Music fans, players, collectors, builders, young, old, you got an interest, question, want to buy and need advice, any thing guitar. Ok bass players you can play too.
Might as well go the whole way, you got an instrument with strings, show it. Cigar box guitars, banjos, violins, cellos, whatever.
I reason I started this thread is to see if any one has an opinion on the champaign to keep Rory Gallagher's strat, in Ireland, as a national treasure. I am in favor of the guitar staying in Ireland, but money moves mountains, so not convinced it will happen.
Also interested in any opinions on the trend of collecting guitars, as investments, will it become what collecting violins has ?
There are some great guitar players voicing opinions, and with everything there are two sides of that fence.

 

On collecting guitars, I am in the middle, as Slash has said, guitars are made to be played, the craft men ship and effort are wasted storing a guitar waiting for it's value to increase. Rick Nelson, who is known for his massive collection, has the view guitars should be played, and he travels with some, and plays them on stage, very expensive and rare guitars. But still a collector and can't use them all.
Joe Bonamassa another collector and great blues player, has guitars that sit in storage, untouched, and says that is where they belong.
So there are many views, undoubtedly a guitar is made to be played and should be. But like everything, value is in the eye of those looking to buy. And they have a lot of money to spend. A personal want, justified as an investment, or a legitimate investment?
Time will tell how the values stand up. Personally I believe some will continue to gain value, but think many more will not.
David Gilmore, of Pink Floyd, sold his black strat, Blackly, that he used to record and played on stage for years. In 2019 it sold for over a million dollars. Today he plays a replacement black strat and claims at times he has to remind himself it is not the original. That says a lot. It is more the player then the instrument. But that takes nothing away from the history of that guitar.
You can go online see the guitars that have been sold, who they belonged to, and what they sold for, its amazing.

 

Here is my latest project, it started life as a blond woodgrain strat copy. A Lotus brand name. When I got it, it had many coats of paint, the last brushed on, over tuning machines, and just a mess. Stripped it down to find good wood, so refinished it. New tuning machines, pick guard, still need to go through the electrics. Right now letting the clear coat to harder, then buff it out, and put it back to together. It has to sit for two weeks or so.

 

If a guitar had extreme value for collectors, I’d remove the strings so nobody played it. I wouldn’t play catch with a baseball signed by Babe Ruth either. I remember an episode of Pawn Stars where Rick bought a guitar once played by Hendrix for 600k. And he planned on selling it at future auction with plans to make more money. Betting he didn’t let Chumley pluck the first string on that one.

 

I agree with Slash on one point. A guitar is a tool. Use to be okay to have a Gibson, a Fender and an acoustic for bar room bands... now most of the players I know have 10-15 instruments and a guy following them around to trade guitars every other song. Is a '59 burst really worth $300,000 plus. Same wood as a '57 or a '68 Les Paul Custom... but there's the mojo of only 100 of them in existence... same with 58 Flying V or the Explorer... 99 of each in existence if the books are correct... but they were not in demand in 58-59. The first run didn't finally sell out till 63 depending on who's telling the story. Your biggest challenge for your project is wiring and set up that will be all you need to do to make it yours and comfortable enough to want to pick it up and Jam. Fortunately, there's a lot of loaded pickguards on the market with bland to hot mixes of Alnico pick-ups to make it what you want it. Good luck CR. Get a great set up too.

 

The 57 and 58 korina explorer and flying V, were unpopular, as you said, didn't sell very well, Gibson didn't make em again until 66, I think. There are sites that track the serial numbers, they don't run in numerically. The 58 explore, might be the 57, would need to check, but there were only 17, or 18 made.

 

300 large for a guitar seems nuts, but look at these costume shop reproductions from Gibson or Fender. Greeny, Peter Greens Le's Paul, they have different levels of reproductions, 20k to reproduce scratches, dents, chips, color fade, all for look. They try to reproduce the sound, but really, if they could do that would there be a need for these reproductions?

 

Wasn't sure on Explorers numbers, that explains the $618,000 at auction for one with a factory Bigsby a few years back. I agree with you on the R9 and Murphy repros or reissues. There's one Les Paul group out there where a number of members aren't players and just talk about their 'investments' like they were stock. There's some truth to that, I replaced a a 1980 Gibson V2 that I gifted to my son thirty years ago and he sold in a pawnshop for a couple hundred bucks the next year. That was my main instrument for 13 years and I was heartbroken. I had to replace it and did so for my 70th birthday... the replacement was in rough shape, even for a 42 year old instrument and cost six times what I paid for it in 1980. But after a little work and a new case for $220, I can close my eyes and I'm 30 again.

 

Never even seen an explorer with a bigsby, but know they didn't cookie cut em when they were made. I think Rick Nelson has a korina explorer with the inverted V headstock, not to a point. I found it strange, seen both V headsocks on Vs but not an explorer.

 

This article does not mention the campaign to keep Rory Gallagher's strat in Ireland, but it touches on some points talked about here.

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/fontaines-dc-guitarist-carlos-oconnell-plays-rory-gallagher-guitars

 

Purchased a reissue of the Moderne from Epiphone a few years back that had the weird V headstock. There were only two of those as prototypes in 58 that had a wart style headstock with the tuners mounted in semicircle. Now that's strange.

 

The Dean V has the inverted V headstock. Kerry Livgren of Kansas used to play one.

 

Alice Cooper, passed away, or internet reports are saying, not sure if true.

 

Strings, intonation, height adjustment, tuning, hear how she sounds.

 

How it looked September 29.

 

I feel unfortunate to have had only had 50 years to accumulate this mess...

As it is these days, I've been more of a curator than a player... takes a lot of time to maintain these things.
Actually since this shot was taken I marked all the cases with masking tape telling me what's inside... I forget.

 

My two main axes!