Signature guitars of the rock 'n' roll era -- candy-colored Fender Stratocasters, slab-bodied Fender Telecasters, flame-topped Gibson Les Pauls and voluptuously shaped Gretsch hollow bodies -- are symbols of a uniquely American pop culture that continues to excite guitar enthusiasts. But aside from their nostalgia value, they've proved to be good investments.
A Gibson Les Paul Standard that sold in 1958 for less than $300, including the guitar case, can now fetch $420,000 or more -- an average annual gain of 32% since 2000, according to vintage guitar price guides.
But in today's economy, some onetime investors are looking to cash out: More and more of these prized instruments, long held in the hands of collectors, are turning up in music shops throughout Southern California.
Collectors and guitar dealers have two pieces of advice: If you own one and can afford to, hang on to it -- prices may have dipped recently but they will rise again. But if you're in the market for one, there are plenty on the market as the economy forces people to sell. And bargains can be found.
Actor and musician Billy Mumy has long been a collector, although he points out, "I don't have any guitars I don't use."
For Mumy, collecting old guitars was initially a practical matter. "In the late '70s, and for the bulk of the '80s, I think, nobody was making good guitars. If you walked into a store and played the older stuff, you realized there was a gigantic difference between the guitars made in the '50s and '60s and the stuff that was being made in the '70s and '80s."
Mumy has seen the prices of vintage instruments escalate over the years. "I remember when a '58 Les Paul was $12,000 and I thought '$12,000? No way!' Now some of those guitars are like half a million."
Even if one can't afford the often astronomical sums these guitars can command -- $12,000 is not an uncommon figure for a "player's condition" '60s-era Fender Stratocaster that, new, sold for less than $250 -- the dedicated fan can spend hours, even days, in Southern California looking at some of the greatest six-string instruments ever made.
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Inquiries on the rise
Drew Berlin and David Belzer operate Guitar Center's Vintage Room in Hollywood. Berlin noted that they are getting calls from sellers "every day."
