How can I get started collecting affordable collectible guitars?
Let’s face facts, collecting mainstream American made guitars from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s is beyond the budget of most people interested in guitar collecting. With prices for unmodified American Classics ranging from $2,000 to $20,000, most of us would be lucky to sport a collection of one or two guitars. Fortunately for us, however, there are a lot of very interesting and well-constructed non-American made instruments from this era that are still within the budget of a collector with modest means. I consider vintage guitars that sell for less than $800 to be budget guitars, but in some cases, prices can slip up to $1000 for really nice examples. On this page, I’d like to offer some opinions concerning the relative value of a variety of budget American guitars, as well as import guitars from the 50’s through the 80’s. Of course, the largest market place for acquiring these guitars is online auctions and dealers, however, buying guitars without being able to handle them is a risky busi
