Are Guitars Worth Investing In? | Walt Grace PT III

People come from all over the world to come here. It's a destination. You're not a typical guitar retail store. There's nothing like this I've ever seen. What is this thing in this case? That's also a Martin. This one is twenty thousand dollars. Uh, yeah, you gotta check this place out. Come on down. Alex works at the back, so you gotta walk through the cars and the guitars to get to where he works.

Out here we go. I mean, Fenders all over the place. These are new guitars. They also have some vintage stuff. They also have a lot of great acoustics. Amazing, amazing, amazing Martin guitars. In fact, I bought a Martin here. You have to play every single one if you're going to think about buying one. But that's the whole idea. If you have enough of them, you can get the different kind of feel because each one's unique. This is vintage. Who knows what country star played that 100 years ago? That's my kind of idea, you know? Displaying them like art. If you like instruments, you'll fall in love with this place.

All right, we're at Alex's workbench. Alex Jones, the legendary guitar tech here in Walt Grace. Two reasons for me to be here. Number one is I'm picking up a 1967 Telecaster with a Bixby tremolo bar on it, which is very rare. I asked him to do a setup on it, and he told me, you know, in texting me that there's some issues with the guitar. Going to find out what those are right now. You'd expect that with a 67. On the other hand, pretty rare guitar, and I wanted it to be el supreme. I want to put new tens on it and have everything checked out. So let's start. Let's learn about what happened with the 67 Telly. What he's done to it. I'm going to play it, check it out. Also, today and just get the whole get the news from Alex about what's going on with guitars right now.

Here we go, Alex, baby! How are you?

Hey, very good. How about yourself? Good to see you! So, let's start with my, um, Tele, my '67. Yes, you've had it for a couple of weeks, right? Yes, yes, it's all done. What have you learned about this guitar? Well, it plays very well. It looks like it's had frets once at least, right? Yeah, you would expect that from a '67, wouldn't you? Yeah, and a player guitar, you know, it might have had frets done several times, but it looks really clean. Whoever did the work did a good job.

What's the story on the tremolo bar? Is that unique? Um, yeah, they're not on every Telly, obviously. And it's very similar to the Bixby. This one, though, is drilled a little off center. You can see the line doesn't. So when the guy built the guitar, whoever the maker was back in probably two years before this, maybe? Yeah, it could have been C6. He screwed it. He might have had a hangover in the morning. That's possible. But guitars weren't worth as much back then, you know? So he just didn't, he just screwed it in. So that's a little crooked. Who cares?

Yeah, I think, I mean, it doesn't look… There are ways to make it come out straight every time, and obviously, they didn't do that, but that's part of the guitar's personality. Yeah, it would, I guess, you know, it would be ideal if it was, you know, from a technical standpoint, if the string was straight. Yeah, but it still works, and it plays really good, and it's part of history now.

What made you become a guitar tech? How, what drew you to do this? Because you're getting… If you go online, not to I don't want to make your head explode, but you're all over the place online. People are talking about your work. "Jonesified," yeah, it's a thing. My friend came up with it. He said that when I work on a guitar, it's been "Jonesified." Yeah, because when I went online in Miami, said, "Who's the best guitar tech?" There was no question. It was you. So how did you get that way? Did you train for that? Are you an engineer? What do you have to do? Were you a guitar maker?

That's funny. My granddad's an engineer, and my dad is an engineer, and I went my own way. So, I wanted to be a musician, and musicians are flaky people, so I ended up working on my own doing this, you know? Yeah. So you're a musician, and you're also a guitar tech. Where do you really make your living?

Oh, definitely only play for fun now. It's, yeah, the technical… It's tough to make money as a musician, right?

Yeah, it is, especially now where there's no gigs. A lot of guys would make money doing gigs and selling merch and that kind of thing. And, uh, it's hard to get a gig now. The tech business, I mean, it's sort of an independent thing, right?

Yeah, I mean, one option you would have is to go work for a guitar company, right?

Yeah, I started working for as a contractor for Guitar Center. I did three years there after I in the back of Guitar Center, and I was out in the front and all the noise, and that's one of the reasons why I quit because it's just crazy. It was insane to try to concentrate in that place. Yeah, everybody's playing guitar, but baptized by fire, you know? It couldn't have gotten any worse.

And then how did you end up here in Walt Grace? This is kind of a really funky place.

Uh, yeah, I'm fortunate enough to run into some cool people along the way that enjoyed my work and wrote good reviews online, apparently. Yeah, and I guess what this guy's had is this his third location. When I say this guy, I mean Bill, the owner. Yeah, he had two other locations, and every time someone would come in, they would say, "Hey, can I work on your guitar?" And guys would be like, "No, Jones does this, and no one else touches Mike."

So he heard my name a million times before I was even interested in working here.

Yeah, and then, um, yeah, so I was looking to move to Nashville, and I was looking at advertisements in Nashville as a tech. You wanted to move?

I just wanted to get the heck out of South Florida because I've been here my whole life, and I just wanted to, you know, something different. And I thought it was a bigger music scene anyway. I just was looking at other options. I'm sure everyone has moments where they think about what other things could they do or where could they do it at. So I was looking at that, and I saw an advertisement for Walt Grace Tech, you know, and I said, "That's a nice place." I looked it up, I go, "Dang, that's real fancy. I didn't know it was that cool." So I called, and they had this space, you know, empty, and they wanted me to send in a resume, but when I left my name, I got a call back in five minutes on a Sunday that says, "You don't need a resume." Yeah, it's basic. It's great, and that was the beginning of a wonderful relationship.

Yeah, yeah, Bill's been real good to me. I told him what I want, he gave it to me.

And what, did you rent this space from him? So like a boutique, or you have some economics?

No, I'm a salary guy here. I mean, look at this place. It's magnificent. There's nothing like it anywhere, really.

Yeah, so it's a blessing that it came to Miami. What kind of people do you meet in here? Because, I mean, you can get people into cars, and obviously, guitars, that's a different kind of subset when you think about it, yeah?

Yeah, yeah, there's some places that would sell a lot of nice guitars, you know? But this, this is just another thing. People come from all over the world to come here.

Yeah, it's a destination.

I like it. Did a great job, did a great job on this, Vince.

Let's talk about the business here because this is a little funky chicken. When I walked in here the first time, I saw vintage guitars, and I saw new guitars, and I saw cars. What is the vision for this business? What are you operating here?

Part of this gets you going, get you started with your first guitar, or if you're a collector to get you the best instrument you can ever find as well for cars.

So you have multiple brands. This is Epiphone, right?

This is type of phones. To me, this is an entry-level guitar as an investment.

Yes, it's not. I don't think these things appreciate value that much over time, at least until you learn how to play. Yes, this is what's going to get you started, basically.

Okay, but it's not… This is here so that you can be a guitar store?

Yes, but part of the concept is that we want people to play guitar. This, we want to get help you achieve your dream. Part of the dream just can't afford a really heavy-duty piece. This is where you come.

Now, this looks like a Les Paul to me.

Yeah, Les Pauls, Gibsons overall. We have a little bit of everything. SGs, Junior, Special.

Now, are these all new guitars?

Uh, most of them. Some of them are used. This actually looks vintage, but it's actually an aged guitar.

Yeah, it's a newer guitar. That's a whole new thing now, right? Make it look...

Yeah, okay, but let me ask you about the cost of this as an investment. Do you have to buy these guitars, put up capital so that you own them, then they sit on this wall, or is this on consignment?

Sometimes we have, we do a little bit of both. Yeah, we buy guitars and sell, and we also are dealers for Gibson, Fender, and other brands as well, the big guys. Like, you know, the giant retailers of guitars.

I used to be in the… I was an investor in Fender, so I sort of learned the ways of the world. It's always a balance between how much of your capital is tied up in this inventory, and how much they are fronting your guitars, depending on your volume of sell-through, right?

Yeah, and I mean, you're not a typical guitar retail store. There's nothing like this I've ever...

Definitely not! I mean, so this model works, I take it, right?

Yeah, you move a lot of guitars. We do new, unused, and vintage. Yeah, we ship nationwide as well.

Now when you talk Gibson as an investment, where do you put it in the pecking order of things? You're putting, you know, we're talking to people thinking, "All right, I'm going to buy a couple of guitars. It's a good investment. I want to play." But would you put, what would you put them into to say, "Look, this is going to appreciate over value over the next 10 years?"

We're probably going to be looking at some custom shop guitars, which should be the ones up there on the top, just out of everybody's reach.

Yeah, hey, but everybody can play any guitar here.

You come, those are custom-made Gibsons, Les Paul models.

Yeah, there's a little more, more, more time costs uh, they range from 5,000 up. That's a serious chunk of change.

Yeah, yeah, there's a different process. Those are made, there's a lot more hands-on, more detail. You know, you know what type of work that Alex does back there, so you have a person actually takes a closer look at these guitars, and make sure when they come out.

And that's a brand new guitar, five to seven thousand sort of range.

Yeah, and then if I held on to it for ten years, it would be worth more than I paid for it?

It'll maintain, it will be worth more.

Yes, okay, so it's worth… So that's sort of the entry-level price for an investment-grade guitar?

Yes, but also, there's a part where you can find really, you know, appropriately priced vintage instruments that are going to appreciate in the future, so we have a little already appreciated, but they're going to go up more.

Yeah, okay, this looks like Fender to me.

Yes, Fender's interesting because we have Telecasters, we have Stratocasters. These are rock and roll iconic brands, obviously.

Yeah, but you have some pretty funky looking Fenders here.

Is that, again, made to look old?

Up here, that's brand new, actually. Came in last week.

You're kidding!

That's what they call a relic, my friend. There's a custom shop guitar as well.

That's your custom custom shop.

Uh, so again, they get a lot more time, you know.

So what would that cost? Even though it's a brand new guitar made to look old?

That one's in the 4,000 area.

And I can buy just a standard Stratocaster for what?

Uh, they start in about a thousand dollars.

Okay, and they're… they're a brand new Strat?

Brand new Strat.

Yeah, so that's not going to appreciate value too much over time, right?

Not compared to the custom shop stuff.

So really, what we're learning here is if you want to make an investment in a guitar, you're going to have to come in at somewhere between five and seven thousand dollars to retain that value?

Maybe a little less, but yeah, that's around that.

Is this a joke over here?

Uh, no. Yes, I know it's a very interesting bass. We actually have a guitar as well. A builder makes those and they actually sound really, really good. They're interesting.

I bet you that's quite controversial.

Yeah, yeah, no questions. Looks like it's been stressed, made to look old.

Yes, that is a classic Fender bass.

Yeah, this one over here is actually a vintage one.

That's vintage. What would that cost?

Uh, this one, 12,000.

Wow, that's not cheap.

It's a jazz bass.

Yeah, and then again, you'll see it right next to a brand new one. You know, these are new Fenders, the Boxer series. So you can either get started with us, you know, start your journey, your dream, and you can finish it with us as well.

So at the end of the day, it looks like you've got hundreds of guitars, because we haven't even talked about the acoustics yet.

Yeah, so let's go into the acoustic room now. Martin guitar is expensive.

It can be. Yes.

What's the set? Let's talk about that.

So you can start with something like this. They're going to be 799.

And that's a Martin?

That's a Martin.

Yep, really?

That's a Martin.

Uh, it's all wood as well.

[Music] It's nice from the road.

Tell us not el supremo though.

Not necessarily, but if you want to get started with a Martin, that's definitely a, you know, it's a good option.

Right now we have a lot of vintage pieces.

This is a really nice guitar, has a lot of details of the triple zero 42.

What does this cost?

That one is going to be, or is it, I think it's around 6,000.

Yeah, now would you put this in the area of appreciation?

I believe so.

Yeah, yeah, these are guitars. Look at the detail on that guitar.

They're obviously handmade. You don't get that with the other models, and it's a classic model as well.

But I can tell it's also got a much richer sound to it too.

Yeah, especially for a little bit of a smaller box too.

So again, same story. If you want something that's going to go up in value, you've got to step up.

Yeah, I mean, so the real dilemma is if you've never played a guitar, why would you spend 7,000 just to become a beginner unless you really thought you were going to follow through?

Yeah, I mean, what they call the beginner guitars nowadays, they're great guitars. They're guitars that will last you your lifetime. Like those Strats, those Telecasters, even the Epic 100,000, yeah, that guitar. You know, they're really solid guitars. You don't… just because you're buying an entry-level guitar means you're buying crap. You know, those are solid guitars you can probably use the rest of your life. That could be your one and only guitar.

But when you're talking about investment and collecting, you know that you want to look at other pieces.

What is this thing in this case?

So that just came in recently. That's also a Martin.

Yeah, uh, this one is twenty thousand dollars.

Uh, yeah, Randy will give you a lot more details about this guitar.

Uh, this one here is a 37, I believe. No, 1924.

So it's 20,000 because it's really old?

That one's really old and pretty rare as well, especially, you know, to have in that condition.

There's a really 100 years on this one. So is this something you take in consignment, and if you sell it, you get a commission on it, sort of thing?

Yes.

Anyway, say you have twenty thousand dollars. That's serious money.

That's an investment.

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