#Rare vintage washburn guitars series#

What really excites a collector of vintage guitars is the history attached to the piece – more valuable guitars tend to be preowned by someone famous. However, through some miscommunication, it was the actual guitar smashed beyond repair, ruining a piece of music heritage and causing Martin to refuse permission to loan out their guitars again. In one scene, actor Kurt Russell grabs and smashes what he thought to be a replica of a priceless 1870’s Martin on loan from the museum. If you have seen Quentin Tarantino’s latest film ‘The Hateful Eight’ then you will have witnessed and accidental destruction of guitar history. This exhibition includes the oldest Martin guitar in existence – made in 1834 – and a 1939 production acoustic guitar used by Eric Clapton for his famous MTV Unplugged session. Such is the beauty and desire for a Martin vintage guitar, they are now considered works of art and can be seen on display in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. D-45’s built before World War II can be expected to sell in excess of $250,000 – so keep a watchful eye when rummaging at your next flea market. The Martin D-45 has been copied by anyone and everyone.

#Rare vintage washburn guitars series#

Their series of acoustic guitars pioneered what is industry standard today – the invention of the dreadnought body style. Possibly the most sought after and valuable brand of vintage guitars is Martin. It was commonplace for guitar dealers to swap parts from guitars to make them more appealing to the customer. It is key to find out how original the guitar is – a change of pick ups or a ‘new’ neck decreases its value enormously. Sure, there may only be a handful ever made and the style catches your eye, but a guitar is a performance piece and poor craftsmanship equates to tame sound, weak tone and no character. Quality of workmanship is far more important than the hype and attention attached to any vintage guitars. Companies such as Fender and Gibson we subjected to corporate take overs and it was generally found that customers would buy anything hung on the wall – no matter what the quality. As demand increased in the late 60s for electric guitars, production sky rocketed and short cuts were made. Why? Manufacture during this period was sub standard.

The year of production is vitally important, a 50s built Fender Stratocaster is a dream find, however one from the 70s is most likely a dud. Guitar specialists claim true vintage guitars were built by hand with a single piece body and a fret board using Brazilian Rosewood – very rare by today’s standards. It comes down to year of production, the wood used and its desirability. Many other fine Washburns of this era will be covered as well so stay tuned for more updates, periodically.Found a battered old guitar at a flea market recently? Looks cool, sounds great – but is it one of the rare vintage guitars? Well, guitars are a strange breed and not all old guitars are vintage. The SS 80 and SS 100, were everything Steve had hoped for, far exceeding the Hamer SS-3. It is my hope and dream that these incredible guitars finally recieve the recognition they deserve after all these years. The necks alone are an absolute dream to play and it is a great tragedy what happened to him with Washburn and the way he was treated by Hamer was even more atrocious. Terry Atkins who is the master builder responsible for turning Steve's dream into reality, states this is the best guitar of it's kind he has ever built.

Steve does absolutely love these guitars though and is very proud of his achievements with them, as he should be. I understand that they wanted to get rid of their stock, but you would think they could have worked something out with SS rather than just going scorched earth like that.You are absolutely right, unfortunately I am unable to reveal exactly what SS told me, but he has absolutely handled both the Hamer and Washburn issues, with silence all these years. I don't think Washburn behaved appropriately removing the paint off the SS-80 guitar headstocks and then reselling them as X-80's. Kind of a bummer about the way the Barbarella guitar thing went down. Sounds like you have some really neat investment pieces for sure. I've never been exposed to the good Washburn guitars really. Man that was cool! Lots of info about a guitar I've never heard of.