Pre-CBS 1963 Fender Stratocasters sit at the top of every collector's list. Here's how to authenticate and date a real one: L-series serials, pot codes, neck heel stamps, custom colors, finish evidence, and the puzzle piece neck plate trick that catches refinishes.
Jim's parents bought him a brand-new 1973 Fender Jazz Bass for Christmas — sunburst, maple board, black blocks. Fifty years later, we put it head-to-head with Fender's brand-new Vintera III Early '70s Jazz Bass. Here's how the reissue stacks up against the real thing.
Defined by its gold anodized pickguard and revolutionary split-coil pickup, the 1957–1959 Fender Precision Bass marked the birth of the modern electric bass. Here's a full breakdown of specs, authenticity markers, and market values for one of the most collectible instruments in the Fender canon — year by year.
The 1968 Gibson ES-335 marks the final year of Gibson's one-piece mahogany neck and long tenon joint — the last of the true Kalamazoo-era semi-hollows before the construction changes of 1969. This guide covers finish rarity, hardware authentication, pot code dating, and current market values for collectors and sellers.
The ES-125 spent nearly 30 years as Gibson's quiet workhorse — affordable, versatile, and loaded with P-90 character. Here's everything you need to know to buy, date, and identify one.
Few guitars carry more forensic intrigue than an original 1968 or 1969 Fender Pink Paisley Telecaster. This complete guide covers the Cling-Foil finish chemistry, neck dating, CBS-era hardware, and the "puzzle piece" authentication test every serious buyer needs to know.
Whether you've built your collection over decades or just inherited one you don't know how to value, selling a large guitar collection is a real job — not a weekend project. This guide covers every selling avenue honestly: Reverb, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, local dealers, consignment, auction houses, and more. We've handled collections of 700+ instruments and help with every step, including identification, documentation, and organization. Read the full breakdown, then decide what's right for you.
The dot-neck Gibson ES-330 is one of the most misunderstood guitars of Gibson's golden era. Fully hollow, dogear P-90 equipped, and joining the body at the 16th fret — not the 17th, not the 19th — it's a fundamentally different instrument from the ES-335 it's so often compared to. This guide covers every specification of the 1959–1962 dot-neck era in exhaustive detail: neck profiles by year, knob changes, saddle materials, serial numbers, FON dating, cases, pickguard construction, vibrato variants, and every other detail that separates an original example from a modified one — and a 1959 from a 1962.
The Fender Jazzmaster changed more times in its first 14 years than almost any other model in the Fender lineup. This guide documents every spec change year by year — gold guard to tortoiseshell, slab to veneer, clay dots to pearl to blocks, spaghetti to CBS black logo, Klusons to F-tuners, and a complete custom color reference with the correct pickguard pairing for every finish.
