Rare Guitar In 'iffy' Condition

[ESDictor]

I have an old Gibson that I used to use on stage a lot, and I noticed last week (when looking for a picture of one to show a co-worker) that the model I have seems to be pretty valuable. This morning I got mine out of storage (air conditioned storage of course) and took a look. The guitar, having been used as a primary guitar for a long time, has plenty of little (minor I hope) things to knock it off the "mint" or "excellent" condition bracket.

I'm thinking that this is probably the wrong site to ask about this, so I'm hoping that someone here might be able to point me to a place where I can ask about how these minor blemishes affect the value of the guitar, which ones I should deal with, and finally what I should be selling it for. The idea here is that I could use the money for some new tools, supplies for my first build, an HDTV maybe, and generally just some cash.

Like I said, I'm guessing this isn't the place to discuss this, so please don't crucify me for the misplaced post. Just point me in the right direction.

Thanks,

Evan

[gibsonsg26]

have you tried Gruhn guitars? they buy and sell vintage instruments and apraise them they charge like 50 bucks to look at it though. hope this helped

[ESDictor]

Well .. that seems like an option, but I'm hoping to find a forum more like this to get information. Assuming the guitar is worth more in cash than it's worth to me as "nostalgia," I'll throw it on ebay. Gruhn seems more like a place if I wanted to do some sort of consignment.

Thanks for the link though, it's certainly an option if better ones don't present themselves,

Evan

[ToneMonkey]

Old, played guitars have things wrong with them. That's how they come.

Personally, I'd take a load of photo's and send them out to some vintage guitar dealers and see what comes back. If they think that you are willing to sell it, they will probably give you a guide price for them buying it. Chances are that they wont be able to give you a firm quote without looking at the guitar first. Kind of like cars though, they'll probably offer less then you could get for it in a private sale as they have to make money too.

[Logical Frank]

If you have an eBay account, go through the initial steps of putting it up for auction and at the point where you set the starting bid, it will alloy you to search past auctions for free and then cancel out before you actually put it up for sale. (I think you can also pay to be able to do this w/o the hassle.) You might be able to find something in a similar condition and see what it sold for. Right now that G-word on the headstock is getting pretty expensive even for the less desirable years so I have a feeling you'll do pretty well. Good luck!

[ESDictor]

Well .. it's very rare, so I don't see anything on eBay - either current or completed. The only references I've found with prices were here .. and the prices kinda caught me off-guard.

Evan

[westhemann]

I think I would start here

http://www.gibson.com/relations/forum/index.asp

Also...I don't think you should even consider "restoring" it if you are going to sell it...chances are you would only hurt the value...

[ESDictor]

Thanks much westhermann, that's exactly what I was looking for!

Evan

[westhemann]

I am sorry...I just cross posted with you...so $1500 or so is what you consider a valuable Gibson?Or am I misunderstanding you?That price is really nothing out of the ordinary...I got $1000 cash from Guitar Center(notorious lowballers) for a 2000 explorer in very played condition...

Gibsons hold their original value fairly well is what I am getting at....I thought you meant you had one in the $10,000 plus range.a $1500 gibson you could play,refinish,or do whatever with...it's not all that unusual.

[ESDictor]

I guess it's all relative. To me, $1500 for an old, well-used guitar seems like a pretty good price tag .. but I guess I can also use the money. Last time I did a search (maybe 3 years ago) I got the impression that it was worth about $700, so I decided to hang onto it just in case one of my kids decide to play when they're older. At $1500+ ... to me its value has exceeded the threshold where I figure selling it makes sense.

Thanks again for the link though,

Evan

[westhemann]

You should be able to sell it easily enough,I would think.

[erikbojerik]

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of Gibson is it? What's the year?

$1500 Gibsons are a dime a dozen, on eBay and elsewhere, they are not rare by any means. If the instrument is truly rare (and you really know this to be true by doing your homework on the model and serial number), you're better off going to Gruhn's and getting an expert opinion. They issue appraisals for all sorts of reasons (including insurance on truly valuable instruments), not just to sell on consignment.

[ESDictor]

It's a Gibson Explorer E/2, bought in 1982 (first 2 digits of the SN are 82, so I guess manufactured that year as well). It's the Walnut/Maple natural finish, with gold hardware (bridge replaced with identical, but I still have the old one .. replaced the nut with brass .. don't have original, replaced the strap holders with locking ones because of the angle of the neck-end one) and an ebony fretboard. I restrung and fixed the intonation earlier, and it still sounds great. Has a few small marks, and some of the finish seems to be worn on the back in 1 spot, but from 6 feet away you'd never notice that it's not mint. The E/2 was only made between 79 and 82, so it seems like it should be more valuable than I guess it is .. but no such luck for me. This is not an actual picture of my E/2, but it's the same exact model/color/etc, except the one in that picture seems to have some sort of extra pickup between the 2 humbuckers: http://rfrocks.com/guitars/1%201979%20E2%20Explorer.jpg

Evan

QUICK NOTE: After re-reading the above, I just wanted to make it clear that *I* bought this in 1982 new .. well .. my parents bought it for me as a high school graduation present. There has never been another owner besides me.

Edited July 20, 2007 by ESDictor

[gibsonsg26]

reviews and prices 80's gibsons arnt as desirable as older and is yours the active model? I read that even though theres a very small amount of active explorers left there still not worth much at all. All in all a nice guitar but not collectable. Edited July 20, 2007 by gibsonsg26

[WezV]

the first two numbers are not the year of manufacture

You read the serial number like this

YDDDYPPP

Y = year, so the sirst and fifth numbers will tell you what year it was made

D = Day of the year, i.e 001 is the first of january

P = is the plant designation number. 001-499 are for guitars made in kalamazoo and 500-999 are nashville.

This isnt true for all gibsons but it should tell you exactly when your gibson was made right down to the day!! The system above was introduced in the mid 70's i think

Personally i would hang onto a guitar like this for a while - you may be able to get a fairly good price for it now but it should increase steadily!!. Its funny how old 70's guitars are so much more collectable than they where 10 years ago when everyone though they were all duds - the 80's guitars will be next!!

[ESDictor]

reviews and prices 80's gibsons arnt as desirable as older and is yours the active model? I read that even though theres a very small amount of active explorers left there still not worth much at all. All in all a nice guitar but not collectable.

Yeah, the reviews are all great .. and the guitar really does play and sound great (except for that horribly placed strap holder) .. but the prices are pretty low for a model that they made so few of. I guess the shape is a little "out there" for most. I mean .. even the normal Explorer isn't quite a mainstream model .. and this is a little different from that.

Evan

[ESDictor]

the first two numbers are not the year of manufacture

You read the serial number like this

YDDDYPPP

Y = year, so the sirst and fifth numbers will tell you what year it was made

D = Day of the year, i.e 001 is the first of january

P = is the plant designation number. 001-499 are for guitars made in kalamazoo and 500-999 are nashville.

This isnt true for all gibsons but it should tell you exactly when your gibson was made right down to the day!! The system above was introduced in the mid 70's i think

Personally i would hang onto a guitar like this for a while - you may be able to get a fairly good price for it now but it should increase steadily!!. Its funny how old 70's guitars are so much more collectable than they where 10 years ago when everyone though they were all duds - the 80's guitars will be next!!

Thanks for the correction .. I guess the guitar was manufactured late 1980 in Kalamazoo. I'm thinking now that maybe I'll just put it back in A/C storage for another few years. The money would be nice - especially when looking at a few tools I'm going to need to buy in the near future building my first guitar - but I have a day-job, so I'll manage without it. As it is, I have an old Marshall 2203 and cabinet from the same time period that should get me $1500ish .. and while the E/2 is a viable guitar that I can still play and get enjoyment from, the Marshall might as well be the worlds' biggest paperweight. I can't get the volume even to 0.5 before the windows are shaking, so it really never gets turned on anymore. And to be honest, I use a Line6 POD and headphones 80% of the time when I play, and Amplitube when I record.

Thanks for the advice,

Evan