Anyone else think this is a bit steep?

[Nuclear Wessel]

I'm sorry, no guitar pickup is worth $1,900 to me.

Gibson PAF Humbucker Real Not Reissue 7.66K

But after all, it's worth what someone's willing to pay. Should be interesting to see if he sells it at this price.

[darc]

It's good to be deaf.

[darc]

(Corks all smell the same to me, too.)

[darc]

I guess I'm missing the point all together, then. It's more like currency trading than anything else. They may as well be Hummel figurines or something.

What a complete bore. Though I'm sure some of these cats are yawning all the way to the bank.

[Nuclear Wessel]

If I was a museum curator or historian of electric guitars, I might see paying that much. It's a piece of history.

Being a musician, to me a new pickup is likely more useful and certainly more cost effective than a 50 year old one that sounds a little, if at all better than a new vintage style pickup, and will certainly have horrible microphonic squeal.

[ac15]

Complete waste of money. Just one more sign that the whole vintage instrument/amp situation has gotten out of hand.

[darc]

At least one reply above disappeared. I swear I wasn't just talking to myself!

[MCChris]

At least one reply above disappeared. I swear I wasn't just talking to myself!

Matthes has been on a deleting spree lately ....

[Scarabaeus]

Big Brother is watching you!

[serial]

What is driving a lot of this increase is the rocketing prices on vintage guitars. Since so many have been around for 40-50 years at this point, that's a lot of time to have had a pickup go bad, break or get swapped out for a Super Distortion in the late 70s. When you get into the telephone numbers on some of these guitars, the difference between an "all original" one and one that has wrong parts can be tens of thousands of dollars. As such, the parts market has similarly skyrocketed.

What I will never get though is guys putting $10k or more worth of vintage parts- from pickups, caps and pots to (yes, it's true) vintage mounting rings and other plastic parts on their new reissues. One reason why I absolutely HATE the word "mojo" is from all of those morons who claim that that's what they get when they put old parts on a new guitar.

Assclowns and fucktards, all of 'em!

[darc]

Yeah, I can just about see the point when it comes to restoring a legitimate vintage guitar to something closer to it's original condition. The pricetags still don't add up to me, but there is a kind of respect in it that I can dig.

For any other purpose at all, it's madness.

[LordOfTheThighs]

Personally, I think it'd be a great investment. Buy an old PAF, and

tuck it away for 5 or 10 years. I'd bet you could make a killing reselling

it down the road, in 5 years.

[Jack C]

What I will never get though is guys putting $10k or more worth of vintage parts- from pickups, caps and pots to (yes, it's true) vintage mounting rings and other plastic parts on their new reissues. One reason why I absolutely HATE the word "mojo" is from all of those morons who claim that that's what they get when they put old parts on a new guitar.

Assclowns and fucktards, all of 'em!

I have seen and heard of this exact thing happening. Putting a vintage switch tip and pickup rings on a reissue. What kind of idiotic horeshit is that? Replacing the new plastic pieces with old plastic pieces for some mojo-factor is beyond stupid.

[straightblues]

Check out some of the prices on this web site for vintage Gibson parts. This stuff is all going crazy. According to the Vintage Checkout website, the guy on Ebay isn't charging enough.

http://www.vintagecheckout.com/index.htm

Also remember before everyone here gets crazy about this that almost everyone on this site buys $1,000 plus guitars when there are plently of guitar out there today for less than $200. My thoughts on this stuff is if you like and want it go for it. Prices wouldn't be this high unless there was lots of interests. Sorry for saying this but the arguments against buying these pickups sound a lot like those my wife makes to me when I want a new Hamer.

[MCChris]

What I will never get though is guys putting $10k or more worth of vintage parts- from pickups, caps and pots to (yes, it's true) vintage mounting rings and other plastic parts on their new reissues.  One reason why I absolutely HATE the word "mojo" is from all of those morons who claim that that's what they get when they put old parts on a new guitar.

Assclowns and fucktards, all of 'em! 

I have seen and heard of this exact thing happening. Putting a vintage switch tip and pickup rings on a reissue. What kind of idiotic horeshit is that? Replacing the new plastic pieces with old plastic pieces for some mojo-factor is beyond stupid.

Especially when you consider that 1 out of 100 of those guitars will actually see a stage ....

[darc]

Also remember before everyone here gets crazy about this that almost everyone on this site buys $1,000 plus guitars when there are plently of guitar out there today for less than $200.

I agree that if you've got the money you're 100% in your rights to spend it on whatever doo-dad makes you smile, but this quote is hardly relevant to the sort of purchases in question. I mean, almost anyone who plays guitar can discern a functional difference between a $200 instrument and a $1000 instrument. But between a $200 pickup and a $2000 pickup it gets a little shady. Start talking about aged pickup rings and it gets just plain silly. Again, not wrong... just silly.

[JohnnyB]

Yeah, I can just about see the point when it comes to restoring a legitimate vintage guitar to something closer to it's original condition. The pricetags still don't add up to me, but there is a kind of respect in it that I can dig.

The price tags might add up if it completes a 1958 LP Sunburst that sells for $250K or more (which is what they're going for).

[Jeff R]

http://www.vintagecheckout.com/index.htm

I'm scared to click around that site too much, might end up costing me a coupla grand just to look around out of curiousity.

[darc]

The price tags might add up if it completes a 1958 LP Sunburst that sells for $250K or more

No, that just adds one more price tag that doesn't add up.

[JohnnyB]

The price tags might add up if it completes a 1958 LP Sunburst that sells for $250K or more

No, that just adds one more price tag that doesn't add up.

It's worth it if that's what people will pay, and that's what they'll pay.

Not you, though.

I got into guitar 9 years ago and at that time a 1957-9 LP Std. was considered nearly untouchable at $40K. Now they go for six times that. I wonder how many baby boomer wankers kick themselves now that they DIDN'T stand up to the wife and get a second mortgage back in 1997 to buy a vintage sunburst LP for $40K. It would have out-performed any portfolio they could have put together. 600% in 9 years is about 60% annual appreciation.

[darc]

It's worth it if that's what people will pay, and that's what they'll pay.

Not you, though. 

I got into guitar 9 years ago and at that time a 1957-9 LP Std. was considered nearly untouchable at $40K. Now they go for six times that. I wonder how many baby boomer wankers kick themselves now that they DIDN'T stand up to the wife and get a second mortgage back in 1997 to buy a vintage sunburst LP for $40K. It would have out-performed any portfolio they could have put together. 600% in 9 years is about 60% annual appreciation.

I guess you're right. When you look at it strictly from an investment standpoint (again, they could be Hummel figurines, or vintage wines, or baseball cards at this point) it makes "sense" in terms of "yup, shoulda bought it." But like anything with this high a yield, it's also high risk. Easy to forget when applying 20/20 hindsight.

From a "what will this gear do for me personally" perspective on the other hand, diminishing returns on premium solidbody guitars run flat at around $5K. I look at quarter-million dollar instruments and think, "I'd sooner buy a reissue to put in my new house, or in the trunk of a very, very, very fast car."

Or like you said, not me.

[JohnnyB]

I guess you're right.  When you look at it strictly from an investment standpoint (again, they could be Hummel figurines, or vintage wines, or baseball cards at this point) it makes "sense" in terms of "yup, shoulda bought it."  But like anything with this high a yield, it's also high risk.  Easy to forget when applying 20/20 hindsight.

Yep. You can definitely get bet on the wrong horse and get burned. In 1997 a 1958 Gibson Korina Vee or Explorer could go for as high as $150K. I don't think they go for that now (but I haven't checked lately). 1958-60 ES-335s have also gone up in the last 9 years, but not as astronomically as LP Stds.

From a "what will this gear do for me personally" perspective on the other hand, diminishing returns on premium solidbody guitars run flat at around $5K.  I look at quarter-million dollar instruments and think, "I'd sooner buy a reissue to put in my new house, or in the trunk of a very, very, very fast car." 

Well, yeah. You could go to the most gifted, fastidious luthier out there and I suspect a cost-no-object LP copy might run $20K. OTOH, if I'd bought a 1958 LP in 1997 for $40K and sold it today, I'd have quite a bit more money for that house of very, very fast car.

Europe is much more in tune with instruments as a legitimate portfolio investment. The orchestral string instruments made in the 17th and 18th centuries are so valuable now that sometimes they are offered as shares--like you could buy a 1/8 share in an 18th century Montagnana cello.

In the '70s a Strad violin was around $50-100K and the cellos were worth a cool million. Around 10 years ago the violins were worth more like $1M and I don't know what the cellos would be worth ($6-10M?) And today, it's hard to imagine.

[darc]

The orchestral string instruments made in the 17th and 18th centuries are so valuable now that sometimes they are offered as shares--like you could buy a 1/8 share in an 18th century Montagnana cello.

Wow, that's wild stuff.