When Will Heritage Guitars Become 'VINTAGE'??

[smurph1]

Actually I don't care if they ever become "vintage". If they do, I probably won't buy one. I bought Heritage based on reviews and the history of the company. When I got it in my hands, I was even more impressed. I played a Gibson 335 during the late 60's and you can imagine I remember it very fondly, however, my 535 is ever bit as good or better than the way I remember the 335. Thats really all I care about. I just want to be able to play a guitar that pleases me. Anything else is fluff.

TOUCHE'!!

[mark555]

Agreed!  What does "vintage" mean anymore?  Generally, it means too expensive to acquire and play out.  It represents an investment or a trophy, rather than a vehicle for artistic expression.  There was a time, and not all that long ago, when it meant a cool, eminently playable older instrument with a history and a patina, a funky pedigree, that made it desireable to people with an arcane sort of knowledge.  And those instruments were acquired to be played.  Ironic, isn't it, that Heritage guitars seem to reflect the qualities of the outmoded definition of "vintage" rather than what the term currently seems to identify.  So, given the difference in definition, and if ingeneri's insight is accurate, regarding guitar as last grasp at a popular icon of one's fading youth, I'd predict they'll never become "vintage" in the same sense as a '50's Paul, or ES, or a '60's Strat.  And my response to that is: so what?  Do you want to play it, or rub it and stare at it in a temperature controlled, smoke-free "environment"?  Jacques may have nailed it....   

 

Just what I want to say - thanks.

[mark555]

I am just glad that heritage guitars are fantastic and affordable. Some people are willing to pay what seem to me to be crazy prices for guitars that don't make them play any better at all, but a certain type of person is impressed by someone owning this vintage guitar or that vintage guitar, what ever it may be. Surely, should the player be the one to impress? My mate has about 20 nice guitars collected over his forty years as a pro musician, as working tools - the only criteria he ever had for buying a guitar. He can make his H140 sound a hell of a lot better than I can his vintage 1960's Gibson L5 which he let Joe Pass use when he played a UK tour in the 70's.

 

I want to own an older guitar because it has aged - the patina, maybe a little fade or change in he nitro finish etc, not to brag about something that I paid silly money for.