Vintage Guitar Collectors Can Still Find Deals

If you're a recent vintage guitar collector, the stories you've heard are true. You once could step into pawn shops or flea markets and find vintage Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Stratocasters for $50 to $100. True. These guitars now sell for thousands of dollars on Ebay and Gbase.

Those days are gone -- but there are still deals if you know what to look for.

The simple thing to remember in vintage guitar collecting is ... American guitars. Not to say Japanese or European luthiers haven't made fine guitars, but the vintage market isn't looking that way. If you stay American-made, you'll have the best chance of an instrument that will appreciate in value.

Next, forget about those who claim certain years of American guitars aren't desirable. It's true that folks once looked down on '70's Stratocasters -- but folks are now scrambling and paying top dollar for 70's and 80's models! Same thing with '80's Gibson guitars -- once thought of as poor-quality examples, people now bid high amounts for them.

Why? Well, once the most desirable pieces are gone, whatever's left is going to command attention.

So -- to find the next "deal" -- look for American made guitars that collectors are currently ignoring. Because -- soon enough, these will be at the top of the food chain.

How about specifics? Well, think "student" models. Some models are already desirable -- Fender Mustangs and Gibson Melody Makers, for example; other models haven't gained notice yet ... but they will!

For instance, Fender Bullets, made in the early 1980's, are student model guitars, but are American made and use parts found in Telecasters of the same period (pickups, etc). These are great-sounding, easy-playing, and nice looking instruments. You can still find Bullets for less than $300 ... although they're beginning to gather attention. Note, we're not talking the Squire Bullet Stratocaster-type model, but the American-made Fender model (looks like a Telecaster).

Fender also put out a Lead series -- the Lead I, Lead II, and the Lead III. Again, these were an American made student series -- but are great playing, solidly made, and sound wonderful. You can still pick up Lead's for less than $300.

Gibson Melody Makers have already been discovered by collectors -- but there's not a lot of action with Gibson's Kalamazoo line ... yet. These student models are similar in quality to the Melody Makers and Fender Mustangs. I've found Kalamazoo models for less than $100!

I haven't mentioned other brands -- Epiphone, Gretsch, Guild, etc -- because either their student models have already exploded in price or they really don't have student models. Stick with Fender and Gibson, stick with American made, and keep your eyes on lesser-known student models ... and you'll find deals that will likely join other lines in appreciating over the coming years.

Joey Robichaux operates the Free Sheet Music site at http://www.freesheetmusic.net and is an avid vintage guitar collector.

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#39;08 music sales hit record high - Hollywood Reporter

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Hyundai Super Bowl ad to feature music by Yo-Yo Ma - Reuters

Musebin: The future of music reviews? - Los Angeles Times

More schools getting in tune with mariachi - The Associated Press

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Miccus Unleashes Digital Music: Launches BluBridge Home Speaker ... - Reuters

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Music Review | Yefim Bronfman - New York Times

Free music gushes out of the Internet, if you know where to look - The Oregonian - OregonLive.com

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YouTube dispute underscores music labels#39; weak hand - Video/Imaging DesignLine

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Portland Music Award nominations out - The Oregonian - OregonLive.com

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Read all #39;Macworld 2009#39; posts in Digital Media - CNET News

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9i-0fd=Rurl=http://news.cnet.com/8300-1023_3-93.html%3Fkeyword%3DMacworld%2B2009cid=1287366747ei=hNpiSa2_N9mpmQeB8_XsAwusg=AFQjCNFojhlINA2hAPr0tl1RhTIpyyRdGgimg src=http://nt2.ggpht.com/news?imgefp=ipP30G3Vh4EJimgurl=news.cnet.com/i/ne/pg/fd_2009/090105_itunes.jpg width=80 height=60 alt= border=1brfont size=-2CNET News/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-0fd=Rurl=http://news.cnet.com/8300-1023_3-93.html%3Fkeyword%3DMacworld%2B2009cid=1287366747ei=hNpiSa2_N9mpmQeB8_XsAwusg=AFQjCNFojhlINA2hAPr0tl1RhTIpyyRdGgRead all #39;Macworld 2009#39; posts in Digital Media/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fCNET News,nbsp;CAnbsp;-/font nobr2 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Apple has cut deals that will finally enable iTunes to offer songs free of digital rights management software from the three largest bmusic/b labels, b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-1fd=Rurl=http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/05/apple_inks_deals_for_all_drm_free_itunes_3g_downloads.htmlcid=1287366747ei=hNpiSa2_N9mpmQeB8_XsAwusg=AFQjCNGOhgJIhBeUkDYbSn3Fz99-TMmAMQApple inks deals for all DRM-free iTunes, 3G downloads/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrApple Insider/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-2fd=Rurl=http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/05/drm-close-to-extinction-on-itunes/cid=1287366747ei=hNpiSa2_N9mpmQeB8_XsAwusg=AFQjCNFqPElrd7TT0tgO4VMGE_1sOIosPQDRM close to extinction on iTunes?/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrVentureBeat/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-3fd=Rurl=http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/01/05/itunes.flexible.pricing/cid=1287366747ei=hNpiSa2_N9mpmQeB8_XsAwusg=AFQjCNGJ9AwK3EvToRZLFhFvapAjrEIhAQReport: iTunes to offer DRM-free, flexible pricing/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrMacNN/nobr/font/fontbrfont size=-1 class=pa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-4fd=Rurl=http://www.macrumors.com/2009/01/05/last-minute-rumors-drm-free-itunes-mac-mini-iphone-tehthering/cid=1287366747ei=hNpiSa2_N9mpmQeB8_XsAwusg=AFQjCNEWOMje7jloKoyboADMAs1DaxNVtAnobrMac Rumors/nobr/a/fontbr/font class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1287366747hl=ennobrall 8 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

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Here are six very good reasons to learn how to play piano in the New Age style:1. It's easy.

Tips for Buying Digital Pianos and Keyboards
Buying a digital piano could be a very delicate attempt, especially if you have no idea about pianos in the first place. This article is written to help you out how to choose the best digital piano.

Chords or Melody First... Which is Best?
There are basically two ways you can compose a piece of music. The first and most traditional way is to write out the melody and then harmonize it.

Learning How To Improvise
Those of you who have been reading my articles for some time now know that I believe improvisation to be the cornerstone of musical creativity. Why? Because without the ability to just play, we become stifled and the "real" music that is within each of us withers and dies.

Establishing Your Mix
Now that you've spent hours and days and weeks and months recording your musical masterpieces (and you've also read my article "Tips for a Great Recording Session"), you have arrived at my favorite time in the studio; The Mixdown.But don't think your job is done yet! The mixdown is just as important as recording.