Vintage guitar

During the advent of popular music in the 1950s and 1960s, Gibson, newcomer Fender and to a lesser degree, Gretsch and Rickenbacker began to produce high quality electric guitars.

It is this increase in production numbers post-1965 combined with the sale of Fender to CBS which saw the quality of electric instruments slowly decline, and hence the price of vintage guitars drops dramatically post-1965 depending on the company and model of the piece.

The rising mass production of both acoustic and electric guitars in that era served to highlight the quality workmanship and materials of the older instruments.

Historians, such as George Gruhn, helped to codify both the monetary value and sound quality of these guitars for both collectors and musicians.

[3] As a general rule, those electric guitars that were played by Rock n Roll stars including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Angus Young and Jimmy Page are considered more desirable.

In particular, the late 1950s Gibson Les Paul made from Honduran Mahogany and Brazilian Rosewood is considered the most collectible vintage guitar in the market today.