Market Changes

The Folk Boom and the growing popularity of Rock-a-Billy and Rock-n-Roll coming out of the 1950s created a massive demand for acoustic and electric guitars. The 4 largest American instrument manufacturers of the day: Gibson, Fender, C.F. Martin and CMI (Harmony) increased production to meet the surge in demand. Nevertheless, the demand was still too great. Several entrepreneurs looked to foreign companies to make up the difference. Guitars from Europe and the Pacific Rim began to pour into the United States. The cheaper foreign goods pushed the American Big Four to get more competitive by cutting corners to lower prices. The general quality of stringed instruments began to decline rapidly. By the end of the 1960s, the public perception of the quality of a Gibson, Fender or Martin was severely lacking. Players quickly realized that buying a used Gibson, Fender or Martin from the 1950s or earlier was a better deal: they were plentiful, cheaper and better built and better sounding instruments.

The minute it became ‘cool’ to have an older instrument, it hurt the old manufacturers bottom line. It also opened the door to young builders aspiring to become Luthiers. There was terrific demand for instrument repair. In the practice of repairing older instruments, apprentice Luthiers became intimately familiar with how the older instruments were made. Naturally, they began to develop strong opinions as to why the Vintage Instruments were ‘better’. They also began to fashion their own design ideas. Some refined earlier traditional designs and other began experimenting with altogether new designs. A new market for Luthier built instruments was born and began to flourish.

This had a profound impact on the value of used and Vintage Instruments, as well as hand-crafted, custom designed new instruments. The market was changing.

The following exercise is academic: simply to compare the market values of a short list of desirable Vintage Instruments. The term ‘desirable’ here means: instruments that collectors have been willing to pay large sums of money for. The source of information is from The Official Vintage Guitar Price Guide (of several different years) by Alan Greenwood & Gil Hembree, combined with the experience of Vintage Instrument sales at AcousticMusic.Org. All instruments listed reflect examples that are all-original (meaning all the original parts, including original case) and in excellent condition. ‘Excellent Condition’ is defined as: There may be some wear (reflecting age and use) but well maintained with no significant repairs, blemishes or damage.

We have purposely selected a short list of very desirable high-priced items on the assumption that they will better demonstrate market fluctuations over time. This is not, therefore, a good representation of the instrument market as a whole. Please note that this is a very arbitrary selection, purely an academic exercise.