Why Are Guitar Players Obsessed With Vintage Gear?

[giannishreds]

You don't dig restomods? They used to have low value, but have quickly increased as people realized they can have their cake and eat it too.

My personal taste is leaving it stock. I like the nostalgia. Brings back great memories and good times I had with my dad while he was still alive.

 

[Muad'zin]

That does make sense. What kills me these days is seeing people asking $1000 for a damn "vintage" Hondo.
Most were junk when I was a kid and still junk now.

Value is as much determined by perceived value as in actual worth. If some famous guitarist uses a piece of shit gear on a famous song, you can bet it will increase in value. If some famous youtuber sings its glory it will increase in value. You can beat that prices for cheap ass forgotten pedals quadruple after JHS does an episode about them. Add in places like The Gear Page and you have a recipe for a perfect shitstorm.

 

[JoKeR III]

My gear is slowly becoming vintage gear.

 

[Rick]

Things that are no longer being made are rarer… harder to find. It’s like saying there’s nothing special about gold or diamonds. Well, really, there isn’t; soft metal and old charcoal. But there isn’t a lot of it, or it takes effort to find, and people have always placed value on rarity. Once that rarity is coupled with something to make it desirable or in style, boom… price explosion.

Face it folks, if we’ll do it over hand sanitizer, tissue paper, and gasoline, it isn’t hard to imagine us doing it over gear.

 

[spagthorpe]

I think what David Gilmour did with his iconic and vintage gear (auctioning it off for charity)
says an helluva lot about who he is as a person. The gear hoarders whose living rooms are so
full of amps that no guest has a place to sit down are also saying an helluva lot about who
they are as people.

Collectors?

I know someone that has over 200 ceramic chickens in their kitchen. People collect a lot of things, I don't see how guitars or amps is any different. I know someone on here was talking about owning some ridiculous amount of old Charvels. Like, way past the point where you could really play them. People can obsess on things, and sometimes it's healthy, and sometimes not. I'm not going to judge.

 

[spagthorpe]

I like some vintage gear, but I'm not willing to pay what it costs. I value it to a point. I'm not really into the old old stuff. 59s and all that. I'm more into the 80s gear, which has gone up, but isn't as nuts.

Not really a hobby, but I like old cast iron cookware. Frying pans for example. For one, the way they made the pans 100 years go is better than how they make some Lodge piece of shit now. I like that it's still getting used and not in a dump somewhere. I like the idea that the pan I'm using was used by generations before me. I don't know why I like that connection. I guess some of that applies to some guitars.

 

[pauly]

My opinion is that in some instances with vintage gear, you are purchasing something that the maker cared about, and had pride in. We’ve spent that last 50 years trying to make things cheaper so the shareholders get dividends. Often this has resulted in less quality, but still functional items. As an example, I recently bought some kitchen appliances, and got the same brand, and equivalent model of the twenty something year old units we had. The steel was thinner and the new units were of obviously less quality and care than the old ones. My tip is there’s no way all this new stuff will last us 20 years.
Same goes fo an old fender amplifier… look at the current batch of mass produced, as cheap as possible units to the old point to point wiring in the old units. No comparison.
I’m sure there are exceptions, but it’s nice to own something that the maker took pride in.
Thanks
Pauly

Good video with some interesting thoughts???????

 

[James Nash]

I'm not surprised that most people here profess not to be interested in vintage gear. After all, we're into modelers. Which is usually anathema in the vintage guitar gear market.

True, although I think modeler use is a unique blend. Most of the sounds we're getting with the modelers were inspired by vintage gear.

Interesting point about searching for new tones vs. imitating classic tones... I agree, the 70s and 80s were largely a period of guitar tech innovation and evolution (whether you like the sounds or not), and the 90s saw a turn back toward more classic tones (i.e. vintage gear, and reproductions).

Some people are using modelers to try to generate new and original sounds, but I think maybe modeler users and vintage/boutique amp users are largely chasing the same sounds.

 

[Muad'zin]

I like some vintage gear, but I'm not willing to pay what it costs. I value it to a point. I'm not really into the old old stuff. 59s and all that. I'm more into the 80s gear, which has gone up, but isn't as nuts.

Not really a hobby, but I like old cast iron cookware. Frying pans for example. For one, the way they made the pans 100 years go is better than how they make some Lodge piece of shit now. I like that it's still getting used and not in a dump somewhere. I like the idea that the pan I'm using was used by generations before me. I don't know why I like that connection. I guess some of that applies to some guitars.

I can dig vintage sounds, but that doesn't mean I need to have vintage gear. Vintage specs is good enough for me. I don't need an original vintage Ramshead Muff like Gilmour when I can build the circuit with the exact same value components. But I reckon people who fork out big money to get a vintage pedal are more into it for the collecting value and bragging rights then the actual sound, cause there's no way in hell you're going to play in a bar with vintage gear that costs an arm, a leg and your first born.

My opinion is that in some instances with vintage gear, you are purchasing something that the maker cared about, and had pride in. We’ve spent that last 50 years trying to make things cheaper so the shareholders get dividends. Often this has resulted in less quality, but still functional items. As an example, I recently bought some kitchen appliances, and got the same brand, and equivalent model of the twenty something year old units we had. The steel was thinner and the new units were of obviously less quality and care than the old ones. My tip is there’s no way all this new stuff will last us 20 years.
Same goes fo an old fender amplifier… look at the current batch of mass produced, as cheap as possible units to the old point to point wiring in the old units. No comparison.
I’m sure there are exceptions, but it’s nice to own something that the maker took pride in.
Thanks
Pauly

I'm not sure the maker had that much more pride in his work then as today. They probably did, but it probably was a day time job for most of them too. And if anything quality control and even more important consistency is a lot better today. Plenty of stories of famous artists going through a heap of the same pedal to find the one that sounded best. You get a Boss overdrive and they will generally all sound fairly the same. You get a 60's fuzz and it will be a crapshoot if it sounds good or not. Or Electro Harmonix just grabbing and substituting electronic components with whatever was available at the time. And with guitars even cheap ones are as good if not better as higher end models in the past, thanks to CNC routing.

What has changed though is built in obsolescence. Modern appliances are designed to fail after a certain time period. Usually when the warranty has run out.

 

[paranoid]

I love vintage gear, I have an axe fx II and an AX-8.

 

[dpeterson]

People want what they cannot have. If you have ever played a real vintage strat with the tiny frets and it feels like it's going to fall apart, i'm not sure why anyone would want that. It's why EJ refrets and changes the radius on his old strats, in turn wrecking the value. Or a fretless wonder Les Paul... uggh.

 

[dr bonkers]

I like new stuff with modern shielding & grounding as well as locking tuners.

However there are certain vintage instruments that have appeal for me due to the fact that they are not being made anymore, such as Steinbergers with the phenolic resin bodies and trans trems or the Gibson Recording Custom line with the low impedance pickups ( why no one is cloning this stuff or taking it to the next level of evolution is puzzling to me).

 

[Holbert71]

Well lets see. The original Dunlop wha pedals did not change your tone like the ones built today and foxRox Captain crunch also another bad ass pedal and pink Floyd is the only band that had the rack mount version of it.

 

[JayCM800XL]

History
Heritage
Custom
Culture
Tradition
Tribute
Nostalgia
Pride

...and budget!

 

[Daveis]

Quite the opposite I’m trying to figure out how I can afford a Axe FX Turbo. Old amps are a PITA. First thing I’d do on most old guitars is a refret job.

 

[favance]

I had a mid/late 60's Les Paul Fretless Wonder in the early 70's. I have still never found a guitar that sounded/played like that one. Unfortunately, it was stolen from in the mid-70's...:

 

[Muad'zin]

People want what they cannot have. If you have ever played a real vintage strat with the tiny frets and it feels like it's going to fall apart, i'm not sure why anyone would want that. It's why EJ refrets and changes the radius on his old strats, in turn wrecking the value. Or a fretless wonder Les Paul... uggh.

EJ likes the vintage tone, but he obviously still understands that a guitar is a tool to be used, not a museum piece to be put behind plastic. Besides, in 30 years, those guitars will still be worth a lot, if not more, by virtue of being his guitars. Just look at David Gilmour's black Strat. He did more hatchet jobs to that guitar then a punk guitar play trying to make his look uncool. But name value alone has pushed it over what, half a million? Which sadly now makes it a museum piece.

Well lets see. The original Dunlop wha pedals did not change your tone like the ones built today and foxRox Captain crunch also another bad ass pedal and pink Floyd is the only band that had the rack mount version of it.

You can mod a Dunlop wah with $10 in parts to remove the buffer and not change your tone. No need to drop hundreds on a vintage wah.

I had a mid/late 60's Les Paul Fretless Wonder in the early 70's. I have still never found a guitar that sounded/played like that one. Unfortunately, it was stolen from in the mid-70's...:

Music gear thieves deserve to be shot. Even greater curses to the assholes that buy that gear and now hoard it in their private collections.

 

[Jupiter]

I don't care about vintage gear per se, I do care about a few vintage gear's sound (which means I can reproduce it without actually own them, enter Fractal Audio) but that's all.

The only vintage gear I've owned was three 60ies Vox wahs. Sold all my gear (amps, cabs, pedals, mics etc.) after I got my AF2 our of the box. The only one I kept was one of my vintage Vox wahs (this one has the rare clover leaf inductor) because I am still a wahwaholic and that's the absolute best wah I've ever owned and tried in my 35 year experience with gear.

Do I play it? Nope. With the Fractal Audio stuff (both AF2 and AF3) I just "modeled" it and even impoved it so I am still just keeping it as my reference wah sound.