Talk:Vintage musical equipment

Created page
I created this page when I realized that there was nothing to link to when mentioning a "vintage instrument" (other than a guitar) in an article. Because musicians and collectors regard not only instruments, but also amplifiers and effects pedals in their pursuits of all things "vintage", I created this article to be about musical equipment in general. Please add to it, and link other articles to it. Morganfitzp (talk) 19:33, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

Nonsense.
If the term "vintage" is going to be so central to an article, then the term MUST be clearly defined — and rigidly followed — from the beginning. Merely pointing somewhere else (here, Vintage (design)) is essentially irrelevant.

Furthermore, the article refers to items "of sufficient age" then not only dodges explanation, but morphs it into "collectible gear" (with references to value) — another topic entirely.

So let's begin at basics. Generally, something cannot be referred to as antique unless it's at least a century old. In fact, in some circumstances there are even laws that explicitly penalize abuse of the word.

I recently saw a 2010 amp called "vintage." They may be right: if I buy wine bottled this year, then it is correctly "vintage 2018" in a strictly literal sense. Which is to say that the word, as too-commonly (ab)used in the used-gear market, is meaningless.

(In real-world use, "vintage" isn't bandied about. With wine, a vintner or distributor may "declare" a given wine to be exceptional, and therefore "vintage." If the term is used in other than a super-miserly manner, to highlight only truly exceptional wine, everyone else will cease to take that opinionizer seriously.)

There are many credible articles about the term. As one puts it, By calling it "vintage" the seller tries to distract the buyer from the item's blatant imperfections. This goes on to make the case that "vintage"
 * refers to items that are over 50 years old, but less than 100.

Another article says that
 * "vintage" should not be used in reference to objects less than 20 years old.

I have yet to find a definition that says "vintage" means quality — rather, it simply indicates OLD.

If we refer to "a vintage guitar," then at best we're saying "it's original, not a reissue." But that runs into the problems of some brands (like Fender) putting out "vintage reissues." Weeb Dingle (talk) 02:46, 9 October 2018 (UTC)


 * I will begin by removing sections that speak of collectible gear (and related topics such as valuation), seeing as the article says it's about vintage gear. Weeb Dingle (talk) 02:55, 9 October 2018 (UTC)