1960s Vintage Guitar Collecting Regardless of your Budget

In the early 1960s having an electric guitar in your home was rare. The Beatles – and of course others – stopped all that. Suddenly, electric guitars were #1 on every kids Christmas list. Guitars made in the USA (Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, Rickenbacker...) were too expensive for most parents to buy. So the foreign instrument manufacturers supplied less-expensive guitars to meet the demand of the USA.  Companies that had been manufacturing Accordions for 20 years, retooled for electric guitars and within 2 years they were shipping over 10,000 electric guitars to USA per year.

Today, collecting mainstream American made guitars from the 50s, 60s and 70s is beyond the budget of most people interested in guitar collecting. With prices for unmodified American Classics ranging from $5,000 to $50,000, most of us would be lucky to sport a collection of one or two guitars. Fortunately, there are a lot of very interesting and well-constructed foreign-made instruments from this era that are still within the budget of a collector with modest means of of less than $1000 - Japanese-made guitars being among the best in this category.

At the RARE Collections, we cater to all types of collectors. Currently we're working on finding some very special instruments for specific collectors, something we love to do. From the elusive 1950's Esquire to a Rickenbacker Bass 4001 in mint condition to a 1960's Firebird 5, we can find just about anything, if the budget is right.

If you are looking for a particular guitar, have one to sell or just have some questions about collecting, please contact us. Happy hunting!