Modifications and value

[Gaolee]

I'm really curious about the effect modifying a vintage guitar has upon its value. This isn't going to be asking for some kind of dollar value, but more a philosophical question.

 

Modifications can be done immediately when the instrument was new, as appears to have been done to my EB-2. The entire set of modifications of this kind are for playability or specific changes to the instrument's sound.

 

Then modifications can be done once the instrument is already antique, and they can be done to repair previous damage, to update the instrument to a more current sound, or to make the closer to its original configuration.

 

There are things like replacement pickguards for those items which generally got damaged, removed and thrown away, or changed out just because.

 

So, as a non-market value idea, is there anything wrong with modifying an antique to make it work better? Conversely, if an instrument has period correct modifications, is it advisable to restore it to more or less factory specs and undo the modifications somebody did forty or fifty years ago? Does it matter either way, or is there some underlying value to a factory setup, even though some other configuration might be "better" in some way?

 

I'm really curious to know what you all think about this.

[ksdaddy]

Years ago I though nothing of modifying guitars. I never refinished them though. The only time I would do that is if it had already been done poorly. But things like pickups and tuners, yeah, I'd swap them out. Nowadays I'm much more careful.

 

About 25 years ago George Gruhn had a column in Guitar Player and he spoke of someone modifying old Strats to suit his needs. He said it would be better if he did it to a modern plentiful Strat. Okay, point taken. But now those late 70s Strats are collectible and many have been routed for humbuckers or Floyd Roses. It's hard to imagine us 'not' hotrodding a 2002 Mexican Strat; they're cheap, plentiful and disposable. But maybe 25 years from now we won't feel that way. I prefer to err on the side of caution.

 

I have a '71 LP Deluxe. The tuners have been changed to Schallers. At this point I don't think much about it because they work much better than the stock tuners. It's possible to change it back but it's not an issue. The pickups were horrible and I swapped them to Dimarzios. They were a direct replacement with no mods. If I ever wanted to change them back I could, and the only telltale sign would be the solder joint. Big difference between that and the more common butchery of routing them out for full sized humbuckers.

 

A former friend rapes every guitar he owns. It doesn't matter what it has for hardware, he is compelled to 'improve' it and destroys any and all collector value for all eternity. There was a time when I would play into his hands and swap guitars with him on a weekly basis. If we were still friends I would no longer allow him to do that.

 

About 7 or 8 years ago I bought a basket case '64 Melody Maker for $100. The only metal on the thing was the truss rod and frets. It had been brush painted with white house paint. All bets were off at that point. I said "There's no way to bring this back original so let's make it something that works". I refinished it antique white, had a white guard made for it, cut for one humbucker, bought a white Dimarzio Super Distortion, an all kinds of gold hardware. When I got done, it's utility value and 'wow' factor that actually exceeded any collector value it may have had if it were original. I basically picked it out of the trash, it had been destroyed, so I made it into something useful. By contrast, if I had an original old Melody Maker and just couldn't stand the idea of not having a humbucker, I would rather sell it and buy something more suitable rather than modify it.

 

I currently have an '83 "Smith" Strat, which was made during a very strange era in Fullerton. I think they were under some command from higher up to cull out the warehouse and use up existing stock. I bought it from the original owner. It has all the Smith attributes of 1982/3 but black pickguard and knobs; they went to white in '81 or so. The pickups are dated 1979. I also have an '83 P-bass with a 1983 neck, 1981 pots, and a 1979 serial number on the headstock. The Strat had been modded with Schaller tuners and I went to great lengths to find and install period correct "F" tuners. Thank God for conversion bushings. A few of the little screws in the saddles were worn out. New replacement Chinese saddles are $12 on ebay but I just couldn't bring myself to do that. Instead, I located an ebay seller who dealt in little black oxide set screws, and I bought an entire set of 12. I replaced all of them at once. Nobody can tell they're not original and I have the satisfaction of knowing I did the best I could to keep it "right".

 

So even disregarding any market value of original vs modified, there is a stewardship issue. I carefully weigh any mods I'm considering and I better have a darn good reason to proceed, lest someone else spend even more time un-doing my improvements in 2030.

[Gaolee]

That's quite a history. Put in the perspective you have, maybe I shouldn't mess with the inexpensive Ibanez hollow body I bought a couple months ago, and the same with the Epi Thunderbird I picked up for next to nothing two weeks ago or so.

[ksdaddy]

If you're doing direct replacement stuff like pickups or maybe swapping out a bridge assembly on a hollow body, then there's no damage done. You might consider squirreling away the original parts so you can include them if you sell it later.

 

Anything that can be undone without damage is okay, but unfortunately many mods are irreversible, no matter how good an idea they seem at the time.

 

What did you get for an Ibanez? I had the hots for a fat Ibanez Artcore, can't recall the model number, but it was the full depth 16" (or so) body. I ended up finding a clean '99 Emperor for only a few bucks more so I went that way.

[Gaolee]

The Ibanez is an ES335 clone. I think the model number is AS73 or something close. It's a semi-hollow, not a full hollow, although I would like a full hollow to go with it one of these days. Actually, I'd really like a vintage Gibson, but since I didn't buy it in 1983 or so like I did the EB-2, the chances of having enough money to pick up a good one are pretty small. The Ibanez isn't a bad guitar just as-is, so I'll probably leave it alone, at least for a while.