah, cooking on a tube amp is fun. But I bet that slowly, for the most part, goes away as stuff continues to improve. In the audio market, tube stuff still exists and retains a niche place with certain audio gear folks, who are not all boomers. So I think there will remain a niche market for tube stuff, and likely a bit more than niche for vintage guitars, for quite a while.