pawlowski6132

You're still missing the point. Yes most people think old is vintage but not old and s*****. Old and good equals vintage. Again, not old and s*****

I think most people would say a guitar from the '90s is not vintage

Right it's got to be a certain age and good. I think I've said that like three times already.

And I guess it only really matters when you're trying to sell something and use the vintage label to get premium dollars. If I'm in the market for a 93 acoustic from Bozeman and somebody wants to charge me more because they think it's vintage. That's not going to fly with me.

Maybe there's some relativity in it too. My son is 16. He probably thinks that guitar from 93 is vintage. I'm 56. It's got to be older than me for it to even be on the vintage radar.

Yeah I get it but when they bought it they didn't say oh I'm buying a vintage guitar. 30 years old is nothing. I have shoes that old that I still wear. Trust me they're not vintage.

Also having that insight on what is great and what will be vintage in 50 years would be cool. I wish my grandpa had bought a 1934 l5 and just put it under the bed.

That's a good point which begs the question does vintage just mean old? It sounds like you are saying no. However, I do think that is a component and I would say that vintage means it is old (whatever that means, see my definition above) AND great. To which I would say those Bozeman acoustic you're mentioning could be great but I would not call them vintage because they are not great AND old. To me the term vintage suggests a bygone era of which today cannot be replicated for various reasons.

I assume you're just talking Electric? I collect only acoustics (flattops and archtops), i consider only '40's and older to be vintage. 50's starts to resemble modern eras in design, manufacturing technique, wood availability, other materials and suppliers, etc.

So, I did a fair amount of online research and think this is a 1909 Gibson Style O / Auditorium archtop. There are so many variations between 1905 and 1910, it's hard to really peg down a year and or understand where this belongs in the lineage/timeline. Label was scraped out for some reason. Serial number is 7677 (I think) FON 643 HERE's a link to a photo album. What I would really like is some alternate sources like books or other hard copy literature, catalogs, etc. so I can learn as much as I can as I can about these archtops from the first decade.

If the guitar is older than me to it's vintage.

I'm interested in Gibson guitars from 1900 to 1910. Are there any comprehensive definitive sources available? I already have Spans guide and other online resources are spotty at best. I'm hoping to avoid large volumes covering a broader topic wherein these specific guitars are less than 1% of the book content of possible. They tend to treat this period lightly and can't go into depth. Thanks in advance.

Great call outs. If the body has some red pencil/ink inside, that's another indication that it's been sent back to the factory (through dealership in those days) for repair and/or warranty work. Who knows, the neck could be an EXCELLENT one. I was told it doesn't appear to even have had a neck reset much less a new neck replacement. Maybe it's the original neck with a new freboard and headstock laminate? who knows

one pictured on the prewar website here Pre war yes but this is the 16" model built before 1936 and is usual fretboard inlay (you can't see the headstock logo in these pictures)(different than Guitar Center) jonathan stout's L12 here also with split inlays and a unique headstock inlay This is the 17" model and this is the typical fretboard and headstock inlay (different than Guitar Center) an earlier 1935 with a similar inlay Same as the first one. (different than Guitar Center) So, we see TWO combinations of freboard and headstock inlays for prewar L12; 16" and Advanced 17", NEITHER of which match the Guitar Center guitar. I know there were custom orders but, I don't believe someone would custom order this headstock logo. It 's makes much more sense that the neck was replaced during the 40's or 50's. Still looking though for someone to show an example of Prewar L12 with this if possible. I don't see any prewar L7, L10 or L5 with this type of neck either.

No argument with the script Gibson but, I've NEVER seen the headstock inlay (on any prewar archtop) with split parallelogram inlays on any 17" L12. I agree the materials are the same which leads me to believe this is NOT the original neck.