By: lee

lee — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 09:12:23 +0000

I have a vintage Gibson Spanish guitar. There is something really special about matured old wood, the sound is amazing.

By: willa gray

willa gray — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:44:29 +0000

i have a harmony guitar # 5340h6415 can you tell me anything about it

By: Vintage Acoustic Guitar

Vintage Acoustic Guitar — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:38:31 +0000

nice articles on several types of guitars dude…i am interested ……….

By: Rick Bicycle Hangar

Rick Bicycle Hangar — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:43:21 +0000

So with Bicycles I suppose anything over 50 years old would be antique also. In Mountain bicycles anything before 1990 would probably be considered antique.

With Computers anything that still works that is older than 1990? 1987?

I wonder.
Rick

By: Guitar Hunter

Guitar Hunter — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:00:07 +0000

Nice explanation, I think this will clear up some confusion that many have.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:13:23 +0000

I have a vintage Tokai, can it be? ha ha.. well i think so. It’s a silver… strat, it plays so well. Not sure i’d go for a guitar over 50 years old unless it was something really special or I had silly money!

By: Alan Geierman

Alan Geierman — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:46:58 +0000

Antique by the ususal definition is over 50 years old (see; Wikpedia.com). With cars, in Illinois, antique is only 25 years old, for guitars there is no established criteria, but the general rule should apply, and call it fifty years old. Antique has other criteria, as well, however. Craftsmanship and quality are conditions that should exist, but they are subject to preference. Generally, older guitars made of solid fine woods (mahogany, maple, rosewood, koa, etc.), are considered antique. Birch, plywood and lesser quality woods may be old enough to be antique, but the high value factor isn’t there. Collectibility is another vague but definite quality that needs to be present. Finer quality woods will be of greater collectability, making them antique. A 70 year old rosewood Regal made guitar will be antique; a 70 year old birch Regal made guitar will be just be old.
Vintage, however is much less established or easily defined; vintage generally refers to age of wine, and because it is applied to the guitar field, of course it is used colloquially, and not with accuracy at all (at least by definition) when applied to guitars. For example, a birch Regal made guitar from 1920 is a vintage guitar, but not so readily deemed antique. Any 50 year old Martin would be considered an antique by a collector, the way any 50 year old Mercedez Benz automobile would be considered antique. A fifty year old Harmony made Stella, might not be so lucky.
Parlor guitars are guitars smaller than the standard guitar, which has grown to quite a sizeable measure since 1860. What was a Standard guitar (around an 0 Martin size), is now quite small, and the parlor guitar from that era was very small, in comparison. Larrivee makes parlor guitars that are quite similar in size to Martin 0 guitars. The Larrivee guitars are called parlor by the manufacturer; the 0 sized Martins never were. Usually a significantly shorter scale length is the main factor; under 24 inches.
The romantic guitar is the ornate style that was used in the French and Italian style and generally doesn’t apply to general size, but shape and ornate embelllishment. Tom Wheeler has a book on this and it is quite specific. However, definitions change and romantic today means anything that is not standard, but also small and decorated.
Most electric guitars that would be antique by these definitions would be outdated and barely practical for use today. However, Gibson, Fender,Epiphone and many others made some very nice guitars in the fifties and forties that could be used as practical axes today, and while “antique” in defintion, and “valuable” by rarity and quality; quite practical.
An antique would also have to be outdated by some measure, and many 50 year old guitars are quite useful today. The final measure of antique would be value, and so the fifty five year old Les Paul would be an antique on the measure of age and value.