In years to come i wander if "country of origin" will be as important. In the past, vintage guitars had to bear the words "made in U.S.A" to be considered classics. 70's and 80's Japanese guitars are considered vintage classics nowadays and rightly so. these days you can get solidly built guitars from Mexico, Korea and even China but do you think these will be so highly regarded in 30 years time?
Trying to say something on topic ( :lol:), I think that's a good point.
Japanese guitars have definitely acquired some vintage value, and there's the whole legend built up around particular factories like Fujigen and Matsumoku.
I don't think there's any evidence of anything similar building up around Korean guitars, even though they've been around for a long time now. Maybe some of the Mexican Fenders will acquire a bit of a following in years to come, I don't know.
I agree; some of the Korean factories (World and Unsung in particular) have increasingly high reputations for the guitars they make for the likes of PRS SE and Ltd, but I don't think that will be enough to make them "vintage" in twenty years' time. My gut feeling is that the drivers which created the vintage guitar market and then the "lawsuit" guitar industry are unlikely to arise again. Companies are much better at marketing, hitting different price points and responding to trends.
As I've always understood it, the vintage guitar market was essentially created by Gibson; they stopped making a guitar that went on to become iconic and were slow to spot the demand when guitar players were after sunburst Les Pauls, forcing them to buy used. These days, if a model is out of production when demand or a suitable niche arises, manufacturers bring them back - there are quite a number of models I can think of from the '90s and early 2000s that have reappeared in recent years just around the point when changing trends might have sent people to eBay and Craigslist to hunt down originals.
I don't know if there's a chance for modern guitars to develop that mystique based on unavailability; maybe US Hamers will start to appreciate now, but at a certain point I imagine that would provoke FMIC into reviving the brand (evidenced by shiny new Guild electrics at NAMM this year).
