Vintage Guitars

If you're planning to buy a vintage guitar, realize you'll be breathing rarified air. The vintage guitar market is an exclusive club of those in the know, so do your homework before joining.

What Is A Vintage Guitar?

Typically the word vintage refers to something that's old. However, in the world of vintage guitars, age alone doesn't determine an instrument's status. A guitar's worth is based on factors such as make, model, playability and degree of originality, in addition to age.

Vintage guitars are often collector's items sought out by investors willing to pay thousands. Some examples of the most treasured guitars are the pre-WWII flat top acoustic guitars by Martin, Gibson, The Larson Brothers of Chicago and Lyon & Healy of Chicago. Also prized are archtop acoustic jazz guitars made through the 1960s by Gibson, Epiphone, D'Angelico and Stromberg. Pre-WWII mandolins by Gibson and Lyon & Healy are hot items, as well as pre-WWII banjos by Fairbanks, Vega, S.S. Stewart, Gibson, Paramount, Bacon & Day, Ludwig and Leedy.

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