(legit) Hypothetical question...'burst values...

[Big Al]

It is what it is, and will remain regardless of the style of music or what anyone wants to project in their speculations. These are rare, iconic guitars that have become very valuable and desired. No other instrument that has become desired and expensive, has lost it's value. Violins and other stringed instruments, Pianos, Brass or woodwind instruments, F5 Mandolins, pre war Martins, on and on, once established as very collectable the market seems to sustain that. Values shift up and down with market corrections but they haven't tanked and stayed tanked. Just my observations.:hank

 

[Pianodoc]

I remember when vintage guitar magazine had a column, 401k guitars or some such thing, they had an index of "investment guitars" and tracked the index like a stock portfolio.

I don't think they have that column anymore:hee.

I would hope that most of us here love the instruments and love making music with them.

 

[Fried okra]

I plan on being buried with mine, which should increase the value of all the others, because there will be one less Burst out there.

Just curious, where do you plan on being buried? I would like to pay my respects upon your passing.:hmm

 

[T.Allen]

I plan on being buried with mine, which should increase the value of all the others, because there will be one less Burst out there.

Which funeral home will you be using? :jim

 

[Tom Wittrock]

I think JJ is planning a Viking funeral. :ganz

 

[Jeremy G]

I'm 24 and a serious guitar collector. I've got a mess of custom shop fenders and gibsons, along with many vintage amps that I have purchased myself with my own hard earned money over the years. Although the guitar crowd will always exist and guys like me will still be around you must understand that my generation is completely different than any other. It's really difficult to even see anybody else my age that isn't literally obsessed with staring at cell phones or computers, I'm not certain that my generation is as interested in collectable items let alone a vintage guitar. Even most young folks I know that do play guitar will comment on my "nice" guitars but generally don't seem moved to ever purchase one for themselves, it's seems an epiphone that looks close to what i have will do. Don't get me wrong there's guys out there but out of all the young musicians I've met they just don't seem to understand the addiction guys like us possess. :spabout Hope my thoughts aren't offensive as I'm only reporting what I see, I hope the sunburst les paul retains its collectability as with everything else. :jim

+1 we were born in the wrong era. I'm also 24 and I can't work touch screen shit, or smart phones etc... I should've been born in the 60s or something.

 

[au_rick]

We've beat this horse to death over the years but I, for the most part, stayed out of it... I've been a dyed in the wool guitar enthusiast since 1963, spent my life long career playing a guitar and its been my only job for the past 43 years I've been working, and in my spare time I like to talk about guitars as well as collect... well until the madness hit a few years ago...but I'll go back soon for sure.. it's in my blood.. I agree 100% with this observation, it will never be the same as it was for us growing up. I don't think there is any way possible vintage guitars will have such a following as now. Bursts may hold value in some ways but vintage as a whole? How could it? I was reading in one of the major Men's mags while getting a haircut an article about the "death of rock music" at one the major festivals. It will never be the center, focal point, and pulse, of society as it was in the late 60's. Say what you want, you won't get me to buy the idea that vintage guitars will have anywhere near the importance to future generations as it did to "us".

Sorry, but people saying Rock is Dead, and Rock'n'Roll has no future for decades. It won't ever die, it'll just continue to come and go in cycles !

 

[mistersnappy]

Most vintage guitars that aren't in the vaunted category of pre-War Martins/Bursts/pre-CBS Fender, you know the ones, may fall in price because I jsut can't see in 30 years too many folks wanitng to play ES-175s with P-90s or old Epiphones. I hope I'm around to see it!

 

[SkyPalermo]

Leaving the discussion of the cultural significance of guitar music aside, I just can't see prices going up for bursts or most other vintage guitars - actually 60's Harmony, Hofners, Silvertones etc have gone up quite a bit - to a lot of young musicians, especially on this side of the pond (Europe), upmarket guitars like the Gibson Historic Collection are just ludicrously expensive pieces of furniture.

And I totally get it: Why would you be fascinated with stuff like "correct plastics" and pick-up cover shapes if you weren't born in a time where Les Pauls were everywhere and guitar players where worshipped like gods. These times are gone (and I am totally fine with that).

However I don't think the vintage market will go south soon as there still is enough demand and there will be people who realise their cultural value and put them in museums.

 

[SkyPalermo]

Sorry, but people saying Rock is Dead, and Rock'n'Roll has no future for decades. It won't ever die, it'll just continue to come and go in cycles !

I think you have to define what Rock n' Roll means beyond the music itself though. People will always make music and have been doing so for thousands of years. But I think it's time to accept that Rock n Roll - which was a product of a solid industry and socio-economic climate that is no more, has lost a massive part of its cultural relevance. I would go so far to say that this happened to all popular music genres. There will be other, new forms of expression -we may not like them - which will provide more of a narrative for young people, the way RnR did in the last century. That being said, chamber music didn't die completely, so won't RnR!

PS: Sorry, I do enjoy discussing this. :##

 

[j45]

Sorry, but people saying Rock is Dead, and Rock'n'Roll has no future for decades. It won't ever die, it'll just continue to come and go in cycles !

Never said anything about rock and roll dying...just speaking on topic of "vintage guitars" and quoted a mag that observed the replacement of what used to be 100% (guitar) rock with many genres that will continue to grow and dilute the presence of the electric guitar dominance we grew up with... even in periods of R&R revival it has been steadily declining and exponentially less prevalent or essential in the big picture of music as compared to the late 60's/early 70's....I just said the interest of vintage guitars as a whole is, and will continue to be waning. We will never return to the late 60's when the zeitgeist was guitar music and rock guitar music was the messenger of and to the people/society of that generation. I believe technology has assured us of that. And "rock music" is in no way exclusively dependent upon the electric guitar like it used to be. I happen to believe there is more creative and better "rock music" today than there has been since the very early 70's...and by a LONG shot....but...the expression of music and conveying of the message is no longer dependent on the instruments and specific sounds (tones) we grew up with. I'll get poo-poo'd for this but as a "market".... I see vintage guitars (as a whole) of the two thousand-teen years as the Lionel Trains of the 1980's....it has come and now going.... and I am still invested to the marrow in my dedication and love for them because of my personal experiences with them.... and what I experienced just won't and cannot possibly happen again to the masses like the everyday opportunities that were available to us in that era...


and this is very well said, ...curious as to your age:

I think you have to define what Rock n' Roll means beyond the music itself though. People will always make music and have been doing so for thousands of years. But I think it's time to accept that Rock n Roll - which was a product of a solid industry and socio-economic climate that is no more, has lost a massive part of its cultural relevance. I would go so far to say that this happened to all popular music genres. There will be other, new forms of expression -we may not like them - which will provide more of a narrative for young people, the way RnR did in the last century. That being said, chamber music didn't die completely, so won't RnR!

PS: Sorry, I do enjoy discussing this. :##

 

[montesada]

There are basically 3 camps on this, as far as I can tell:

1) A burst is a burst and it doesn't really matter what the price is. It's not about the monetary value....never was for me.

2) Bursts are a rare collectible and the value will continue to increase despite intermittent ups and downs in the market.

3) Burst prices will go down as the baby boomers die off. Bursts, and guitars in general, will never be as popular with future generations as they are for those who loved rock in the 60's and 70's.

I have no idea who is right. If forced to pick one, I'd go with number 3. YMMV yada yada

#2

 

[janalex]

I think the market for Vintage guitars is in many ways similar to classic cars, and as such I am fairly sure that the demand amongst the next generation will be very low. I took a friend's 9 year old son out in a fantastic old italian sports car the other day, and he was much more interested in my iPhone 6 than in the car. I was the same age when I first got a ride in a similar car, and I swear I had my first erection. The true Bursts and the GTOs of the world will always be very valuable, but as a whole I think the vintage market will decline as "our" generation fades away.

The number of people driving cars is not declining. The number of people playing rock guitar is substantially. Markets are totally different. Chicks will always dig hit rods. Rock guitar is growing to be culturally irrelevant except for some really stand out players. Doesn't stop me from collecting though.