What do you call a vintage reissue that is now old enough to be a vintage guitar in itself?

[LedZepconcertvet]

This beautiful guitar was featured in another post. My question is: what do you call a vintage reissue that is now old enough to itself be considered a vintage guitar? Is it a Double Vintage? Or a V-Vintage, or a Vintage-vintage, or what?

Also, How many years old does a guitar have to be before it’s considered ‘vintage’? In 1978 we sold guitars made in 1958 as vintage, but I hardly think a guitar made in 1993, let alone 2003 is a vintage guitar now.

This seems like a new sub category for guitars that needs a good name.

View attachment 610425

Vintage 2.0?

 

[CirroStratus]

"What do you call a vintage reissue that is now old enough to be a vintage guitar in itself?"

Overpriced

Winner!

 

[rolandson]

Define "vintage"...

 

[El Gobernador]

Baked Potato???

Making me homesick. I've played there...

 

[Scott Baxendale]

That's the fuzzy part of guitars or even any wood instrument. I recall some wind wood instruments the African wood is a 5 year lead time for it to be made into that musical instrument. I guess a slab of Alder could easily be aged 5 years before making a 2022 Strat from it. The guitars made from pre harvested decades to centuries old wood , if made into a guitar in 2022 and I have a hard time calling the guitar a 2022, because of the age of the harvested wood species. 50 years from now, someone will date the guitar based upon serial number or some other date stamping methodology. But deep down, that pine is 50 years older than the support beam it was for the last century or more. And the Colonial carpenters had no idea when they laid floor & rafter beams, that one day, a rock legend would be playing music with it. I just figure Lo Fenders prototypes were probably in the moment stock inventory of wood slabs. If he had a few months of wood in the inventory, that's what those prototypes were for whenever that stock was harvested.

I bought a set of premium old growth Brazilian Rosewood in 1985 that was supposedly milled from the log into a set for a guitar in 1950. My son built a guitar for me with that beautiful set of Brazilian Rosewood that I received last spring. This spring that guitar will be 1 year old.

 

[Oldiemurphy]

It’s so subjective. And certain eras are so specifically defined. For instance, I have a ’75 Strat. It’s old but I wouldn’t necessarily call it vintage. It’s just a 70s Strat, a completely notorious period of production. I love mine but I think that era is so specifically identified. But if I had a Fullerton AVRI I might think of it as a vintage American Vintage, lol.

 

[stratman323]

I look at it like this. In 1982 when vintage re-issues were invented, a 1962 Strat was 20 years old & it was definitely vintage. My 1983 AVRI is 40 years old next year. By any reasonable definition, & following all the rules, that makes it vintage.

 

[Parksie]

I look at it like this. In 1982 when vintage re-issues were invented, a 1962 Strat was 20 years old & it was definitely vintage. My 1983 AVRI is 40 years old next year. By any reasonable definition, & following all the rules, that makes it vintage.

Not according to the folks at TGP.....

 

[stratman323]

Not according to the folks at TGP.....

Probably just as well that I'm not a member of TGP then...

 

[iGav]

A vintage era is a time past, known for notably superior quality. It doesn't mean '20 years' or whatever.

The vintage era for Fenders is 1950 - 1966, until the CBS era but it's more often seen as 1969.

I've had people try to sell me an early 90s American Standard as vintage, it's opportunistic, but not realistic.

 

[Capgun74]

Vintaged doesn’t mean “old,” but if that’s the path we are taking, anything made after the 60’s will never be considered “vintage” to me. It’s just guitars. They pump out thousands of them a year. Buy them to play not as an investment.

C74

 

[iGav]

Yeah I stick to the idea that vintage is not old age, it is applied to a particular vintage, an era of new or best or unique.

This is the meaning, despite what anyone says. That's why a 70s Strat commands a fraction of the premium of a 50s or 60s. The market tells the tale.

 

[jcharles]

This beautiful guitar was featured in another post. My question is: what do you call a vintage reissue that is now old enough to itself be considered a vintage guitar? Is it a Double Vintage? Or a V-Vintage, or a Vintage-vintage, or what?

Also, How many years old does a guitar have to be before it’s considered ‘vintage’? In 1978 we sold guitars made in 1958 as vintage, but I hardly think a guitar made in 1993, let alone 2003 is a vintage guitar now.

This seems like a new sub category for guitars that needs a good name.

View attachment 610425

The general benchmark 30 - 50 years old depending on manufacturer . I have a 1971 Strat in Olympic White ( Hendrix color ) which is definitely a vintage guitar. Go on Reverb and search what your Strat year is going for. The older it is the more it’s value will be .

 

[SoK66]

Where Fender guitars are concerned, no guitar made after 1963 will ever be considered "vintage" by the most ardent
of those considered "in the know." If you read the articles from when the vintage industry was getting started in the 70s & into the 80s, '64 saw the beginnings of the fabled "CBS Curse." Compromises that were actually being implemented by Mr Fender at the time of the Company's sale to CBS were labelled as blasphemy and thus markers were laid down, legends born, etc. Mush of the same goes for Gibson, to the cognoscenti their "Golden Era" ended in 1964.

So, in that hide bound context NO instruments made after that date will ever be considered "vintage", no matter the spec. Sad, but the reality is determined by the top level vintage dealers and they won't ever budge.

The OP's point is a good one and there is actually some mild categorization going on. Frankly, most of the contemporary Custom Shop Fender guitars are better than a anything that was ever built in Fullerton. Focus on details that matter, particularly in the era of wood selection, CNC precision and electronics prove the point. Gibson in the last 7 years has produced some of the finest Les Pauls and 335s they've ever done. All these guitars deserve their own kind of reverence. Time will tell.

 

[Flybydaybry]

A vintage era is a time past, known for notably superior quality. It doesn't mean '20 years' or whatever.

This. ‘Vintage’ should signify a particularly good year/era for a product’s manufacture. Like others have pointed out, there are some ‘not so good’ years/eras of Fender guitars that are plenty old enough.
It’s often a widely mis-used term in order to inflate the prices and expectations of average guitars.

 

[stratman323]

The general benchmark 30 - 50 years old depending on manufacturer . I have a 1971 Strat in Olympic White ( Hendrix color ) which is definitely a vintage guitar. Go on Reverb and search what your Strat year is going for. The older it is the more it’s value will be .

OK. So your 1971 Strat is definitely a vintage guitar? What about my 1983 62RI - isn't that is definitely a vintage guitar?

 

[stratman323]

Where Fender guitars are concerned, no guitar made after 1963 will ever be considered "vintage" by the most ardent
of those considered "in the know." If you read the articles from when the vintage industry was getting started in the 70s & into the 80s, '64 saw the beginnings of the fabled "CBS Curse." Compromises that were actually being implemented by Mr Fender at the time of the Company's sale to CBS were labelled as blasphemy and thus markers were laid down, legends born, etc. Mush of the same goes for Gibson, to the cognoscenti their "Golden Era" ended in 1964.

So, in that hide bound context NO instruments made after that date will ever be considered "vintage", no matter the spec. Sad, but the reality is determined by the top level vintage dealers and they won't ever budge.

The OP's point is a good one and there is actually some mild categorization going on. Frankly, most of the contemporary Custom Shop Fender guitars are better than a anything that was ever built in Fullerton. Focus on details that matter, particularly in the era of wood selection, CNC precision and electronics prove the point. Gibson in the last 7 years has produced some of the finest Les Pauls and 335s they've ever done. All these guitars deserve their own kind of reverence. Time will tell.

This is why these discussions are so pointless on here. Someone always says something like this. In this case it's "most of the contemporary Custom Shop Fender guitars are better than a anything that was ever built in Fullerton". Stated as fact even though it's simply one person's opinion.

Same as "MIJ versus MIA". Lots of people commenting on "quality" without any attempt to define or quantify what that means.

 

[Mentor]

semi old

 

[dasherf17]

This beautiful guitar was featured in another post. My question is: what do you call a vintage reissue that is now old enough to itself be considered a vintage guitar? Is it a Double Vintage? Or a V-Vintage, or a Vintage-vintage, or what? Also, How many years old does a guitar have to be before it’s considered ‘vintage’? In 1978 we sold guitars made in 1958 as vintage, but I hardly think a guitar made in 1993, let alone 2003 is a vintage guitar now. This seems like a new sub category for guitars that needs a good name. View attachment 610425

This beautiful guitar was featured in another post. My question is: what do you call a vintage reissue that is now old enough to itself be considered a vintage guitar? Is it a Double Vintage? Or a V-Vintage, or a Vintage-vintage, or what?

Also, How many years old does a guitar have to be before it’s considered ‘vintage’? In 1978 we sold guitars made in 1958 as vintage, but I hardly think a guitar made in 1993, let alone 2003 is a vintage guitar now.

This seems like a new sub category for guitars that needs a good name.

View attachment 610425

What do you call vintage gone vintage? DOUBLE-vintage! (No...wait...that sounds like a Foreigner tune...)

 

[dasherf17]

Double-Vintage?

Oops, sorry...missed your post...