You ask a great question and I think it boils down to the perceptions of the buyer. I would never buy a 3 bolt Strat from the 70's since I lived through the period that they were considered shite. However, someone younger than me that wants an old Strat and wasn't exposed to the bad press they received at the time might consider them a bargin for an "old guitar" compared to 60's Fenders.
Our moderator Cheepaxes has made a thoughtful comment about this in another thread. Check out what he has to say.
Statistics: Posted by VintAxe — Fri Dec 05, 2008 10:02 pm
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My name is Stephane and I am new in your community. I only registered yesterday. This is my first topic, so please forgive me if I should have posted it in another category.
The title of my topic says it all: "Vintage guitar shops double glazing sales pitch". Here are my points and my questions, I hope you can help me.
1) 70s Fender
I used to buy 70s Strats and Teles in the late 80's/early 90's. At that time, I did not buy them because they were "vintage", but because they were cheaper than new Fenders, which I could not afford!!
Example: 73 Tele Thinline bought for $450, 74 Strat bought for $380, 78 Custom Tele for $400 etc... all of them purchased through small ads in local papers between 1989 and 1991.
During that same period, EVERY guitar shop owner would explain me that 70s Fender were crap, sounded like shit, were poorly manufactured etc... Now, these exact same stores tell me that these guitars "have that classic vintage tone, are collectors, are fantastic, very sought after blah blah blah". Even telesales insurance salesmen sound more professional.
QUESTION: how can a "crap, poorly built, shit sounding" guitar turn into this mervellous extraordinary instrument in just 10 years (and have its value multiply by 10 in the same time...)???
2) RARE guitars
If you visit any Vintage guitars site or shop, you will notice that every single instrument is "the best I have ever played and extremely rare". And "custom color", of course. Everything that is not sunburst is now "custom color" for Fender instruments... What a lot of rubbish. Every each of these guitars are "rare". Which make them not rare at all, since they are ... all rare.
QUESTION: could it be possible that rarest of all vintage guitars is just a plain Strat that is NOT "custom color and the best sounding Strat ever", as they say?????????
Quetsion 2: don't you think that staff at vintage guitar shops would make more money if they worked as double glazing sales people? They obviously got all the skills, don't they?
Thnaks and have a good day, Stephane
Statistics: Posted by stephane7568 — Fri Nov 28, 2008 3:23 am
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