Well the reports are rolling in from all corners of the country on the vintage guitar show in Texas this past weekend . I was overwhelmed at the amount of e mails i got Sunday about the show and so here is a few highlights from the show.

First at least 30 people told me they sold a lot  for guitars at the show and that they all brought a good price for this market. lest start with what i heard for the Gibson market .1959 Es-335 were selling for $30,000-$38,000 , 1957 paf gold tops were selling for $75,000 – $85,000 1954 Les Paul  gold tops were slow but a few sold in for  30,000 that were clean . The burst market although down was still ok i heared 4 burst were sold ranging from $225,000 -$350,000. As expected the $1000- $3000 guitars were wiped out if they were straight and clean the all sold and people were scrambling to find more. So the Gibson market was rocking and most dealers I talked to were happy. Well that’s a relative statement because as you know th are  all miserable, hahahhah or lets just say moody.

The Fender market was a bit more hit and miss.  1954 Stratocatsers  were selling for $55,000, 1952 telecaster  were bringing $45,000 -$55,000 this is all  great news. The super rare custom color stratocasters were still bringing great money like fiesta red coral pink Sherwood metallic green etc. and some for what i thought were record prices. A dealer friend of mine sold his 1960 fiesta red stratocaster  in 9+ condition for $68,000 !! I heard a 1959 blonde stratocasters  with gold hardware sold for $65,000  again I feel strong for this market .Most clean bakelite stratocaster  were selling between $38,000-$42,000 the later being super clean. Fender Telecaster in general were a bit slow again unless in some wild color. I heard from most dealers that candy apple red, white and lake placid blue colored fender were a bit slow.

The other models such a Rickenbacker , Gretsch and Martins did well if they were super clean with no issues I do not have exact prices but i did hear for instance that  a few Gretsch duo jets sold and of course any clean martin were gone if the price was right . Again i dd not get any exact example so i do not want to speculate but again no ones was complaining.

So the general mood was positive and traffic at the show was great. Again it was not 1997 but guess what it never will be again !!!. It is a rare thing to get a good vibe from almost 90% of the people i talked to so i feel better as far as the market moving even further in a positive direction. Those of you know if it was a bad show I never hold anything back and have said many times if a show was horrible but this one seems to be a good one for everyone. If you need any otehr info on teh show e mail me at THE PARTSDRAWER thanks

Jim Pasch

We are happy to announce that we have been invited by 300guitars.com one of the leading guitar sites on the Internet to write a bi-monthly column the vintage guitar and vintage guitar parts. We are honored to have been asked by Bill Penn and the crew and will be contributing information each month to help the guitar enthusiast.

300guitars.com  has a monthly following of  100,000 people per month and is growing monthly. We have been watching this site grow over the years and feel that it is not only a good site but one that we can hands down recommend. We have been asked by many sites due to our reputation and popularity to write for them but we Will not write for a site we do not believe in. This is a site i am confident is both useful to the public and an honest site.

We obviously have a large drawing power and the fact that we are teaming up with another heavy hitter on the Internet will i believe benefit the public and each other. We focus on solely used guitars and parts and bill does both new and vintage so it is a good marriage of old and new.  bill has years of hands on experience and most important;y he is a player and loves guitars !!! that is the real caveat for me. He is a working musician and is not in this for the money. I have known him for about 18 years and i believe in what he is doing so that is why i will be taking allocating time for this article on his website.

We will will be submitting article staring in a week and you can look for the article around the 15th and the 30th of each month or there abouts. These article will also have a link directly to me and i can personally answer any questions you may have directly an i am confident due to the volume that within 48 hours i Will be able to answer every one’s questions personally and efficiently. The good thing is if I cannot answer a specific question i have the resources to direct you to the person who can. Over the years i have made many friends and connections many who specialize in one thing or another .

I look forward to hearing from all of you and thanks once again for all your support over the years

Jim Pasch

I was looking back now for the past year and have decided to comment on what i believe is a strong indicator in the guitar business. We all know the past 3 years have been rough and last year no easier for most. The market has stabilized and prices have gone up a bit but there is a interesting trend today i have both seen and experienced over the past 12 months. The Gibson guitar market has rebounded much faster and stringer than the fender market and this is the exact opposite of what most thought would happen.

I would like to say first that the Fender guitar market is not dead and that the guitars still have their value but that it is a stagnant market for high end fender guitar and the more  expensive the slower the sale. Gibson guitar on the other hand have seemed to be selling and actually regaining their momentum’s from a few year ago. I am not saying that Les Paul Jr will ever be 12k again but i am saying they are selling for realistic prices and are moving. a year ago you could not give one away . Real do neck es-335′s and es-355′s have rebounded and are selling and again are bringing real money again. The key is still originality and condition but if the guitar is priced right it sells . for example 3 years ago a clean dot neck was 40-50k now the are 30-35k  and are selling i know at least five dealers who have sold them for 35k they were killer but still in this economy people will still pay for a great guitar. This is great news!

The Les Paul market has been on the road to recovery not the top end burst market but the normal 2k-15k guitar are flying out of stores all i hear dealers say is i need more Les Paul’s under 15k . The 50′s gold tops for the moments are slow and the burst are slow but the rest are flying off the shelf. So yes the  economy is bad but last years nobody was buying anything and for these guitar to be selling this good it has to be a sign. The SG market is the same it has adjusted but when priced right has also seen great sales on models under 10k . This is a great tome to get a killer sg standard from the 1960′s at a great price .

The Gibson parts business is on fire compared to Fender. We are selling Gibson parts 5 to 1 and this has been for over a year again emphasizing the comeback of the Gibson guitar market. Since the market is on the rebound people are investing in original parts again to get the most for their guitar when selling or trading in . So that is the latest good news if you need specific prices or have questions on any gibson or fender models please fee free to e mail me at THE PARTSDRAWER

Jim Pasch