vintageguitarandbass.comVintage Guitar and Bass

| soundclips | catalogue scans | vintage ads | forum | supporting members | login Ampeg Baldwin Dan Armstrong Epiphone Fender Futurama G&L Gibson Goya Gretsch Guild Hagstrom Harmony Hayman Hofner Hohner Ibanez Kalamazoo Kay Marshall Matsumoku Musicman Ovation Peavey Rickenbacker Rose-Morris Selmer Shaftesbury Silvertone Supro Yamaha Voxwe may earn an affiliate commission. See terms and conditions welcome to Why vintage guitars? There is something special about musical instruments of a certain age. Guitars built from the mid 1950s until the late 1970s are generally held in high esteem; techniques and materials, particularly pre-1970 were vastly superior to today’s ’mass-produced’ standards. But is a vintage guitar really much different to a modern day equivalent? People often say wood is wood, but this is simply not the case. Centuries old trees that were regularly harvested for guitar manufacture in the 1950s are now protected, and it is these old trees with close grains and unbeatable tonal qualities that make the very best guitars. With rainforests rapidly diminishing their protection can only be a good thing. But it does mean that good quality older guitars, perhaps with a few modernFixing loose frets can eliminate fret buzz, remove sharp fret ends, and greatly improve the tone of any guitar. If your luthier bill will be greater than the value of your guitar, definitely time to have a go yourself! 1966 Hagstrom ’worlds fastest playing neck’ catalog (Merson USA) Hagstrom guitars were distributed in the mid-1960s United States by Merson of USA. This eight page ’worlds fastest playing neck’ catalog, printed in two-colors contained six solid body electrics, three solid body basses, two electric acoustic guitars, two electric acoustic basses and five acoustics. show more Is older always better? But older guitars are not always better than new guitars; they can have unreliable parts, or be difficult to maintain. A lot of these are upgraded to make great players grade instruments. Keeping the essence of the original vintage guitar, but adding a little of today’s reliability. A great example is the 1960s Gibson Melody Maker ; an all-mahogany set neck guitar with Brazilian rosewood fingerboard and beautiful nitrocellulose finish. Well-built by Gibson, in their Kalamazoo factory, but with very basic pickups, tuning keys and electronics. Upgraded examples are everywhere, and are exceptional value as players grade instruments. Then again some guitars, especially early Japanese and European models aimed at the student guitarists of the early 1960s are completely unplayable. Even the cheapest modern day guitars put these to shame. Before buying any vintage guitar it is a good idea to know exactly what you are buying! This site aims to be a reference point for guitar players and guitar collectors. There’s information, history, photographs and sound clips of many famous, and not so famous guitars and basses by makes such as Danelectro, Epiphone , Fender , Gibson , Guild , Gretsch , Hagstrom , Harmony , Hofner , Rickenbacker and Vox . There is a section on effects pedals too! Check out the classic guitar advertisements , guitar catalogs , or listen to vintage guitars being played. If you get stuck, try the sitemap or post a message in the forum Guitars bought! Do you have a vintage instrument for sale. I am looking for good condition guitars and basses circa 1950-1980 by Gibson, Guild, Hagstrom, Hofner, Vox and others. Let me know what you have available Latest vintage guitar and bass videos More vintage guitar videos here Subscribe to the vintageguitarandbass youtube channel for more vintage guitar and bass demos. Also, check out the longer demos of these guitars/amps, with more sounds and more settings in the supporting members pages . 1961 Hofner Colorama I / 1963 WEM ER 15 (3m 07s) Find out more about these instruments here: 1961 Hofner Colorama , 1963 WEM ER-15 This is a wonderful playing guitar - and it sounds pretty cool through the WEM ER15. The Hofner Colorama was sold by Selmer in the UK 1958-1965: yet the several different guitars were included under the moniker at different times. In 1961 it was a nice set-neck solid body, with a Hofner 510 diamond logo pickup, and a long 6-in-a-row headstock. The controls of these single pickup models are easier to understand than the dual pickup examples, but are still not totally intuitive. These are 1) natural pickup sound 2) treble cut 3) bass cut 4) treble and bass cut. Because the electronics on these controls only act on a single pickup, there is not quite the range of sounds on a dual pickup example, and frankly, they seem pretty subtle. Compare this to the dual pickup 1960 Colorama - the treble/bass switches also turn pickups on/off making the effect far more noticeable - and because of this, using the treble and bass cut together is not possible. Recorded here with a Heil PR-40 (left channel) and a Shure SM57 (right channel), through a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface - highly recommended gear! 1960 Hofner Colorama II / 1963 WEM ER 15 (4m 41s) Find out more about these instruments here: 1960 Hofner Colorama , 1963 WEM ER-15 This is a great little guitar - and it sounds pretty cool through the WEM ER15. The Hofner Colorama was sold by Selmer in the UK 1958-1965: yet the several different guitars were included under the moniker at different times. In 1960 it was a nice set-neck semi-solid - and one of the lightest guitars i’ve ever played! The controls are not totally intuitive, but the five basic settings have real character. These are 1) both pickups 2) neck pickup 3) neck pickup with treble cut 4) bridge pickup 5) bridge pickup with bass cut. Recorded here with a Heil PR-40 (left channel) and a Shure SM57 (right channel), through a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface - highly recommended gear! 1981 Gibson Marauder / 1973 Fender Vibrolux Reverb - vintage guitar demo (4m 34s) Find out more about these instruments here: 1981 Gibson Marauder , 1973 Fender Vibrolux Reverb Fender amps are all about clean. You can push them for a bit of snarl, but it’s the nice rounded warmth and the sparkling glassiness that really make this amp come alive. Dial in some vibrato and reverb for some really classy sounds. You can go overboard for some craziness (check out some of my other videos of this amp) but just a little shimmer goes a long way! There are some lovely tones here from this combination. What i’ve recorded here is pretty polite, but that’s what this amp inspires. Strung with Gibson bright wires (10-46) Recorded here with a Shure SM57 (left channel) and a Heil PR-40 (right channel), through a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface - highly recommended gear! 1981 Gibson Marauder / 1976 WEM Dominator mkIII - vintage guitar demo (4m 37s) Find out more about these instruments here: 1981 Gibson Marauder , 1976 WEM Dominator mkIII This is a tasty combination. Actually these two give a pretty bassy basic tone, and the whole amp rattles and vibrates with any significant volume, especially on the lower strings - so quite a few of the settings I used had the amp bass rolled down to some extent. But not all - turn it up loud enough and you can’t hear the amp anyway! This amp has some truly wonderful grittier tones, and a world apart from the clean tones of many other amps. Compare the sounds attained here with those from a Fender amp, or Gibson/Norlin solid state LAB series amp. Strung with Gibson bright wires (10-46) Recorded here with a Shure SM57 (left channel) and a Heil PR-40 (right channel), through a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface - highly recommended gear! Guitars and Parts for Sale Gibson guitars on Reverb Vintage Gibsons for Sale Gibson Guitar Parts Left Handed Gibsons for Sale Vintage Guitar Valuation Our Vintage Picks Out Now 2024 Vintage Guitar price guide Need the value of your guitar? The Official Vintage Guitar Magazine Price Guide 2024 is out now: Amazon Latest Forum Posts create a new post Hofner clarification...