Vintage. When ?

[Tom Thump]

One can hardly call Warwick a new brand anymore and the term vintage has been applied to some of the older basses.
I have been wondering what the criteria are for being a vintage Warwick.
Like Fender has a pre-CBS, does Warwick have a pre-Markneukirchen date or do other things come into consideration ?

 

[Gastrok]

Using the word "vintage" in the way you mean it is one of my pet peeves. The word simply means the year or place in which something is produced. It doesn't mean old.

musicians abuse the word "tone" in a similar way...drives me crazy.

sorry, i'm feeling grumpy today!

 

[Tom Thump]

Nothing wrong about being grumpy. It takes me two pots of coffee to get past that stage, but, please, notice the: "do other things come into consideration".
A definition of "vintage" is obviously a tricky thing.
Some say it's just a way of saying "year", some put a different meaning to it.

 

[JustinWilliamsBass]

I think vintage is more of a vibe or aura than a date. Normally mass markets determine a vintage status and it's not a true industry term. But... feel out the market and that'll determine if you can call it vintage i guess...

 

[Florin]

Most of us call vintage pe 90 Warwick basses. Some signs:
- one piece bridge
- mother of pearl dot inlays
- carved headstock for thumbs
- spector headstock for streamers.

 

[Tom Thump]

I see. Thanks.
Is it preposterous to assume the pre-line was drawn at that point, because Pretzfeld was bursting at the seams later on ?

Surely the two-piece bridge appeared before '90 ?

 

[ALB]

Typically vintage is the year a wine was produced... Marketing has ruined the original meaning and turned it into something it's not. Just like the word collectable, which could roughly translate into " someone's junk". Antique on the other hand is defined as being at least 100 years old. Vintage, collectable, antique... all very good English words that have had there meanings altered to make an item seem more valuable than it really is.

Sorry, my dad is an antique gun collector (guns over 100 years old) so I hear his complaints about word usage all the time.

 

[Grgzilla]

Well said Adrian.
Antique does indeed mean 100+ years old.
I cant remember what defines veteran,like veteran cars.Maybe 50+ years old?
So instead of vintage Warwicks,maybe we should be calling them,veteran,instead.:idea:

Ok,i'll stfu now.:lol:

 

[Florin]

I see. Thanks.
Is it preposterous to assume the pre-line was drawn at that point, because Pretzfeld was bursting at the seams later on ?

Surely the two-piece bridge appeared before '90 ?

The two pieces bridge appeared around 87. But somehow I would not cal the ones with two pieces as vintage.

And as some of my friends said here - vintage means that something has a value as a collectible item, and the value increased. Sadly, or no, this didn't happened with any of our basses.
We have just old Warwicks and new Warwicks

Perhaps because we didn't change the philosophy, owners, and quality of our basses in time like other makers did, forced by the market.