Electric Guitar Trends

I am not sure who made the first reissue guitar. Maybe it was those 1966 Gibson Flying V’s, which were made somewhat like the 1958 models. Of course way back then there were fewer models to reissue.
Today, making reissues of electric guitars is good marketing.  Firstly, not every guitar manufacturer can reissue a vintage electric guitar.  The companies that were making guitars in the 50’s and 60’s have a pedigree going for them.  It was the instruments of those days that people used to make the hit songs of those days. Companies that started after 1970 don’t have the vintage models to reissue.

The electric guitar reissue craze seemed to really blossom in the 1990’s. Guitar buyers liked the vintage style reissue guitars and there were a growing number of reissues to choose from.  This happened partly because the real vintage guitars were becoming too expensive for mere mortals to afford.

Secondly, it’s potentially less expensive to manufacture. When it comes to pickups, tuners, bridges and so forth, the good stuff is the modern stuff, not the vintage styled stuff of the 1960’s.  But I am swimming agsinst the stream here, reissue guitars are big selling, high margin items for those guitar makers that have the right music history.