“Man, what idiot would do that to a vintage guitar!?”
If you hang out enough in circles where people play, collect, check out or generally enthuse about vintage instruments, that’s a line you’re likely to hear on a regular basis, simply because a lot of vintage guitars and amps have been molested, modified, and devalued in one way or another over the years. Usually the aghast observer opines incredulously, “Who would [insert crime here] a great old guitar like this?” Said crime being anything from refinishing, routing, rewiring, refretting, initialing or engraving, swapping pickups, changing hardware, and otherwise rendering un-original in any way. “Seriously, what kind of fool would do such a thing?”
Well, once upon a time, I would, and maybe you would, too. But more to the point, consider this: unless you’re flying in executive class in the vintage market, if some fool hadn’t mucked up that old guitar or amp, you probably wouldn’t own it right now.
It might seem a shame for posterity—for the “museum piece” factor—and sure, we’d love to have gotten our hands on the thing before it was modified. But would we have? Be honest with yourself. If the so-called idiot-former-owner hadn’t knocked off a major portion of said instrument’s value, you never would have laid your own trembling fingers on the thing at all. Consider this, too: plenty of great classics of the ’50s through ’70s were great right out of the box, but many were not, and others really did need a little help to fit the needs of the musicians who played them. In many cases, these players bought them before they had developed any collectible value. Guys put humbuckers in the bridge positions of Strats and the neck positions of Teles because, in many cases, they just sounded better that way. They gave them jumbo frets because it better suited their own playing styles. They refinished all manner of guitars because the original finishes wore out, or simply because they wanted a different color. They modded late-’60s and early-’70s plexi- and metal-panel Marshall amps because they wanted more gain up front so they didn’t have to crank them to the max to get scorching lead tones. They added Grover and Schaller tuners to Les Pauls and SGs because the original Klusons got bent or stuck or just felt generally slack. On and on, ad infinitum.
All of these mods and “improvements” helped the piece of gear in question get the job done for some hard-working player back in the day. They helped to make the instrument more their own, and—bonus!—they also helped pass the instrument along into our hands years later at tasty cut-rate prices. Who lost out in all this gear-devaluation hoo-ha? Not whoever bought it next. We made out in the deal, grabbing a piece we couldn’t have approached otherwise (unless we were duped into paying full un-molested vintage value, which is rarely the case with gear as obviously and blatantly mucked up as the kind I’m talking about).
One of my own longtime companions makes a great case-in-point. Several years ago I purchased a ’57 Fender Esquire that was just hanging onto its vintage status by the skin of its teeth. It had been badly refinished, Tele-ized in the late ’60s with an added neck pickup and modified wiring, had the original bridge pickup lost to some hot replacement, and was wearing a daft early ’70s replacement brass bridge plate with six individual saddles. The guitar had been re-fretted, probably more than once, and was on at least its third set of tuners judging by the plethora of mounting holes under the heavily corroded gold Schallers it carried at the time. I didn’t buy it as a vintage guitar. I bought it after being drawn to a classified ad listing “Old Fender Telecaster For Sale: $800.” When I called the guy, he said, “You know, I think it’s originally from 1957,” as if that was just a matter of interest, not of any relevance to the guitar’s value. So I drove over, we popped off the neck, and sure enough it still had the original 10-57 pencil date on the heel, and the gentle V neck profile upheld that claim, as did the various pin-router holes around the guitar. The pot codes all checked to 1957, as did the “–22959” serial number on the neck plate. In many ways it was a rough and ragged guitar, but it had a vibe to it and sounded pretty cool.
So, this is the point at which, driving home with this extremely interesting acquisition, I started moaning to myself about it. “Damn, if only the previous owner hadn’t screwed this thing up in so many ways. Think what I’d have here!” Yeah, and if he hadn’t, this would be a $25,000-plus ’57 Esquire that I never could have afforded in the first place. Over the years I’ve had a great vintage-style refin and relic job done by noted restoration artist Clive Brown, put a set of top-notch Ron Ellis replacement pickups in it, added great compensated three-piece saddles and a new bridge plate, had an excellent ’50s-spec re-fret. The result: I’ve got “my ’57 Telecaster” that I’m not afraid to take out even to the sweatiest, most beer-spillin’, drunk-dancer-careening-into-the-stage dive bar, and it sounds, feels and looks just how I’d want such a guitar to be. Feel like trying a hotter pickup on it or a different tone cap? No problem! It’s a beater, a genuine player’s vintage, and it has already been devalued as far as it’ll go.
Over the years I have drilled a hole through the top of a ’72 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop to add a coil-tap switch, routed a mid-’60s Fender Mustang with a chisel to put a humbucker in the bridge position, stripped most of the circuit of a pre-CBS Blackface Fender Bassman and added countless mods to Silverface Fender amps. Hopefully you, their current owners, picked them up for less coin than if I’d left well enough alone. You’re welcome.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dave Hunter is a writer and musician who has worked extensively in the USA and the UK. He is the author of The Guitar Amp Handbook, Guitar Effects Pedals, Guitar Amps & Effects For Dummies, The Gibson Les Paul and several other books. Dave is also a regular contributor to Guitar Player and Vintage Guitar magazines. See some of Dave's books on Reverb here.