Current and future value of 1970s S-100 Polara

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Hi - I am about to buy my first vintage Guild guitar, and I have an offer for a very gently used 1970 S-100 Polara in Black. It's all original and basically unplayed, but has some case-rash.

The original owner is asking $2250 for it.

Its a lot of money for me, so I want to make sure that this price is resonable, as I really don't have any gauge on its value.
 

fronobulax

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Welcome. Condition is a major driver and hosting pictures elsewhere and linking to them here might help. A serial number will confirm that it is vintage and not a confused or deliberately deceitful seller misrepresenting a Newark Street instrument. 1970 is early for this model so it will be fun to see how, or if, it varies from later examples.

I don't follow prices that closely but I wonder if the price is high? For people who want a guitar just to play, it has to compete with the Newark Street model at roughly a quarter of the asking price. Anecdotally it is hard to predict future value but in general vintage Guilds, across the board, seem to hold their value but not appreciate very much. Traditionally the competition for a new Guild is a vintage Guild so the markets are linked. While there will always be players who can find something they get from a vintage Guild that is not present in the reissued or reimagined one, the number of those players is holding steady or dwindling. So while the supply is fixed or shrinking, so is the demand. If you need to get the asking price today in 3 to 5 years then I am certain the price is on the high side.
 
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Compared to the Newark St. models, are the early 1970 pickups (which I understand are rare) so much better, or is it more a factor of old/rare is always "better"?
 

GAD

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Unless there is something very special about it, I'd think $1200-1500 for a mint '70s S100 would be more in-line with reality.

Future value? No one can reliably predict that. Though we'd all like to hope that vintage guitars will increase in value, that's not always the case. Many have decreased over the past few years, for example.
 

fronobulax

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Compared to the Newark St. models, are the early 1970 pickups (which I understand are rare) so much better, or is it more a factor of old/rare is always "better"?

Check out what GAD has to say at https://www.gad.net/Blog/gads-guilds/#Pickups

I think https://www.gad.net/Blog/2016/07/07/guild-hb1-pickups-new-vs-old/ might answer your question.

The vintage Bisonic bass pickup is definitely better for all my personal definitions of better (than perhaps price and availability) than the Newark Street version. But that is my experience and almost certainly shouldn't generalize :)
 

Quantum Strummer

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Compared to the Newark St. models, are the early 1970 pickups (which I understand are rare) so much better, or is it more a factor of old/rare is always "better"?

1970 was the switchover year from the anti-hum pickups to the somewhat larger HB-1s. Dunno if '70-vintage HB-1s are rare but they're less common than in succeeding years. (I'm not aware of any '70 S-100s with anti-hums, though, if that's what you're referring to.) The '70 S-100s I've seen have had Hagstrom TOM-ish bridges, rather than the semi-floating Müllers, along with the Hagstrom semi-functional vibrato unit.

The old HB-1s are great pickups. The reissues are fine enough…but not the same. It's the usual story: excellent clarity combined with midrange warmth & oomph from the oldies, both bridge and neck; somewhat less clarity with the newer stuff.

-Dave-
 
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