Re: I now own one of the coolest guitars ever made: one-off 1938 Gretsch Prototype. P
Very cool guitar thats quite one of a kind!
I've always loved those Synchromatic style looks, just so classic and timeless. Never was that big of fan of how they sounded though I've got to be honest. Just depends on your style though as no doubt for some stuff they probably kill with some flatwounds
Will look forward to hearing more about it as time goes on though.
Thanks mills! Like I said before, if it sounds
tolerable I'll be pleased. But it should sound very good.
Man, that thing just oozes mojo. I'll bet she's going to sound as good as it looks, congrats!
Thanks Ryan! Appreciate it. Mojo is fun.
Beautiful guitar! She has aged well, I had to look trice to believe that she's 70!
How does she sound?
Don't know how she sounds, won't get here until next week at the earliest. There's two packages coming (the guitar in a new case, and the original case in another package), and he's shipping both parcel post (2-9 days).
It's a beautiful instrument.
But I think the going price for it is very telling in regards to the collectors aspect of it. Any instrument with that pedigree going up for sale publicly should garner an incredible amount of interest from collectors and enthusiasts. The hope is that interest in Gretsch instruments, and ones from that era, will continue and the value will go up.
An instrument is rare because there are very few like it. But they become valuable because many want it.
Still, the Les Paul was just a Studio that had been mangled beyond recognition. Short of a refin to being it back to original spec it was likely not much more valuable than any other thrashed Studio out there on the market.
For something that old I would be concerned about being able to provide a safe haven for it in the long-term. I've seen what the climate can do to an acoustic of less than 20 years. Something like that has all the makings of a story like Jacos upright detonating from the humidity in Miami.
Glad you think it's pretty, Skarey! You're right, the Gem had sadly been pretty beat up (not by me), and although I did make a profit, it wasn't worth a whole lot more than other studios.
About the value - I talked to Aaron and there were over 50 watchers. That's a crapload. I've talked to people on The Gretsch Pages, and almost every single one of them was watching and
wanted to bid. On the Les Paul forums, there's dozens of fantastic vintage guitars for sale, none getting sold. This time last year, there were about 50-70 vintage Gretsches on eBay at any one time. Now there's approximately 20-30.
My point is that the entire market is slumping, heavily. Nothing is selling, because people simply don't have the money. I think once the market rebounds, you'll see vintage guitars selling a whole lot more, and for a whole lot more. If you look across the board, stuff is cheaper at the moment.
Still $1,500 is more than most Synchromatics, because Synchros don't have that great a following. I'm positive that (as frantic says below) it'll increase in value, quite a bit. Retirement fund? Probably not. I don't want to guess a value, because you're exactly right it's all how much someone is willing to pay. But the source of all Gretsch knowledge over at the Gretsch Pages agrees it's a prototype (due to lots of things, most notably the serial number), and so if I ever needed to sell, I'm confident I could find a buyer who is as interested as myself. Any Gretsch enthusiast/historian would pay big bucks, but just at the moment none of them did have money.
Short example, this time last year,
this guitar would fetch close to $5,000. Now? Not even close.
Oh and about keeping it in good shape, that's a great point. I do need to keep it controlled. Luckily, I live in a relatively dry climate, but not too dry either. The guitar has A) survived 70 years and B) much of that was in Seattle and Denver, so I'm not
entirely worried about it turning to dust on me. Doesn't mean I won't be taking care of it though.
Is this a guitar? Or is this a retirement fund with strings? Seriously dude. If you learn to take care of it, and preserve it for 40 years - how much would it cost after that time?
BTW: What a beauty!
Thank you very much! Like I just said, I'm not sure it's retirement fund worthy, but it'll be alright. I'm not sure I'll ever get tired of staring at that headstock though.
Not me though. Well, I dunno, maybe