AFFORDABLE VINTAGE

Not every vintage guitar is a ‘holy grail’ but there are still plenty of gems to be discovered outside the realm of collector-grade classics. Here’s how to find them

- Rod Brakes & Jamie Dickson

Few players are immune to the charm of old guitars. Yet the instruments we’ve all grown up idolising are, in many cases, way out of reach of the average player’s budget. As the saying goes, an object is only worth what people are willing to pay for it – and that also rings true with vintage guitars, where the desirability of golden-era instruments propels them to six-figure values in some cases. But it’s important to remember that those ‘perfect’ guitars are driven up in price by the needs of collectors, for whom originality, condition, rarity and provenance of a guitar are paramount. Most players aren’t collectors, however – they just like the feel of old, played-in guitars and the character that years and use impress upon an instrument. So that means wherever there are factors that put collectors off, you are in with a chance of finding a ‘player’s-grade’ bargain – a classic guitar that sounds and looks the business but which falls outside of that seriously expensive zone inhabited by pristine 60s Strats, all-original Blackguard Teles and the like.