More Gibson changes.

[David.W]

I was just told from my local, that Gibson is chambering its les paul (usa line) standards and studios as of this year. Whats worse is out of the ones ive seen, they rattle with something trapped inside the chamber. The standard I just saw was terrible, you couldnt even run your hand down the neck without snagging on something.

What is going on down there!

 

[Guitarzan]

Sad... I've always said that I don't know what is more mass produced nowadays a Gibson Les Paul or a McDonlads Big Mac? The quality for both is about the same!

 

[David.W]

Its making me wanna dump Gibson altogether before they're resale drops out of them. They keep making stupid moves insulting the publics intellegence.

I only have a custom now, and im happy with it, but the other day I saw the same guitar from the same shop at almost $4k (cdn). quality and price once meant something, now quality is hard to find, and prices are through the roof.

 

[Guitarzan]

I only have an ES-135 Gothic and I'd never consider purchasing another late model. I'd stick to the Vintage stuff if it's affordable to you.

 

[flieger67]

Its making me wanna dump Gibson altogether before they're resale drops out of them. They keep making stupid moves insulting the publics intellegence.

I only have a custom now, and im happy with it, but the other day I saw the same guitar from the same shop at almost $4k (cdn). quality and price once meant something, now quality is hard to find, and prices are through the roof.

The worst thing you could do is dump them. If Gibson's quality woes become widely known and believed to be true, that will increase the value of your guitars if they are from a perceived era of quality.

After all, Gibson's and Fender's years of bad quality in the '70's is what gave birth to the vintage marketplace. If current Gibsons start tanking, your guitar will likely go way up in value.

 

[ytse_jam]

go with epiphone elitist!
(not really kidding... :? )

 

[Guitarzan]

go with epiphone elitist!
(not really kidding... :? )

The only line that Epiphone makes that I'll say is worth a **** is the Masterbilt Acoustics.

 

[Russ]

After all, Gibson's and Fender's years of bad quality in the '70's is what gave birth to the vintage marketplace. If current Gibsons start tanking, your guitar will likely go way up in value.

Interesting...

I have been finding the market for 70's strats to be climbing steadily. Those 3 bolt necks with large headstocks are becoming quite pricey considering the serious nose dive they took for several years.

Also the 70's Gibbos are beginning to fetch some serious coin too.

 

[Guitarzan]

I have a hard time understanding why this is so. 70' LP's and Strats were horrible. The prices that are being asked for these boat anchors is unbelieveable.

 

[David.W]

Its making me wanna dump Gibson altogether before they're resale drops out of them. They keep making stupid moves insulting the publics intellegence.

I only have a custom now, and im happy with it, but the other day I saw the same guitar from the same shop at almost $4k (cdn). quality and price once meant something, now quality is hard to find, and prices are through the roof.

The worst thing you could do is dump them. If Gibson's quality woes become widely known and believed to be true, that will increase the value of your guitars if they are from a perceived era of quality.

After all, Gibson's and Fender's years of bad quality in the '70's is what gave birth to the vintage marketplace. If current Gibsons start tanking, your guitar will likely go way up in value.

Well mines an 05' so its in great shape and pretty solid but hardly from an era of excellence. I should say though, that when I say "dump Gibson" its more due to the constant insulting quality coming from them. They really due invite the copycat market into theyre world, they actually create the niche themselves.

 

[Russ]

I have a hard time understanding why this is so. 70' LP's and Strats were horrible. The prices that are being asked for these boat anchors is unbelieveable.

It is all part of the vintage market. That is like some of the old amps that people thought were a complete waste of time being sold for big $. Though some of them had a redeeming quality at some point they are still junk. I personally can't believe the prices coming from the 70's Bullet strats. Those were absolute junk in the day but for some reason have come tofetch outrageous prices. It makes you look back to the 80's when they were literally $100 used. If you could just go back and buy them all up to sell them today...

On a similar note, if you could go back to the early 90's when people were offing their JCM800's for $300 and buy them for nearly a decade that price. You could make a mint too. Hindsight is the kind of thing that makes you squirm.

 

[dennq45]

I wish I had some of those cars I had when I was much younger...

 

[flieger67]

I have a hard time understanding why this is so. 70' LP's and Strats were horrible. The prices that are being asked for these boat anchors is unbelieveable.

What is happening, according to various articles in magazines like "Vintage Guitar", is twofold. First, people who can't afford a '50's or '60's Fender or Gibson move to the closest thing they can afford, namely, the '70's-era stuff. (And for Strats, nearly every early to mid '70's Strat gets tagged with having a "Hendrix vibe" because of the headstock shape.) Second, many dealers and buyers in the vintage guitar market tend to consider anything over 30 years old as a "vintage" instrument, so many of the '70's Gibson and Fender guitars are over that threshold.

I'm not saying in any way that those '70's instruments are great guitars. But I do find it interesting that nowadays, some guys are saying that EARLY '70's guitars are way better than the later '70's stuff. It's rather similar to what happened with pre- vs. post-CBS Strats in the '90's in that everyone "knew" that any Strat from the CBS years (basically '65 onward) was poorly built. However, when the pre-CBS guitars climbed up pricewise to the stratosphere (pun intended), all of a sudden CBS-built Fenders were cool as long as they were built before 1970. Thus, late '60's Strats started to become collectible and the values started going up quickly.

Now, we're seeing an extension of that trend with guitars from the '70's.

 

[Guitarzan]

That's sad...

 

[David.W]

That's sad...

Very sad. But now we know, right. I see it this way, a guitar is only worth what some other guy is willing to pay you for it. Now that said it is possible to buy an over priced guitar and be stuck with it.

 

[mxr2000]

Buy a Suhr Classic, this are world class quality.... 8)

 

[Guitarzan]

Suhr are nice...pricey but nice.

 

[David.W]

Didnt Kurt Cobain own a black Suhr classic?

 

[flieger67]

That's sad...

Well, it can actually bring up an interesting discussion of "guitar as a musical instrument" vs. "guitar as investment target". By that, I mean that some guys simply want a guitar to play while others seek out guitars in order to turn a profit on them.

A friend of mine has a theory that the reason some of the most pristine examples of old Fender and Gibson are in such great shape is that they weren't that great as instruments so instead of getting played, they sat undisturbed in cases for decades. So while the "good" guitars got played and perhaps chipped or dinged, the not-so-good guitars stayed looking like new. As a result, that unplayed guitar is worth more than the well-played guitar. Of course, that's a bit of a generalization but most collectors would rather have a like-new guitar than a well-used example.

I guess you could kind of sum it up as players vs. collectors. While there is some overlap between the two groups, there are a lot of collectors that simply don't play the very instruments they buy and as such, couldn't really care if a '70's-era Strat played or sounded bad as long as he or she thought the guitar would go up in the vintage marketplace.

 

[Guitarzan]

Admittedly I'm a player.