One sure way to beat inflation and present devaluation of the bond market to invest for the future is to put your money in vintage electric guitars. Paul McCartney left handed guitars and original flying v guitars will have demand in spite of recessions. Especially in demand are vintage Gibson hollow-body, Fender's vintage sunburst Stratocaster and vintage Fender guitar amplifiers. Nostalgia for early rock is only one reason for the high valuation of vintage guitars and accompanying guitar equipment. The main reason demand is so high for vintage guitars is the sound they produce is as unique as the instrument itself. Each guitar was just a little bit different when these vintage guitars were made decades ago and the technology to produce them was in its early stages. Many of the electric pick-ups were hand-wound, or if they were machine-made, just a little different from the next. If the pick-ups had a few less strands of wire, the sound would be just a little different. Sound boxes as part of the bodies were not made exactly uniform either, making the guitars sound just a little different from same product lines making each guitar just a little unique. Finally, the electronics degraded over time causing each instrument to be a little different from the next. Marshall and Yamaha solid-state amplifiers on the market today are cleaner, unlike original Fender guitar amplifiers which were made with tubes. Fender and Epiphone tubed vintage amplifiers had tonal qualities that are prized because they are not "clean", but sound unique. Guitarists playing vintage guitars and vintage amplifiers can be identified by those with good ears. The best way to chose a vintage electric guitar and/or vintage guitar amplifier is to play it to hear its unique sound qualities. Hearing the sound a vintage electric guitar produces or the unique sound of a tubed vintage guitar amplifier assures the investor of the musical demand an electric guitar may have. Low Fender serial numbers on the back of the body indicate more of the historical demand a vintage electric guitar may have. If your potential investment has both a low serial number and that unique and "special" sound of a fine musical instrument, you have struck gold!
Factory Order Numbers (FON’s) were used by Gibson to track batches of instruments in the early days when they made guitars normally in batches of forty. Therefore early Gibson Vintage Guitars may have both a FON and a serial number. The FON will even give you what number in the batch of forty guitars your instrument was!
There are three groups of numbers which are used for their accuracy. The numbers are often stamped or written on the back of the instrument and seen through the lower f-hole or round soundhole. They may also be impressed on the back of the headstock.
Code Letter FONs were stopped after 1941 and any instruments made during or right after World War II do not bear any FON codes. In1949, a four digit FON was used, but not in conjunction with any code letter.
From 1952-61, the FON’s scheme followed the pattern of a letter, batch number, and instrument ranking number. The FON is the only identification number on Gibson’s low models like the ES-125, ES-140 etc.) which do not feature a paper label. High grade models (such as the Super 400, L-5 etc.) have both a serial number and a FON. When both numbers are present on a high grade model, please remember that the FON was assigned at the beginning of the production run, while the serial number was recorded later (before shipping). The serial number would be the best indication of the actual date of the guitar.
For a more detailed information plus a list of serial numbers you may want to visit my website as there is too much information to share in a single article.
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Lowry Gibson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Guide Guitar, Keyboard Synthesizer. See our site for great investments - I mean vintage electric guitars, Gibson, Fender, Rickenbacker, Epiphone, Gretsch and Ibanez. Just some of the values on electric and acoustic guitars you will find at. Lowry Gibson's top article generates over 590 views. to your Favourites.
Lyndon Ogden has sinced written about articles on various topics from Trucks, Guide Guitar and Surveys. Lyndon is a collector of Gibson vintage guitars. His website is