What does vintage actually mean??

[mild_child]

Yeah...I know this sounds lame but I'm actually serious. What does Vintage tone sopposed to sound like?

[indysmith]

"vintage" in itself is a pretty self explanatory word - a vintage guitar would be that which was made at any time in the past, and is considered to be the best year of a particular model. (do you understand why i prefer to think about it as self explanatory - not easy to fit words together for it).

Vintage gutiar tone is not one specific tone - it is very diverse, and it could mean anything from a fender strat thru a fender twin to a gibson les paul through a marshall plexi.
'Vintage' is whatever you like best. My personal favourite vintage is EVH's "brown sound" for example.
Hope this was some help...

P.S. When most people think of vintage they think of older more mid-focussed sounds, with less gain, as oppsed to today's modern fire-breathing nu-metal monster amps.

[Peterku]

When I say 'vintage tone' I think of sounds that I can hear on old records from the '70s or '80s for instance.

[Bainzy]

a lot of the time it can be described as this:


vintage = the real tone of your guitar

modern = hiding behind distortion and cutting out the heart of your guitar's tone (the mids) in an attempt to sound heavier than heavy

[Steve-Mr Pig 2U]

a lot of the time it can be described as this:


vintage = the real tone of your guitar

modern = hiding behind distortion and cutting out the heart of your guitar's tone (the mids) in an attempt to sound heavier than heavy

Vintage and modern tones are more defined by the type of pickup and amp rather than guitar.

[Skybone]

Indeed, what IS vintage?

In terms of the actual, physical guitar, it means that the instrument is over 15 or 20 years old. This does usually mean that the shops selling them generally add a few percent to the price, or is that me being cynical?  :?

Soundwise, like indy said, it could mean a 70's Les Paul through an original 70's Marshall Plexi, or a 60's Strat through a 60's Twin or maybe a 50's Tele through a 50's Bassman, or some such. It could be that the pickups have lost some magnetism, giving a mellower, older style sound. I like Peter's explanation of old records, sounds that you really want to emulate as they were something special.  :?

Pickup-wise, for a humbucker, it's the fabled Gibson "PAF", single coils could be back to that 60's Strat or 50's Tele, or even the jangly Rickenbacker based Beatles sound.

Dunno really, I reckon everyone has their own theory as to what "vintage" means, especially in relation to guitar's and how they sound. Some modern players want to recreate older sounds, as they think that they're more "organic", some players want to try and find the opposite for a new "fresh" sound. Who's to say.  :?

[Searcher]

When I say 'vintage tone' I think of sounds that I can hear on old records from the '70s or '80s for instance.

'80s tone is vintage?! I thought vintage was pre-1970. just goes to show how old I'm getting.

[HJM]

People are selling early 80s guitars as vintage...in 10 years time it'll be early 90s guitars!

I can remember when I started playing around 86/87 seventies strats and LPs were the spawn of satan.. I remember in about 1989 a 70s hardtail that my local shop coudn't sell for £175 when a new Jap Strat was about £275....60s strats were OK, you could get 'em for £1-2000, 50s strats were what you wanted for vintage tone.Along with an early Les Paul.

I tend to think of tones like early Clapton, early Chicago blues and R&B, people like Hank Marvin and James Burton for cleans, Led Zep, up to early Van Halen.

Perhaps we should have something like the old car way - classic and vintage??

[Bob Johnson]

HJM is right, there was a time when you couldn't give away a 70's Strat.
I think of "vintage" as being a those quality's in a guitar, pickup or amp that embody the spirit as well as the sound of a time when guitars weren't built by the million to satisfy customers who probably pick it up twice a year.
Lot's of companies jumped on the band wagon in the early 60's, the first big electric guitar sales boom,  thinking that anyone could knock out electric guitars. Believe me there was some real cr@p around then even by today's standards. So "vintage" isn't just about age.

[jt]

:D Bob`s right of course there`s always been cr@p made in every generation  :roll:

By & large with regards to sounds "Vintage" is used to describe sounds that pre date the mass volume markets. I think i`m right in saying that somewhere on this forum there are examples of this being given i think one of them was Fender used to have old ladies winding there P/U`s on converted sewing machines or spindles of some sort. this must be scatter winding ? if that`s basically correct them once fender started mass production & moved onto machine made P/U`s then that sound would have been lost. As for amps most of the older models have handwiring which many of us think gives a better sound but again as mass production took over they started to use circuit boards which helped reduce there costs & made manufacturers bigger profits. As for guitars most shops regard anything that has a name thats over 25yrs old to fall into the Vintage catagory. I don`t no about being able to get rid of 70`s & early 80`s strats very easy, you need to have original parts & for no mods to have been made to your guitars for them to be worth anything. I also agree with HJM there should be a "Classic" catagory as well as a "Vintage" one

 :D  8)

[willo]

I agree completely with Bob, for me vintage means something 'classic', something representative of the best of its type. Of course, there has to be some kind of time delay, because in a way, its only with hindsight that we can say, 'That was a great model - that was vintage.'

[_tom_]

When I think of vintage tone, I think of an old cranked Marshall  :D Like Jimmy Page, Hendrix, ACDC style tones. Lots of good mids!

When I think of modern tones, I tend to think of a high gain beasty sound, like anything metal basically (except "old" metal like Maiden)! Bands like Primal Fear, Pantera, Carcass, Exodus, to me, have a modern tone. Probably less mids.

There are some awkward people, that sound to me like they have modern/vintage tone  :lol: This includes the tones of Zakk Wylde, Dave Navarro, Morello etc. I dunno why or how this sounds more modern yet vintage but it does, to me anyway  :P

[rinse_master]

In terms of tone I would say up to the 70s is vintage then modern tones started appearing in the 80s with more racks and multi fx stuff, more gain etc.

It's a bit general and obviously there were pioneers, as there are still people who prefer vintage.

I thought vintage was pre-1970. just goes to show how old I'm getting.

I'm only 24, feel more like 42 though :roll:

[Ratrod]

Originally it comes from the wine industry. It means wine year. A wine made in a good wine year is referred to as good vintage. In the car and guitar world it usually means the same as classic.

[The amazing Phil]

Vintage means mad prices on e-bay and a serious hunt around if you want some without being reamed into the poorhouse. :lol:

But in all seriousness, vintage to me means gears from "yon days of old", anything up to the start of the 80's I guess. Though generally I always think of 50's or 60's stuff. Before that it's all a bit "pre-vintage", predating solid body guitars and such like. Maybe predating writing too. Did dinsours play jazzboxes back then? Did Les Paul ever get chased by a T-rex after a set? Who knows? Do you know? We don't. They don't. Do the guitars? They're hollow, so why would they know? Nobody knows. Nobody. Not even you. :o