George Gruhn on the State of the Vintage Stratocaster, 2006

by George Gruhn

During the year 2005, price escalation on pre CBS Fender Stratocasters, Telecasters, and 1950s Les Pauls went at a pace I have never before encountered in my 43 years of experience dealing vintage instruments. While investors and speculators have made some excellent profits during the past year, I would strongly caution that past performance is not necessarily an indication of what they will do in the future.

I still have vivid memories of the time during the early 1990s when Guitar Player magazine published an issue with Stratocasters on the cover and a large title "Stratmania". No sooner did that article appear than prices on Stratocasters plunged approximately 40% and took several years to recover.

Needless to say, prices today are higher than ever before, but again, I would caution that anything that has as much as doubled in price in a year or less is
inherently less stable than a commodity which has gone up in price 10% or 15% a year for the last ten or twenty years. There is no denying that pre CBS Strats, especially those with custom color finishes, have proven to be phenomenal investments during the past few years, but just as buying stocks when they are at a 52-week-high may not always be a good investment strategy, I would urge people to exercise common sense and caution before plunging all of their lifetime savings into these instruments when prices are at historical highs and have escalated so much in such a short time.
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About George Gruhn

George Gruhn is the co-author (with Walter Carter) of Gruhn's Guide to Vintage Guitars, which is the comprehensive field guide to vintage fretted instruments, and the companion volumes Acoustic Guitars and Other Fretted Instruments and Electric Guitars and Basses. These books chronicle the history of American stringed instruments, and are beautifully illustrated and exhaustively researched. His articles are published in numerous magazines.

George moved to Nashville in 1969 after getting his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago, and doing graduate work at Duke University and the University of Tennessee. In 1970, he established Gruhn Guitars, which is one of the largest dealers of vintage and used instruments in the world, located right behind Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. The "guitar guru" has been a featured columnist for Pickin', Frets, Bluegrass Unlimited, Guitar Player and Vintage Guitar. He is the former vice-president of research and development for Guild Guitars, and his designs are currently featured on a line of Tacoma guitars.

Notable customers have included, among many others, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Lyle Lovett, Vince Gill, George Harrison and Paul McCartney.

Website: Gruhn Guitars
Email: gruhn@gruhn.com
Telephone: (615) 256-2033

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