Buying Used Makes Sense. And Saves Dollars

Do you remember Who’s Next? “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss..” Kinda like pretty much everything coming out of the big makers these days. Innovation left a long time ago and the guitar industry is tits deep in same shit different day.

Are there excellent instruments being built today? Of course there are. Do I need to buy an instrument made in North America to get a quality product? No. Nien, Nyet. Non. There are a great many fine instruments being made in Korea, Japan, Indonesia and China. So what do you get with a North American made instrument from a large manufacturer? Hopefully a fine product at least as good as what will come from elsewhere and a VERY EXPENSIVE logo.

In the context of instruments, the meaning of vintage is “produced in the past, and typical of the period in which it was made”. You will note that nowhere in the actual definition is there ANY mention of quality. Because simply, vintage does not imply quality. It means old in build and old in design. The absolute fuckery around the term vintage has coloured the used instrument market completely. A vintage (old) guitar is supposed to be better and worth a shit ton of money because it’s old. BLAA! Sorry not so. It means it’s old, potentially scarce and guaranteed to be less consistent across multiple instruments than anything factory built today. So as a result, people believe that used guitars are worth more than new guitars if they are old enough. No matter how much Lysol you spray on it, bullshit remains what it is.

For example, I have recently seen Gibsons and Fenders built in the Seventies being referred to as “vintage” and commanding high prices. I was there in the Seventies and you had to mine for a good instrument in a pile of dogshit from either of those two makers. Norlin Gibsons and CBS Fenders were almost entirely crap, with very rare exceptions. You’d be better buying a Squier or an Epiphone made last week than any of that Seventies junk.

“But it’s vintage!”. Yes it is. Old and typical of the period in which it was made” aka crap. Yet no one talks about a Seventies Ibanez as vintage. They are just old guitars, and most of the time far better than the guitars that they are obvious copies of.

So let’s cut all the crap and just talk about a used instrument. What benefits does a used instrument bring? By used, I am referring to an instrument that was played, not a closet queen, although it could have been stored under a bed for forty years. Still used. Not worth more than something current and maybe not even as good as something made overseas today. But maybe it is. You may find an instrument that has been played, and taken care of without a filthy finger cheese laden fingerboard (thanks for that phrase Paul, you rock man), fourteen thousand dings and cracks and cigarette burns all over the peghead. By now the wood has stabilized well. A lacquer finish may have checked, colours may have faded, but that neck may feel like silk, and the fingerboard edges have been naturally rounded by actual playing and not a router bit. Sure the pots may be scratchy but contact cleaner is an amazing thing. So too is a bit of oil dropped in the tiny hole in unsealed tuning machines. Unless the pickups have had giant magnets sat on them, they probably have not degaussed enough to make a difference in their tone and if you like the sound, that is in fact, all that matters.

Don’t be too quick to judge. A used guitar may need a bit of TLC to see just how great it could be. The strings are probably dead and corroded, just like the strings on brand new Fenders and Gibsons. There may be gunge on the frets and the fingerboard, the pots and switches may crackle, and the finish may be dirty or dusty. Just this past weekend I did a refresh on an Ibanez shredder guitar that was fifteen years old and had not been out of its case under the bed for at least a decade. Because the guitar belongs to a friend, I did a complete refresh and setup. The only new parts used were a new set of strings. That guitar now looks great, in a real colour, like an old Plymouth Barracuda purple, plays great and sounds like it should into an amp from the same time period. Is it worth more than the current Ibanez version of the guitar? No, you could readily find one like it for less than half, but it plays as well, (in my opinion better - because it has been played in) and my friend Cindy can now thrash on it to her heart’s content. I threw in the Paradigm strings so the whole thing cost her nothing.

I have old guitars and new guitars. A lot of my guitars were bought used. Back in the early Nineties, I fell in love with PRS guitars and because of funds availability, bought used. I still have every one of them. Some were played hard on long road tours, others were as if they were new. But each one played great, I have wonderful guitars and saved thousands of dollars.

I have a 1957 Gibson L-50 Archtop that I bought used that sat under a desk for over a dozen years. It’s not a top of line piece but sounds like nothing else. And I paid a LOT less than what I would pay for a new acoustic archtop today. My first Flying V was bought used and it still plays better than the newer version I bought decades later. In fact, only four times have I bought a used guitar and then sold it or traded it later. If you shop intelligently you will get a great guitar or bass, save money and be thrilled with your purchase.

So perhaps you are convinced to look at buying used. Where to do so? Obviously good guitar shops will take trade ins and sometimes if they did not pay much, you can get a smoking deal. There is not great margin in new instruments so smart shop owners who want to stay in business typically price used at twice what they paid for it. Good for them and it may mean you have some room for negotiation. You may pay a bit more than in a private sale, but no shop is going to sell you a piece of crap and risk their reputation on it. You can also try your local Kijiji which is a division of eBay and is where one can find really nice used instruments where the seller is not high on acid in terms of their pricing. Plus being local, you can actually go see and try the instrument before paying. If the seller will not allow this, just move on, there’s something hinky there. Other sources are online with reverb.com being best known. Understand that for a lot of reverb sellers, this is their business and they set the asking price high, knowing that they will be negotiated with. Fortunately, if you look for it and can find it, reverb does provide information on what a similar instrument has been actually selling for, not the asking price, because those tend to be uniformly delusional. Reverb also provides some level of buyer protection, and their seller review process is pretty decent, so regular sellers don’t risk their reputation. There are however, unscrupulous sellers there, just as on Kijiji. The only challenge is that with Reverb you pay before you receive the instrument and returns can be a pain and expensive because of return shipping fees. Reverb sellers pay a commission to reverb and they will not sell outside of Reverb because the company will nail them for doing so. I have bought a few guitars on reverb, and the process has so far worked well for me, particularly for instruments that were always scarce here in Canada.

Just because we’ve been talking about instruments so far, the same guidance applies to amplifiers and pedals. Someone else’s no long want, may be exactly what you are looking for.

Buying used can get you a superb instrument that you will really enjoy and save a lot of money, but remember the TLC part and that if the instrument is so rough that it will need a professional setup, calculate that into your offer.

If you like what I do here for you, please become a supporter on Patreon. Your monthly contribution makes an enormous difference and helps me keep things going. To become a Patreon Patron, just click the link or the button below. Always feel comfortable to send in a question or to post a comment. I read them all and respond as appropriate. Thanks for your support of my work. I’m Ross Chevalier and I look forward to sharing with you again soon.