Vintage amps as investments?

warlockII

warlockII

Fractal Fanatic
Maybe I'm not very good at searching past threads, so I apologize if this has already been beat to death. Do you feel vintage tube amps are a wise investment?
I recently bought a 1971 Marshall Super Bass. It's VERY cool, yet I realize that after being spoiled by the Axefx I will never play this amp out live and won't fire it up at my house often at all. I'm torn between flipping it or saving it as an investment. Watching the value of the dollar plummet quicker than I can ever remember, I'm thinking it would be a much better bet. Part of me feels guilty about not passing it on to someone who will use and enjoy it, but then again think that most people would have it on a shelf like I would.
 
In addition to the above post. Most of your collectors are retirement age or close to it.
 
I don’t think I’d invest in them. Here’s my thinking:
  • Tubes age with use and are getting harder to find and the prices keep going up, and the capacitors age over time so you have to get it maintained periodically or the sound suffers. Having a vintage amp that sits there unused is no bueno.
  • I’d want my amp tech to go through the unit carefully and give me his assessment before I bought it and then, after I bought it, repair/replace things he found wrong. That’d raise the amp’s cost to me.
  • I have a modeler that covers the amp sounds I want and the parts don’t degrade. I have a Tone King Imperial Mk II and a Mesa Lonestar Special, that nicely cover the sounds I want if I take the real deal out, but every time I do I am reminded that the tubes and caps now have a little less life.
I have some very pretty PRS guitars too, but I don’t treat them as investments either. They’re for me to enjoy and occasionally add a ding to add some character.
 
It's probably a terrible investment. The group of people most interested in tube amp nostalgia are starting to die off. The generation in their 30s-40s (mine) are probably more interested in newer amp designs or just using digital modelers.

Meanwhile the amount of tube amps out there is pretty large so the number of people interested in your specific Marshall will be a pretty small group.
 
@warlockII you need to realize you’re asking the value of vintage Bibles at an atheist convention. You’re not likely to get an overly positive recommendation for vintage amps on a digital amplification forum.

The gear that Fractal Audio makes is incredible, leading edge stuff. Many players actually started on this gear… I can’t imagine that! How lucky they are. But the fallacy that tube amps are “old people tech”and “outdated” is often repeated here, when the truth in the real world is anything but that. Many younger players are using real-deal vintage amps for gigging and recording, so there is always value in something people want. At the current time, it’s tech gear that loses value quickly. Fortunately for us, because of Fractal’s high initial quality, it isn’t as bad here. FAS gear is money well spent, in my personal opinion.

Now, as far as investment value, it’s all speculation. It’s worth what someone will pay for it. Will it go up or down in value? No one knows for sure. I just make sure any amp I buy is worth the price I pay to me! This includes FAS gear, by the way. Then I know I have the value of my investment, at the very least. If I make money later, fine. If not, I already got my money’s worth from it. I’d advise you do the same.

By the way, the time to buy a collectible is before it’s collectible. If you pay “collectors” price for it, there’s nowhere to go but down.

Happy hunting!!
 
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I invested in pinballs : lot of fun and big money return but will it continue after our generations? Not sure...
 
I'm seriously contemplating selling off my remaining tube amps in the next couple of years while they still have some value and the people who want these are going to start to dwindle in the coming years (I have a couple of 'collectable' Marshall and Fender amps). I strongly suspect that the next 5 -> 10 years will hit a peak value for tube amps.

I sold off an Orange combo last summer after I discovered it was going to be around $250 -> $300 to re-tube it with a 'premium' set. And, given the lack of quality control, etc. for modern tubes I wouldn't consider a 'value' set. When I found this all out I sold it the next day.

This is all similar to Kiss/Star Wars/Star Trek, etc. collectors in a way; the serious collectors who'll pay peak values for items of that era (70's) only have a shelf life for about the next 10 years or so. That info is coming from a guy in local comic book/music collectable shop that is very heavily into stuff from the 70's.

It's like Elvis collectables; at one time his memorabilia was fetching crazy money. I read a few years ago that the serious collectors of his stuff were passing away and the people who inherited the collections had to more or less give them away as very few cared about the items, and the people who did are now far and few in between. Nobody was willing to pay even remotely close to what they were worth at one time.

IMO the window of opportunity for amps as investments will start to close fairly rapidly in the coming years. But hey, as others have indicated here, it's all speculative for sure.
 
It's always hard to tell what's going to be a good investment or not. A few years ago I was buying used MIM Strats for $300. Now I'm seeing them sell for about twice that amount, and I'm starting to think I really don't need all of the ones I've got. I'm not looking at a retirement windfall, but I could sell a couple of them and pick up something nicer pretty easily. But I need to strike while the iron is still hot.
 
I'm not an expert but do have an opinion.

I speculate that although some of these amplifiers can fetch a lot of money given the right conditions (ie, a valid collector is found with the funds to purchase), the market will diminish over time as the people who remember these amps slowly die off. There must come a time when nobody remembers the euphoric feeling of being held up by a high-volume guitar amplifier blasting behind you, the notes feeding back and the guitar vibrating from all that volume. (I'm tingling just thinking about it!)
Also, the opportunity to use these amplifiers are diminishing... Not many quad boxes being hauled into pubs anymore.

So - in my opinion, no - these would not be a good investment as the chances of selling them profitably are diminishing.

Thanks
Pauly

warlockII said:
Maybe I'm not very good at searching past threads, so I apologize if this has already been beat to death. Do you feel vintage tube amps are a wise investment?
I recently bought a 1971 Marshall Super Bass. It's VERY cool, yet I realize that after being spoiled by the Axefx I will never play this amp out live and won't fire it up at my house often at all. I'm torn between flipping it or saving it as an investment. Watching the value of the dollar plummet quicker than I can ever remember, I'm thinking it would be a much better bet. Part of me feels guilty about not passing it on to someone who will use and enjoy it, but then again think that most people would have it on a shelf like I would.
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