REPLICA GUITARS, ARE THEY WORTH IT??

Yngve · Post by **Yngve** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:16 am

Guitars are worth to what people want them to be worth!

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:42 pm

I really like the 'Jap' '68's put out in the 90's. Even though they are basswood bodies. The ash ones were slightly different. The necks on those were 'exactly' like the real thing on average. These are going for $600 to $800 now. Not too bad considering the exellent construction and 'vibe'.

jfhudak · Post by **jfhudak** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:29 am

Sometimes, a signature model can come to the rescue.

I have always wanted a Gretsch Jet Firebird, but a double cutaway. Love those guitars.

Did some searching and found the Malcolm Young signature model which comes in red and has two Filtertrons in it. SWEET!

It doesn't have a Bigsby or a pickguard, but that's easily remedied. A few parts and there you go. If you don't like the "Malcolm Young" on the truss rod cover, you can replace it with a plain one. Plus, they are not expensive.

So, I guess it really depends on the signature model. I agree that Gibson and Fender have gotten kind of silly with their pricing.

yngwie308 · Post by **yngwie308** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 4:10 am

Plus you have to remove the neck pickup, lol!!
Beautiful guitars for sure..
yngwie308

jfhudak · Post by **jfhudak** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:03 am

yngwie308 wrote:Plus you have to remove the neck pickup, lol!!
Beautiful guitars for sure..
yngwie308

LOL! Right on!

bluze81 · Post by **bluze81** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:09 pm

worldoftone wrote:80s Strats will never be considered vintage to me. But my opinion counts for squat. True vintage Strats should be considered pre-mid-'71 before the 3-bolt necks IMO. Of course, that isn't the way things work. Hype will ensure that every ten-years or so the prices keep climbing on 70's and 80-'s Strats too. I would never pay a high price for an 80s or (eventually) 90s Strat. Dunno why, they have no attraction to me.

- WOT

I agree with you on this and have had many vintage Strats, I have a 87 or 86 standard that just has that tone, and I didnt like any of this era when new but this one is a freak and really sings, all stock in that ugly bright yellow color.

yngwie308 · Post by **yngwie308** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 8:43 pm

That is the traditional stance of what is considered vintage, but you would never know by the prices these days. What they are asking for the 3 bolt guitars, ect.
Some say post '65 aren't vintage either, but I have grown to like the post '66 era up to 1970, with the maple cap neck being a particular favorite.
But I remember at the time in 1971, my buddy in England had a new 1970 Strat in white with the maple cap, I had my transition logo 1965 Strat, the new Strat was just no comparison to the earlier one, but I have mellowed with age and like to include the Strat's of the early CBS era as well, mainly because of Jimi..
yngwie308

electricskychurch · Post by **electricskychurch** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:33 pm

most of the time , i'm not really into signature models or replicas !
as far as i know, all these guitarists from the 60's and 70's were msotly playing with stock guitars, sometimes repaired or slightly upgraded and they had great guitar tones .
i think a good gibson or fender custom shop reissue or some vintage reissue (for fender) and USA serie (for some gibson guitar models like the sg standard for example , that is not that different for the body structure than the custom shop model as far as i know , unlike the USA serie les paul that doesn't have a long tenon, doesn't have the same pu's positioning on the body ...) , equipped with the right pu's, right pot values ... and there you go !

they profit of the fact they call it a replica, spend a bit more time to age it and sell it much more expensive !

for sure, i saw some nice replica like the page les paul or the garry rossington les paul and sg 's ... are very nice guitars but take a nice VOS sg 61 ri , put some nice boutique PAF clones and you get a guitar that is as good as the garry rossington signature for much cheaper !

i bought two signature guitars but not for the fact they were signature guitars but because they had some specifications i couldn't find on other guitars , like the only model that had a thin neck like that on Gibson SG's : the angus young signature SG.
i regretted to have bought it cause finaly once i had played it for a while , i found the neck was too thin, the angus young bridge pu's had nothing in common with the PAF'S and post PAF's angus has on his guitars (with low output !) and the lyre vibrato is boring to use compared to a bigsby.
i finaly sold it .
in france, they were selling this angus sg, a few years ago, for 2600 euros , the sg standard was 1750 euros.
add a pair of good boutique pu's (say 200 euros) and for 1950 euros ( 650 euros less than the angus sg) , you have a guitar that sounds better than the stock Angus Young SG (unless you really want the thin neck that is not available on the other guitars !).

also, i bought a mark knopfler signature , not because of Knopfler as i'm not a fan of this guy but because the neck was different (a bit thinner ) than the 62' vintage ri's strats , with a lightweight ash body and i found it for about 1000 $ new on the web whereas it was about 2000 euros new in france !! it was an opportunity to have a nice guitar for not so much , knowing i replaced the txas special pu's i didn't like wit some CS 69' fender pu's that sound much more like the 60's strats.

a signature guitar i tried from fender that i loved was the eric johnson that sounded nice but the neck was not that comfortable to play for a long time if i remember well .

one that i would buy (maybe in not so long time ! ) is the malcolm young duo jet 2 pu's signature gretsch but if the black duojet 6128T with bigsby (that is not a signature model) , had no bigsby vibrato installed, i would buy this one instead of the malcolm young signature.
i wonder what bridge and tailpiece it would be possible to adapt on it instead of the bigsby and wood bridge if i was to buy the black duojet 6128T (cause i'm not really a fan of the badass bridge on the malcolm signature and i prefer the black color for this guitar !)

the problem with guitars in general (whatever brand, fender or gibson) is that you can't know before it's finished if it will sound good or not and weither it's a custom shop or USA serie is the same problem !

so buying very expensive custom shop guitars when you know that some sound like shit , is a bit annoying .

Guitar-Sam · Post by **Guitar-Sam** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:45 pm

Freind of mine had a Clapton signature strat.$1500+ guitar I played it several times at rehearsal and honestly I wouldn't have given $400 for it.The noiseless pickups are CRAP the feel wasn't that good to me,the unplugged tone sucked.
My $250 Squier blows that crap outta it and the only thing done is I adjusted the pickup heights.And I've had many abused cheap starts that were a step above that over priced POS.
I played the Eric Johnson strat at GC once and it was OK but not for over $500 or so.
In a way I'd rather get tone with a cheap guitar anyways.For one some people can't believe a $300+/- guitar can make tone. Allot less likely to get stolen and if it gets ripped off at a show your not paying Capitol One for two years on a guitar you don't have any more.
When it comes to strats IMO don't look at the model or price tag,close your eyes pull one off the rack sit in a quiet corner of the music shop(is there such a thing??lol)and listen to the wood and feel the neck.If you like that,its a good guitar.Tuners and pickups are cheap.
Only ones to stray away from IMO are the early 90's plywood mexicasters......but that said I had one that still sounded better than my freinds Clapton.