Guitar Ownership as an Investment?

[Chocaholic]

Just a thought. The Stock Market is worse than the crap tables in Vegas. I, like many of us, love guitars (and play poorly). They seem to be climbing in value (the good ones) with no end in sight. I guess with us baby boomers reaching maturity, the market for nice ol' strats, rics, and gibson sg's from our youth are a poor man's muscle car collection.

Any thoughts on the guitars to buy now that will appreciate over the next 10 - 20 years? Let's try and keep the initial investment capped at about $5k (can be for more than one axe). I tend to like unusual stuff, but this is about investment. Looking forward to your responses.

[Rick Lee]

Vintage guitar prices have gotten just insane. They can't go on forever like this. I think some Ferraris experienced a similar roller coaster in values and some folks lost their shirts on them. A very well made, American guitar will always hold its value, if not appreciate. But Gibson and Fender are as mass produced now as candy and soda. And they ain't cheap to begin with. I think the only way you're gonna get a serious vintage guitar for less than a fortune is if you stumble upon someone who doesn't know what they have. At the prices some of these are going for, even having a celebrity owner doesn't add anything to the price. $200k for a Strat? C'mon! That's nuts. Remember, those crazy expensive guitars didn't grow steadily in price. They skyrocketed in the last 10-15 yrs. I don't think that bodes well for guitars as a longterm investment.

[Chocaholic]

I guess what I'm asking is...what real-world instruments ($$$) today have the potential to appreciate in the coming years. What got me thinking about this is that I picked up a 2000 model Rickenbacker 360-6 about a year ago. Paid about $1k and they seem to be going for about $1.3k today (ebay as reference...probably not the best source). 30% return isn't bad.

So, with that said...what's out there now that can be had for real-world money, that has good potential for appreciation. It'd be nice to have an investment that I can play with! Good excuse for the wife too! For example...I really like the 60's - 70's Gretsch 6119, 6120 hollow body Chet Atkins type guitars. Prices seem to be reasonable still (under $2k). Thoughts?

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

I guess what I'm asking is...what real-world instruments ($$$) today have the potential to appreciate in the coming years. What got me thinking about this is that I picked up a 2000 model Rickenbacker 360-6 about a year ago. Paid about $1k and they seem to be going for about $1.3k today (ebay as reference...probably not the best source). 30% return isn't bad.

So, with that said...what's out there now that can be had for real-world money, that has good potential for appreciation. It'd be nice to have an investment that I can play with! Good excuse for the wife too! For example...I really like the 60's - 70's Gretsch 6119, 6120 hollow body Chet Atkins type guitars. Prices seem to be reasonable still (under $2k). Thoughts?

Then you may want to do sort of a deadpool kind of thing and buy signature model guitars where you think the endorser may die before there are too many of his/her line of guitars.

When Eddie Van Halen designed his Ernie Ball/Music Man guitar, they were around $1300 and that was an insane amount back around 1991. I got a barely used one for $900, which I paid for with gig money pretty quickly. Then I bought another used one in 1996 in LA for around $1500, sold the first one in Germany for $1800. So I had a net of about $600 into it. Then I found a guy who wanted my color in trade for his blue quilt one plus $200, which I was overjoyed to do. So I have about $800 net into it now and it's worth about $2700. The reason these have gone up in value is that Eddie quit the endorsement deal after only four years or so and he had demanded Ernie Ball keep production low. As soon as he quit the deal, they started pumping them out like hotcakes, but without his signature on the headstock. Now they're called the Axis.

I got kind of lucky on that one. But I don't care what it's worth. It's a killer guitar and I have a lot of miles on it. That's what they're made for. I think guitars sound and feel better the more you abuse them.

[scottmandue]

I bought several Gibson's and Fender's back in the 80's and 90's and they have done quite well.

However IMHO guitars as investment have gone the way of classic American cars and real estate... IF you are lucky you might make some small percentage.

But I think the days of exponential increase for these items has passed.

Such as, My dad's house he bought for $2500 now worth half a mill.
The special order muscle car you could pick up new off the lot for four digits now worth five of six digits.
The Fender Coronado twelve string electric guitar I picked up for $275 at a pawn shop now trading for $1200.

YMMV

[fritzgator]

If you're thinking long term, i'd look for the oldest you can afford and hang on. what comes to mind are things like late 70's les paul silverburst. limited and not to popular. Neck through tele's are uncommon as well. mid 70's SG rule.
i had a client bring me a LP he got at a pawn shop for a song because some genius had taped off the logo and shot it with champagne pink acrylic (car paint). it was very heavy and no tone. during stripping i discovered that the original color was the silverburst. what a bummer.couldn't save it. did a nice honeyburst on it and it screams w/ the expected LP tone. He's been offered 3 times what he paid for it, but it's so sweet he won't sell it! So thats another avenue you can go down. Not original but as original after ruined by some young wanna be rock star who thought his axe would be cool if...

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by fritzgator

If you're thinking long term, i'd look for the oldest you can afford and hang on. what comes to mind are things like late 70's les paul silverburst. limited and not to popular. Neck through tele's are uncommon as well. mid 70's SG rule.
i had a client bring me a LP he got at a pawn shop for a song because some genius had taped off the logo and shot it with champagne pink acrylic (car paint). it was very heavy and no tone. during stripping i discovered that the original color was the silverburst. what a bummer.couldn't save it. did a nice honeyburst on it and it screams w/ the expected LP tone. He's been offered 3 times what he paid for it, but it's so sweet he won't sell it! So thats another avenue you can go down. Not original but as original after ruined by some young wanna be rock star who thought his axe would be cool if...

Lots of super almost-complete vintage guitars out there. Yup. I would be very careful about dropping a lot of $$ on one that's advertised as 100% original. There are lots of places out there that make copies of vintage parts, logos, etc. With the crazy money these things bring, there's not much the fraudsters wouldn't do to make a near-original vintage guitar look 100% original. If you have an almost perfect korina wood flying V that can get you $75k if really perfect, but only $10k as is, you can see where the incentive is to fudge things a little. Unless you get it from an estate sale and can document the dead guy guy bought it new many years ago, I'd be careful.

[nostatic]

i think guitars are for playing, not collecting. Just like cars.

[craigster59]

Originally Posted by nostatic

i think guitars are for playing, not collecting. Just like cars.

I think you meant "investing". We all collect wether we like it or not.

[nostatic]

well, depends on your definition of collect. I have two basses, one electric guitar and one acoustic. I play all of them. For the basses, one is fretless, the other fretted as I need both to get different tones/attacks depending on the music. I don't do much electric guitar stuff so I sold my "nice" ones and have a Warmouth parts guitar I built. My acoustic is an all around workhorse guitar (Martin OM-21) and covers pretty much all I need.

I refuse to buy any guitar to put it in a closet or safe. I think that is wrong. The pre-CBS strats sitting in guitars safes make Leo cry. ymmv