Vintage basses pricing. Seriously?

[b_carville]

I still have my Gino’s name-tag (circa 1979)... wonder if it’s vintage and/worth much?!?

(Gino’s was a fast food burger joint... where KFC began)

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You might be surprised!
There are people who collect fast food stuff like unwrapped Happy Meal toys!
I used to buy\sell at flea markets & such. Don't even get me started about people who collect stuff like vintage barbed wire or ceramic electric line insulators!

 

[MordBass]

I still have my Gino’s name-tag (circa 1979)... wonder if it’s vintage and/worth much?!?

(Gino’s was a fast food burger joint... where KFC began)

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If Ginos were the first fast food burger joint... and many others went on to copy them throughout the years... and half a century later people still had a high regard for them being the standard of burger joints..... and everybody had fond memories of how great the originals were.... then yes. In that specific scenario this would be similar to what the OP was talking about and yes, your name tag would be worth a fair percentage more than it cost back then.

 

[GretschWretch]

I thought the madness came with the reefer??

No; it was the coke, plus a (thankfully short-lived) directive that came down from Fender corporate that no employee could be taller than five feet even. These workers became known as cocaine Hobbits.

 

[Mr.Ace]

I don’t like old or new fender basses. Go figure.

 

[selowitch]

I don’t like old or new fender basses. Go figure.

That's cool. No one says you have to like 'em. More for those of us who do!

 

[staurosjohn]

If Ginos were the first fast food burger joint... and many others went on to copy them throughout the years... and half a century later people still had a high regard for them being the standard of burger joints..... and everybody had fond memories of how great the originals were.... then yes. In that specific scenario this would be similar to what the OP was talking about and yes, your name tag would be worth a fair percentage more than it cost back then.

You’re probably correct... and thats a cornucopia of thought there !

 

[jamro217]

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they ran out of that stuff!!!

Wise(b)ass

That was in '73. The Arab oil embargo. Gas lines around the block, rationing. Nasty stuff. Prices jumped from $.29 to $1. per gallon in a flash. No wonder music hit its high water mark back then, you had to stay home and practice because you couldn't afford to drive anywhere.

 

[Mr.Ace]

That's cool. No one says you have to like 'em. More for those of us who do!

I tried to like them. I’ve played a bunch of Fenders and even dropped close to 2g’s to get the one I wanted. Just don’t seem to like anything about them. They look lovely and sound great, and I know Leo set the bar. Maybe some day I will revisit them.

 

[joker820]

I don’t like old or new fender basses. Go figure.

Cool, thanks for stopping by.

 

[Lesgo]

No; it was the coke, plus a (thankfully short-lived) directive that came down from Fender corporate that no employee could be taller than five feet even. These workers became known as cocaine Hobbits.

BAND NAME

 

[Mr.Ace]

Cool, thanks for stopping by.

Anytime, enjoy your fenders

 

[selowitch]

I tried to like them. I’ve played a bunch of Fenders and even dropped close to 2g’s to get the one I wanted. Just don’t seem to like anything about them. They look lovely and sound great, and I know Leo set the bar. Maybe some day I will revisit them.

So what exactly didn't you like about them?

 

[Son of Wobble]

That was in '73. The Arab oil embargo. Gas lines around the block, rationing. Nasty stuff. Prices jumped from $.29 to $1. per gallon in a flash. No wonder music hit its high water mark back then, you had to stay home and practice because you couldn't afford to drive anywhere.

I remember going to Vegas in roughly that period, and the LV Strip casinos and hotels all had their lights and marquees switched off as an example to the rest of the USA to conserve power. The whole Strip was dark.

 

[Son of Wobble]

You might be surprised!
There are people who collect fast food stuff like unwrapped Happy Meal toys!
I used to buy\sell at flea markets & such. Don't even get me started about people who collect stuff like vintage barbed wire or ceramic electric line insulators!

Some of those collections certainly seem OCD- driven (and such is my obsession with basses, particularly white ones).


My Dad was a high school teacher in the 70s-90s and urged his students to bring in empty breakfast cereal boxes. He's got some real rare ones but they're not worth much. But then collecting things that have no intrinsic value to others is sort of an act of rebellion, at least according to author Richard Meltzer, who used to "collect" contemporary soda pop bottle caps by prying them right off while they were still in the old school, horizontal dispensers.

Meltzer discusses at length and with relish these bottle caps, discusses grading, collecting doubles and trading with your friends.
The running joke being that the object of fascination is intrinsically worthless, and thus the collector is suffering
a sort of mania. Thus the whole notion of collecting and appraising is satirized. But of course the ultimate joke is on the author, who, provided he kept his 60's-70' collection of " 'caps ," has no doubt seen the collection appreciate.

 

[Being and Bass]

Am I the only person who doesn't get week in the knees for most of these vintage basses? Other than the few irreplaceable builds that will never exist again due to some manufacturing magic (like the early, early, early Fenders) is there any value to these older instruments, beyond the history? I loved used basses, but usually because they cost less than a comparable new bass (not more).

 

[Cassivellaunus]

Could be mushrooms. I believe they were more common early on, and apparently are responsible for behaviors such as Hugh's neck test. I mean, who proves Leo right? Leo got it right the first time!

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[Son of Wobble]

Am I the only person who doesn't get week in the knees for most of these vintage basses? Other than the few irreplaceable builds that will never exist again due to some manufacturing magic (like the early, early, early Fenders) is there any value to these older instruments, beyond the history? I loved used basses, but usually because they cost less than a comparable new bass (not more).

Jimi played on CBS Strats. They were brand new, as well.

 

[selowitch]

Am I the only person who doesn't get week in the knees for most of these vintage basses? Other than the few irreplaceable builds that will never exist again due to some manufacturing magic (like the early, early, early Fenders) is there any value to these older instruments, beyond the history? I loved used basses, but usually because they cost less than a comparable new bass (not more).

My Stu Hamm Urge Bass was likely built between 1989 and 1991; as such, it's not really a "vintage" instrument but it is the first Fender Artist Series bass to be produced by the Custom Shop, and since it's medium scale, has three pickups, is very light, 24-frets, passive-active, etc. that makes it certainly a very unique/unusual bass. It's rare enough that it has a chance of appreciating in value if I keep it in good condition, but that's not why I bought it. I bought it to play it and enjoy it, gig with it, etc.

 

[Cassivellaunus]

Yes, they were made better and the technology was superior like a lot of old things. That's why so many old cars are so expensive now. Today's cars can't hold a candle to the reliability, safety and efficiency of cars of old. Just ask old British roadster owners! And those first digital watches that are so collectable? The new ones suck compared to the ones that were so excellent in their simplicity. No multiple functions and ridiculousness like that. You just press a button and the time magically appears in red. Oh I wish we could have a renaissance of all that lost technology!!

......or, maybe it has something to due with the fact that antiques generally appreciate.....

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.”

― Invalid Link Removed, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

 

[baileyboy]

I have been browsing the old Fender's in particular and the prices blow me away. Call me naive, call me ignorant but what makes an instrument that was made in the 60's and the 70's cost anything between $2.000 and more than $8.000? Where the electronics made by superior or advanced components? Where the trees from which the wood came any better than those of today? Did the procedure of building a quality instrument not improve? Or is it simply nostalgia of the teenage years that idolizes everything about that era?

Not sure what it is, but in all my years haven't found anything (vintage or new) that touches my '74 P.