Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Vintage Fender Prices


Thunderbird

Recommended Posts

7 hours ago, merello said:

Haven’t read whole thread but Gibson are offering a £59k reward for their order book around The 59 mark. 

It's interesting that it's taken until now for the request to be made and god knows how many guitars Gibson were producing annually back then. 

I'd reckon that the ledgers for that period probably went into a dumpster during some sort of office/warehouse reorganisation/tidy up in the mid-70s move from Kalamazoo to Nashville.  You can (almost) imagine some Brylcreemed middle management bloke (imagine George McFly) being giving a remit to tidy things up prior to the move to the new plant and just going to some lacky, 'Ted, throw these in the junk, we'll have no need for these at the new facility.'  Hopefully, I'm wrong.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me it was a case of getting the itch out of my system so I bought a 1970 SB RW P bass. It felt amazing, looked beautiful  and sounded very smooth but could I justify the cash being tied up like that? not after picking up a lowly Squire VM P.....sold the vintage and I'll probably never sell the Squire....its lighter, punchier and just perfect for no money at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Gibson day books for the latter half of 1958, '59 and '60 were lost during an office relocation.  They do have the annual figures of each model, but not by type.  Interestingly, Gibsons own records show 19 Explorers and 81 Flying Vs were produced in 1958.  Another 3 Explorers were made in 1959, along with a further 17 Flying Vs making them infinitely more rare than the Les Pauls of the same era.  For comparison, in 1958 434 burst Les Pauls were made, and 649 in 1959.  Of those, only guitars made up to 30th June 1958 are accurately recorded with finish, model and serial number.  As for total production numbers - in 1959 Gibson recorded the production of 34,123 guitars.  

Costs?  Expect to pay from £150,000 upwards for a verified '59 Les Paul burst, and if you've won the lottery you can get a '58 Flying V for £256,000 from Emerald City Guitars, Seattle.  There are reports that in 2016 a store in Denmark Street brokered the sale of a 1958 Explorer for $1.1m

http://www.burstserial.com/index.php?/page/serial_log is a brilliant resource for burst Les Pauls

Edited by DaytonaRik
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, DaytonaRik said:

The Gibson day books for the latter half of 1958, '59 and '60 were lost during an office relocation.  They do have the annual figures of each model, but not by type.  Interestingly, Gibsons own records show 19 Explorers and 81 Flying Vs were produced in 1958.  Another 3 Explorers were made in 1959, along with a further 17 Flying Vs making them infinitely more rare than the Les Pauls of the same era.  For comparison, in 1958 434 burst Les Pauls were made, and 649 in 1959.  Of those, only guitars made up to 30th June 1958 are accurately recorded with finish, model and serial number.

http://www.burstserial.com/index.php?/page/serial_log is a brilliant resource for burst Les Pauls

Hi. I think the shipping total for 1958 Les Paul Standards (434) includes both gold top and sunburst finishes. Gibson transitioned during 1958 from gold top to sunburst, and didn't keep a record of the specific number shipped for each finish.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, bassaussie said:

Hi. I think the shipping total for 1958 Les Paul Standards (434) includes both gold top and sunburst finishes. Gibson transitioned during 1958 from gold top to sunburst, and didn't keep a record of the specific number shipped for each finish.

The transition happened after June 1958 which is why the exact number for that year is unknown, but there may be a few bursts in the gold top column and vice versa.  They would have, of course, been recorded in the now legendary missing day books.   The non-centre split top is a giveaway as to those which were either officially refinished at the factory or unofficially after the event.

Edited by DaytonaRik
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, DaytonaRik said:

The transition happened after June 1958 which is why the exact number for that year is unknown, but there may be a few bursts in the gold top column and vice versa.  They would have, of course, been recorded in the now legendary missing day books.   The non-centre split top is a giveaway as to those which were either officially refinished at the factory or unofficially after the event.

If you're into old Gibsons, then you probably already know this site, but I'll link to it anyway. I think it's as good a resource as any on the net for vintage details.

http://www.guitarhq.com/shippin4.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have had 2 early stackers,they a not for me,the 2 resistors being the reason,they are not in the reissues ,I personally prefer a slab vvt or just a vvt.The slab vvt is much rarer...Just find what works for you and within budget and you enjoy playing it...collecting anything vintage you just hone in on what you like a which is not  always the same as what the market says is “the best”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 22/07/2020 at 07:54, Reggaebass said:

Out of interest, what’s different about the resistors in the stack knob ones and the vvt 

The stacked pots each had a resistor attached, which the signal passed through. This was in addition to the capacitor(s) that is still used.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...