Vintage & Used Instruments

The John and Rudy Dopyera Collection We are very proud to offer for sale the combined collection of John and Rudy Dopyera. Few instrument makers represent the American Dream quite as completely as these two inventors, innovators, marketers, and all-around creative force behind both the National and Dobro companies.

The BEST of the BEST Visit the Elderly Web-Vault, where you'll find the finest in highly collectible, exceedingly rare instruments.

Check out our latest price reductions .

See the list of abbreviations we use in our descriptions.

Featured Items: DOMINIK ZUCHOWICZ "LYRA VIOL" (2004) Here's an instrument you may not have seen before! A lyra viol is like a viola da gamba but with sympathetic strings. This was made in Canada and is copied from a 17th century instrument in a Toronto museum. VASILE GLIGA (2005) Look at this very nice Romanian-made copy of the famous Hellier Strad! MARSHALL 1959T 100 WATT TREMOLO HEAD (late '67 / early '68) Here's a 100 watt Marshall head that sounds like a million bucks - and costs a lot less! JAMES OLSON JUMBO CUSTOM (1996) James Olson is the luthier to James Taylor and many other top recording artists. Here's a fine jumbo size model from the mid-'90's. VEGA INSTRUMENTS 1956 CATALOG (REPRINT) Here's a reprint of a super-rare '50's Vega catalog, showing '50's electric guitars plus their usual assortment of banjos and other acoustic instruments. THE BACON PROFESSIONAL BANJO CATALOG (REPRINT) Rare catalog showing c.1913 Bacon 5-string and other banjos of the time. THE BACON 1923 CATALOG (REPRINT) This catalog features the introduction of those great Silver Bell banjos of the 1920's. VEGAPHONE BANJOS Nice repro catalog of old Vega banjos from the 1920's. GIBSON LES PAUL (1954) Here's a fine working man's gold top from 1954! GIBSON LES PAUL JR (1962) Cherry red at it's best - look at and listen to this '62 LP Jr and you'll know why the double cutaway slab body was a big hit beginning in the '60's. GIBSON LES PAUL SPECIAL (1956) Excellent condition, one owner instrument that is very clean. This guitar screams! GIBSON LES PAUL CUSTOM (1960) Here's a really nice 1960 Black Beauty -- looks cool, sounds great. GIBSON LES PAUL JR (1955) Cool, light weight '55 LP Jr that sounds great! GIBSON ES-355 SV (late 1962 / early '63) Here's a really nice early '60's ES-355! GIBSON ES-355TD (1960) Here's a super-clean ES-355, so clean that when the gold plating started showing some wear the owner had the metal replated. Looks great, and sounds great with original PAF pickups. GIBSON SUPER V CES (1981) Here's one of two really nice Super V's that we have right now! GUITARS: THE TSUMURA COLLECTION by Akira Tsumura, foreword by James L. D'Aquisto First published in 1987, this long out-of-print book has been sold for quite a bit more than this for several years now. We have a limited quantity of brand new copies that have recently surfaced. GIBSON L-5 (1925) From the family of the original owner, this just-post-Loar L-5 is a wonder to behold, and play! NATIONAL STYLE 1 TRICONE (1927) This a really unique early National with very fancy engraving which was likely done sometime after it was sold. Recent restoration by National Resophonic. FENDER PRECISION BASS (1974) Bring back those crazy days of 1974 with this super sounding natural finish P-Bass. GIBSON RB-GRANADA (1933) Wade Mainer is a legend in country music, and his banjo is one of the best - a prewar flathead original 5-string Granada with one-piece flange. Need we say more? GIBSON SPF-5 (1938) One-of-a-kind? That wouldn't surprise us. Certainly not many of these were ever made - an F-5 mandolin with "Charlie Christian" pickup, and natural top. Super cool for the mandolin collector who has everything! GIBSON F-5 (1924) Her is a stunning "new" Gibson F-5 mando with Lloyd Loar signature and dated Dec. 1, 1924. It has been in the same family since at least the 1930's and has not been offered for sale in all that time. COOL AMERICAN GUITAR CARDS 40 cool color cards of vintage instruments, with descriptions on the back!

Our Vintage and Used Instrument List describes all the Vintage and Used instruments in our store. The printed version is published every six weeks and features a full-color cover and 24 jam-packed pages for the fretted instrument enthusiast. It is available by subscription for $15/12 issues ($30 overseas), sent first-class mail. The online version available here is free.