Buying guides
Read one of these before you buy. They cover buying a pre-CBS Stratocaster, telling a PAF-era Les Paul from its reissues, the two classic Gretsch pickups, the red flags that turn up in vintage guitar listings and what Brazilian rosewood rules mean for buying and shipping. If you’re new to vintage guitars, start with the red flags guide.
Pre-CBS Stratocaster Buyer's Guide: Dating, Reissues and Refins
How to date a used Stratocaster by neck date, serial and features, tell pre-CBS from CBS-era and reissue Strats, and spot refins and swapped parts.
Read the guide →PAF-Era Les Paul vs Reissue: Telling a 1950s Original From a Later Copy
How to tell a 1957 to 1960 PAF Les Paul from a 1968 reissue, a Norlin-era guitar, a Custom Shop copy or a Japanese copy, plus refins and goldtop conversions.
Read the guide →Gretsch Filter'Tron vs Dynasonic: Which Pickup, Which Year, Which Model
How to tell a DeArmond Dynasonic from a Filter'Tron in listing photos, when Gretsch used each one, which models had them, and how to date the covers.
Read the guide →Vintage Guitar Red Flags: Refinishes, Swapped Parts, Repairs and Fakes
How to spot a refinish, swapped pickups or pots, a repaired headstock, a conversion or a reissue sold as an original in a vintage guitar listing.
Read the guide →CITES and Brazilian Rosewood: What It Means When You Buy a Vintage Guitar
Which vintage electric guitars have Brazilian rosewood, what the 1992, 2017 and 2019 CITES rules say, and when buying across a border needs paperwork.
Read the guide →