A few weeks back guitarist Bernie LaBarge gave me a copy of the Toronto Star newspaper from December 9, 1980 - the day after John Lennon was murdered. We are both huge Beatles fans and he was returning the favor after I gave him a 1968 Guitar Player magazine with Jimi Hendrix on the cover.
I probably read this Toronto Star issue back then, along with the Sun and the Globe and Time and Newsweek, since John Lennon's murder sent me on a quest to obtain any printed matter whatsoever about the event, and then about him and the Beatles. My first research obsession - I was eleven.
Last night, thumbing through its yellowed pages, I found the 'Musical Instruments' column in the classified ads. The once-mighty Star classified have shrunk to a few pages in the present day, supplanted by Craigslist and Kijiji. But in 1980 if you wanted to sell a guitar, the Star classifieds was the place to go. Let's have a look.
GIBSON guitar, ES335, 1969, $850. and other equipment, 822-****.
Current market price of a 1969 Gibson ES-335? $4500 to $9000 US, according to vintage-guitars.blogspot.com. Reading these classifieds is a grim reminder of how ridiculous the market for certain American guitars has gotten. As late as 1988 I found a 1959 stock Strat in Sault Ste. Marie for $1500 (I couldn't buy it).
GUITAR - Gibson ES175, with P.A.F. Humbucking pickup, excellent condition, $725. 247-****.
Ouch. A guitar I've always coveted, ever since I saw Tim Posgate's 175 back in high school. The lister doesn't give a year of manufacture, making it hard to price the instrument today, but if the pickup is truly a PAF the guitar was probably made between 1957 and 1961, and the 2010 buyer is looking at a cool $5,100 according to this recent listing. Of course, you can always buy a nice counterfeit for around the 1980 price.
MARTIN D-18, beautifully aged tone, $650. 444-****.
Ouch again. I can almost hear the beautifully aged tone. Wait, let's listen (for the full effect please use headphones, not your crappy laptop speakers):
More Martin tone porn and great picking by a Greek flatpicker:
Again, it's hard to guess at the year of manufacture of the listed D-18, which is all-important to vintage value. A conservative estimate of the age of an "aged" guitar is ten years, I reckon. 1970 Martin D-18: $2000 at this listing, about the same as a new D-18.
1965 Fender Jazzmaster, rarity, immac., plus brand new case, $650 call Andy, 232-****
I want to call up Andy and ask him if he ever thinks about the one that got away, that guitar that he sold for a song thirty years ago, that he could have sold in 2010 for the price of a nice car. If he regrets it, even just to still have the guitar as an example of the golden era of a great American guitar company. The fact that he devotes about a quarter of his text to the selling point of a "brand new case" is almost sad.
I've been thinking about the ones that got away - the guitars, I mean. There's the toneful 1958 Gibson J-45 acoustic that I used for a year then blew the chance to purchase. The oddball Tele Frankenstein with a seventies Strat neck, a Gibson humbucker, a 1968-dated Tele bridge pickup and a multi-wood double-cutaway body. Even the Japanese-made 1983 Squier Strat that I bought new at Burlington Music (now a branch of Long and McQuade, the Canadian music store behemoth). Anybody harboring regrets? Share your shame.
Posts
ha! You would be sad if you knew how little love I give my ES-175 these days Mike. I do have some things coming up where I look forward to re-visiting my old pal; 175. Great Blog!
ReplyDeleteTim, I'm gratified just to know that you still have it, and will play it again.
ReplyDeleteLet's see now, where should I start? There was the 1962 Fender Jazzmaster I bought from Bob Hawkins in 1985 for $275, then resold for $335 dollars. Or the Gibson Hummingbird acoustic that I traded in a pawnshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts for a Goya guitar (louder sound for busking). The Goya's inside bracing came loose. I had a metal-flake blue Mustang at some point; I see them selling at the Chicago Music/Guitar exchange for about $2500. I won't even mention my Ampeg Burns of London guitar...whoops, I just did.
ReplyDeleteI started playing guitars in bands around 1970. My first guitar was a Les Paul Goldtop deluxe($400), traded for a sixties model ES335 (my paul +$125 boot)a single cutaway sunburst Gibson Melodymaker($125)the 335 and MM were bothe stolen..bought a 1953 ES175 with origional hardshell($175), and a 63 single P90 SG ($150), which I traded both for a reverse firebird(3 pickups,maestro tremelo arm), which was neck-heavy, so I traded it for another Goldtop Deluxe...bought a 65 SG special with tailpiece for $350 around 95, sold it for $1500 around '95... plus various '60s Strats & SGs along the way...usually around $300 in the seventies..and I don't even WANT to think about the AMPS...
ReplyDeleteThere's a great thread on the Les Paul Forum about a '59 Les Paul that was being sold by the people at the Hare Krishna temple on Avenue Road in the early 1980s for a few grand....
ReplyDeleteAt least I had the good sense to hold on to the mid-60s Jaguar I bought used in 1974.
The one that got away? A 1973 Olympic White Telecaster that I bought from The Music Shoppe in Thornhill in 1976 for $350.
ReplyDeleteToday, it would fetch between $3,000 and $5,400 US.