So How Much Were Selmers Originally Worth?

trumbology

scot wrote:

What I find most interesting about the "icon" guitars is how most of them - the pre-war D-28, the '58 Les Paul, the Selmer, the early Tele or Strat - are all factory made guitars, not made by the solitary luthier, but by factory workers who needed jobs. From this it follows that a factory is the best place to build a guitar...

Just to play devil's advocate to Scot's point about iconic guitars

D'Angelico, Torres, and Stromberg are all handcrafted iconic guitars, no?

But Scot's point does stand. The Gibson factory alone is behind more than a handful of iconic guitars. And Scot, I believe you were the one telling me about Fender's workforce back in the 1950s and 1960s being made up in large part of women of Mexican origin who were far from being trained luthiers.

So, buy up all the Gitanes ye can afford, boys and girls, or tomorrow you'll be sorry!

On a side note, it seems like the guitar industry was one of the first to recognize the value (intrinsic and economic) of its mid-century designs and start reproducing them as closely as possible. Fifteen years ago, you couldn't buy a new Mini Cooper, or VW Beatle, or half the furniture reproductions in the Design Within Reach catalog, or lots of other stuff originally designed from 1920-1970 that was highly collectable. But Fender and Gibson were already trying to duplicate the instruments of their glory days in period detail.

I'm really surprised Selmer hasn't licenced it's trademark to a new line of guitars yet. I wonder if it's just a matter of time, or if they feel like Gypsy Jazzers won't pay a premium just for the headstock to read 'Selmer'. Gibson and Fender do both have decades of production history that continues today, while Selmer had only two decades of guitar production that ended a half-century ago.

Enough rambling--back to my pompe...

Neil

scot

"Most" iconic guitars, not all of them. A factory does not seem to be a good place to build archtop and nylon string guitars.

I wouldn't rush out to buy a Gitane thinking it'll be worth something one day. History says they won't, because they don't have any intrinsic value - they are not great guitars. I have one and I play it. But, it's a cheap guitar and it sounds cheap. It'll always be a cheap guitar.

Can character - mojo - be built into a guitar? I don't think so. You can't produce a guitar intending for it to be a collector's item down the road. It doesn't work like that - that's like buying that Franklin Mint junk. I never understood exactly what people thought they were buying when they bought a modern LP which was sold as a '58 when it was made in 2002. Or why someone would pay a LOT of money for an artificially aged Strat - are there really people with money who believe there is magic in this kind of fraud?

The guitar market is an odd place - nowadays, even many luthier-built guitars do not maintain their value very well. Certain builders, like Olson, their guitars go up quickly. But you can often find others - nice guitars, too - at 60% the cost of a new one. It's the same for Taylor and new Martins. Guitarists won't pay a lot of money for a modern guitar if they can get a true vintage one for the same price. And since nearly all the quality genuine "vintage" guitars are now in the hands of people who love them and will take care of them for the long-term (and will control the market), most modern guitars (including Selmer-style), even of the highest quality, are doomed to modest gains in dollar value.

Except for Gibson and their "investment grade guitars", of course. They are simply doomed. Gibson has jumped the shark for the last time, I think.

A clever observation about the guitar companies being among the first to recognize the value of their own earlier designs, Neil. Modernism is more expensive than ever!

Cheers
Scot

trumbology

scot wrote:

You can't produce a guitar intending for it to be a collector's item down the road. It doesn't work like that - that's like buying that Franklin Mint junk.

Oh, Sh*t! First they tell me Social Security's going bust, now I find out my precious collection of Eye of the Golden Dragon collector watches and displays isn't going to carry me sweetly through my old age. I think I've been given a raw deal.