Why Should I buy from a Dealer?
Their prices are too high. They don’t know any more than I do. They are all trying to rip you off. They are lying about their guitars. These are the typical reasons why folks don’t like to buy from dealers. Yes, there are dealers who ask high prices. There are dealers who probably know even less than you do. I’m sure there are dealers who are hoping to rip you off and there are liars. But to tar all dealers with the same brush is going to end up costing you money.
Every once in a while, I go through the listings on Reverb to see how many of them (from individual sellers) are inaccurate. There are repro parts described as vintage. This is the most common way to cheat the buyer. Parts can be some serious money. A PAF can cost $5000 or more so you would be wise to make sure the PAF is the real thing. Many, if not most of them being sold by individual or hobby sellers are either fake, rewound or repaired. Not long ago I bought a PAF from an individual seller. he, of course, insisted it was authentic but had some work done (nothing major-a changed lead wire and a coupole of changed screws. I always black light the tape and the sticker. They should glow a smooth and solid green. I noted that the tape and the label glowed a somewhat mottled blue. Closer inspection showed that the sticker and the tape had been sprayed with clear phosphorescent paint. This has become common. It isn’t an oversight. It’s a clear attempt to cheat you. The seller insisted that he didn’t do it-that he was ripped off as well. Maybe yes. Maybe no. I’ve never seen this done by a dealer.
Repro bridges being passed off as vintage is also common. I’m sure some folks can’t tell the difference but I’m going to share some information that might save you some heartache (and some money). Gibson repro bridges are very accurate. There are two ways to tell the real thing from a repro. The raised letters on the bottom are a little fuzzy on the repros but unless you have a real ABR-1 in hand to compare it with, it’s going to be difficult to know for sure. So, I’m going to give you a 100% foolproof method to tell a repro ABR-1 from a real one. Take off one of the E string saddles (either one) Under the saddle on the bridge unit itself will be a round tooling mark. Real ones don’t have it. Repros do (on both E strings). And yes, dealers get them wrong sometimes too. Caveat Emptor.
Any idea what a legit short seam tailpiece goes for these days? It’s $2500 to $3000. I’ve seen one as high as $5000. Most of the repros are really good and will sound every bit as good as a real one. Most of them don’t bother trying to imitate the short seam which makes it easy to tell them apart from a real one. But Montreux, who makes an extremely accurate repro short seam, has found a way to imitate the short seam. The seam, on the originals is a remnant for the tailpiece being broken off from the die. The Montreux simply molds the seam into the tailpiece so it is flat-not ragged like the originals. If an unscrupulous dealer or individual carefully masks the tailpiece and take a Dremel with a grinding wheel to it, it can be made to look as ragged as the real thing. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of one with this “work” having been done but I can show you a correct original and a stock Montreux. You’ll see how easy it would be to rough up the Montreux. I don’t know if dealers are doing this but get yourself a jewelers loup so you can magnify the seam. Magnified, it’s pretty easy to tell if it’s been roughed up. I don’t know of any dealers doing this but I’ve seen more than a few of them on some very expensive guitars.
What about entire guitars? Fortunately, making a fake ES-335 is way too much work and requires a high level of skill compared to other models. There are some excellent non Gibson 335 type guitars but none of them try to pass themselves off as a Gibson. I suppose someone could take one of those excellent repros and take off the headstock overlay and put on an accurate Gibson overlay. If that’s the case, you’ll have to look at other parts or construction techniques to see acts of trying to pass off a non Gibson guitar.
Finally, in this very strange market, individual sellers are asking more than dealers in many cases. A lot of individual sellers seem to think that the Covid runup is still going on. Wake up people. Covid has been mostly over for close to four years now. The rise in prices is over. The market has actually corrected by 10 to 15% but the sellers can’t bear to lose any money on an old guitar when they’ve been rising for the past 17 tears or so. But it’s over. The high end stuff is still pretty strong. The player grade stuff isn’t selling because it’s so overpriced. Compare some dealers with individual sellers. I would be surprised if the dealers are higher for the most part. You can look at my prices if you like. I price most of my guitars well below the highest priced similar guitars. Sure, I have some expensive guitars but I don’t think any of them are way out of line. I would suggest that you establish a good relationship with at least two dealers and use them to help you compare guitars and parts. I help out buyers all the time-even if they aren’t buying from me. That’s simply a smart business practice.
I deal in vintage classical guitars. Charlie is right in all he is saying. I recently bought a ’64 ES335 from him. I am not an expert in Gibsons or electric guitars. Charlie was patient answering questions and gave me his honest assessment about the tone and condition of the instrument. I would buy from him again. I love the guitar.