Interested in selling a vintage guitar, lapsteel, ukulele or amplifier? I pay anywhere from $100 to $30,000 for older instruments by Gibson, Fender, Martin, Gretsch, Epiphone, National, Dobro, Rickenbacker, D'Angelico, Stromberg, DanElectro Sitars/Long Horns, Kay Barney Kessels, made before 1970. If you have one of these for sale, please email me and let me know what you have. If you don't have one of these brands of guitar, I am sorry, I just can not help.

When Email'ing, Please Keep In Mind...

• This is my hobby, not a business. I try and answer the emails in which there is something for sale (or potentially for sale). I can not answer emails on general questions. There just isn't enough time in the day! The net has become too big, and I get too many emails (over 100 per day!) I simply can not handle this volume and can not give out opinions, advice, and what stuff is worth.
• Please check my web pages for information on your guitar before emailing me! Many times the info you're looking for is already there. Research your guitar a bit, especially if you plan on selling it, so you know what you have and a basic idea of its value.
• Please do not ask me to value or appraise your guitar. Sorry there just isn't enough time in the day for these questions, and it's a bit more involved than just, "I have guitar X, what is it worth?"
• I do not have info or collect guitars 1970 or newer. I do not have information on brands I don't collect! I have no information on Harmony, Guild, Vega, Mosrite, Washburn, Bruno, Peavey, Supro, Alamo, Oahu, Framus, Stella, Macaferri, EKO, Ovation, Teisco, Suzuki, Recording King, Slingerland, Norma, Hagstrom, Tokai, Cortez, Bacon & Day, Kay (except for Barney Kessel models), Dan Electro (except for a few models), Hofner, Silvertone, any "no name" brand, and any "import" brand (no Japanese, Korean, Mexican, guitars).
• I do not sell guitars!
• Pictures are cool! But please don't go nuts. A front and back picture in JPG (Jpeg) format is good (I can't view any other picture format).

Best Contact Method.

• Email cfh@provide.net
  (click on that email address). This is the best method of contact.

Pictures are great! I love digital pictures via email. Well as long as they are really huge, and as long as they are in JPG format. A front and back picture of the instrument in its case would be great.

As you probably guessed, vintage guitars are my hobby. And the justification of the work involved in this site, is to further the hobby, for me and everyone else. I admit I'm trying to buy an occasional vintage guitar at a reasonable price. After all, that's the justification for all this work (there's over 1 meg of text and over 10 megs of pictures here, all of which I typed and scanned, and I spend several hours a day just reading email). And frankly, 99.9% of the time this site is WAY more work than it's worth (I also get a lot of "flame" from "for profit" vintage guitar sites and individuals that don't see eye-to-eye).

Your Selling Price.

When selling, I would appreciate it if you had a price in mind, but if you don't that's OK too. But it's always better if you've done your own research as to value. This way you don't have to "trust" just me as to what your item is worth. Just remember, if "Joe Vintage Guitar Dealer" is asking $1000 for the same item as you have, that doesn't necessarily mean it will actually sell for that amount. And if you want $1000 too, I probably won't be interested. Just it's a lot easier for me to buy things from knowledgeable dealers than from individuals, if the price is nearly the same! (There's much less hassle and risk involved buying from a dealer.)

Keep in mind I generally pay from $100 to $30,000 for vintage guitars I'm interested in. As would anyone, I'll pay more for stuff I'm looking for, and less for things I'm not really looking for.

"Make me an Offer"...

A lot of people email me with guitars for sale and say, "make me an offer". I would really rather not make offers in this situation. It's not because I'm trying to get your guitar "cheap". It just leaves me open, and allows my offer to get used against me. For example, say some one states they have guitar X for sale, and request an offer. Say I offer $100. Then this person goes to some other buyer (usually local to them) and says, "this internet guitar collector offer me $100 for my guitar". Naturally the other prospective buyer will have to offer more. This puts me in a position where my offer is actually getting used against me.

But if the same person emails me and says they have guitar X for sale for $100, I can either accept or refuse. If I accept, they have made an offer and I have accepted the offer. The only piece missing is compensation (me giving them the money), to make a legally binding sale. To me this is much cleaner and legit.

Also, if you have a price in mind, that means you have done some research on your guitar, which is good. Coming up with your own price puts some pressure on you to be educated as to the value of your instrument (again do some basic research on your guitar). So this way you and I don't have any strange guessing games and ackward price-talk situations.

When Selling Your Vintage Guitar...

You might want to read my introduction section on "How I Buy Vintage Guitars" for details on exactly how I conduct a long distance transaction. Also in you might want to check out my discussion of "What is a Vintage Guitar?", and "What Makes a Vintage Guitar Collectible?". Note I'm not interested in "new" guitars. I only collect stuff before 1970, and just the brands listed here.

The Value of Really Old Guitars.

Just because a guitar is old, does not make it worth a lot of money! There are many other factors involved to make a guitar valuable. One is the application of the guitar to today's music styles. Guitars made before the mid-1930s generally are "primative" compared to 1935 to 1969 models (which are largely the same design, size and construction as guitars made today). For this reason, very old guitar generally are not worth much. I know, I hear the email calling... "Are you telling me my 1908 Gibson L-1 is not worth much? Com'on, it's a Gibson!" Well that may be true, but it's style and construction is so old, it just isn't applicable to today's music styles. This mean it's value will be limited.

Lapsteel for Sale?

No, lapsteels are not worth a ton of money. They are basically obsolete as musical instruments (the pedal steel did them in), though some rare musicians still use them today. Also they were often sold and marketed in the 1950s as student-model instruments, because they are easier to play than a standard guitar. They do have historical significance, but since they aren't generally viewed as "viable" instruments today, their values are fairly low. Because of their historical importance, I am interested in buying lapsteels if they are priced "reasonable". Just thought I'de mention this before you email me asking $1000 for your lapsteel!

4 String Tenor or Plectrum Guitar for Sale?

Again, four string tenor and plectrum guitars are not worth a lot of money. They were sold from the mid-1920's to the late 1950's as a way to get banjo players to convert to guitar. Since there is really no need for this today, they have very limited value today.