Hey all,

Been looking into the best places to look for older strats and other guitars, and was wondering if anyone can recommend any sites where older strats are sold, other than elderly instruments for example. Also, wondering if there's anywhere which explains what certain strats command in terms of price? Just need to start obtaining an idea of how much certain strats from different decades go for.

Any help would be much welcomed.

Peace out,

Jon

cue up Yoda/Master Po/your favorite old mentor voice: "Welcome to the world of vintage guitars my son; you have much to learn".

In all seriousness there is just a lot of info out there; and as you get into the entire pricing thing you will want to dig deep into the spec changes so you can figure out if what you are looking at is real and is it really worth what is being asked.

First off, here are some sources to find older and vintage Strats (and other guitars):

gbase.com - you can look up across a lot of dealers through this source

Some specific dealers:

gruhnguitars.com - George Gruhn is in Nashville and has been around since about the beginning of the vintage guitar thing; he gets the top dollar stuff, some of which have been musican/celebrity musician owned.

davesguitar.com - Dave's is in LaCross Wisconsin; Dave himself has a large personal collection that is displayed at the store as well as some for sale.

larkstreetmusic.com - in the NCY area; usually has some vintage stuff

There are others, but these will get you started. As I said, many dealers are on gbase.com, plus you can sort gbase.com by year, etc.

In terms of info on guitars through the years, I can highly recommend Tom Wheeler's "The Stratocaster Chronicles" which came out in 2004 (for the Strat's 50th birthday). While not a true charting of the "nuts and bolts" yearly changes, it is a great oral history of the Strat from its birth through the FMIC era. For the real "nuts and bolts" year-to-year changes the A. R. Duchossoir book "The Fender Stratocaster" has fantastic detail - however, I believe it has not been updated since 1994, so it's really for the pre-CBS and CBS-era guitars.

This site also has a lot of info - it has a few errors and hasn't been updated since the late 1990s but it is useful:

http://home.provide.net/~cfh/fender.html

Pricing is all over the place; the pre-CBS will command the highest prices (1954-1964); custom colors, older ones, and condintion will drive prices up; expect to see $18K for beat or refinished 60s models and go up from there.

Early CBS is the next tier - 1965-1970. A 1965 will be pretty similar to a pre-CBS; they began to have some cost-cutting. However, these were also some of the lowest production years (1967 was the lowest, 1966 and 1968 were also pretty low) so depending on color and condition you'll see pre-CBS pricing on these as well. The later 60s will carry that "Hendrix halo" since Jimi played (and trashed) a bunch. 1968 starts the poly finish instead of nitro finish (although all Fenders really had a poly undercoat under the nitro).

1971 will mark the first of the 3-bolt neck/bullet truss rod models. The early 1970s models (1971-1975ish) are starting to creep up in price; look for $5K or more. Even late 70s models are getting into that $2K plus range these days even though that was noted as a low point for Fender quality (not that there aren't good ones to be found; you just have to look a lot harder to find a good late 70s Strat).

Hope that helps.

Thank you for your reply John, its much appreciated.

It is certainly an area which requires a lot of studying and understanding, and is a hugely interesting area for a guitarist seeking that little bit of history. I shall look through the places you've recommended!

I really shouldnt be looking at any more guitars as I was fortunate enough to have my wife by me two last year (*cough* Les Paul 50s tribute) and a Classic 50s strat but I dont think you can ever have enough?

Jon

is that a rhetorical question ??