Signed guitars value ?

spark240

My pal has an Epiphone SG signed by Steve Craddock...Ocean Colour Scene ...the guitars fetch around £200 used,  do you thing a signature adds much value ?

HarrySeven

spark240 said:

My pal has an Epiphone SG signed by Steve Craddock...Ocean Colour Scene ...the guitars fetch around £200 used,  do you thing a signature adds much value ?

Personally, I’d pay *him* to remove it before I bought it…

Sporky

I think it depends on the guitar and the signaturer.

But usually no. 

spark240

HarrySeven said:

spark240 said:

My pal has an Epiphone SG signed by Steve Craddock...Ocean Colour Scene ...the guitars fetch around £200 used,  do you thing a signature adds much value ?

Personally, I’d pay *him* to remove it before I bought it…

You know who "he" is right ;-)

guitars4you

To me it is nothing - Massive difference between someone just signing a guitar, as against the iconic guitar they toured with, owned, recorded with etc 

Signing a guitar or a piece of paper - What is the difference - To many, such a signature what detract from any potential sale, as such it would devalue the guitar (assuming the signature is on the gloss finish ) - At best, the guitar is worth the same as an unsigned guitar 

But we all know the hand signed Madonna bra etc is a new market place for many collectors - But not me

lustycourtier

Depends who it is, but Cradock as great as he is, no.

bertie

as I suspect like me,   a few people had to google who he is/was  -  Id say it would only appeal to die hard fans,  not general guitar playing peeps

Faye

I wouldn't want to play a signed guitar, and I'm not a fan or a collector, so it'd be worthless to me. 

fretmeister

Signature forgery is a massive issue for collectors. If there is a photo of it being signed then maybe it might add 5% to something that wasn't actually owned by the artist. Provenance is vital

If the sig is on a scratchplate then put a new one on it and sell the old one separately. Still won't get much more than a normal used plate though.

Other than that - it's just an Epi with a signature that will get wiped off during normal playing.

OCS do have a lot of fans, but Craddock isn't EVH / EC / SRV etc.

Offset

I like OCS and Steve Craddock is a great musician - but someone's sharpie scrawl on a guitar devalues it in my eyes, almost regardless of who is wielding the pen.  Hendrix... perhaps.  But anyone else... nah.

Ever noticed that generally speaking, the only guitars that get signed in this way are low-end models?

* EDIT - in no way intended to demean your chum's guitar, OP 

spark240

Offset said:

I like OCS and Steve Craddock is a great musician - but someone's sharpie scrawl on a guitar is devalues it in my eyes, almost regardless of who is wielding the pen.  Hendrix... perhaps.  But anyone else... nah.

Ever noticed that generally speaking, the only guitars that get signed in this way are low-end models?

* EDIT - in no way intended to demean your chum's guitar, OP 

No worries...personally I agree with most of the comments, my pal was involved in the whole Mod scene and is a bedroom guitar player, so I guess he attended something with OCS there and got it signed, to be fair he's not looking for a  lot of money, so I put the feelers out to a few likely suspects...;-)

axisus

Personally I'd only buy a signed guitar if I could remove the writing. I don't think it adds value to a guitar unless it's someone really famous - Hendrix level! 


The only interest I'd have in a signed guitar would be if I could get Nick Barrett to sign the back of the headstock of the tribute guitar I put together in homage to his number 1. One day I will take it to a gig, he usually hangs around and chats to the fans at the end and I've had him sign an album in the past.

Philly_Q

Offset said:

Ever noticed that generally speaking, the only guitars that get signed in this way are low-end models?

Usually it's for a charity auction, so that's fair enough - people are bidding for the charity and for something to hang on the wall, the fact that it's a guitar is completely irrelevant.

On the original question, I think the signature only adds value if it's primarily the signature you want.  It doesn't add any value at all to the guitar as a playable object.

Philly_Q

fretmeister said:

Signature forgery is a massive issue for collectors. If there is a photo of it being signed then maybe it might add 5% to something that wasn't actually owned by the artist. Provenance is vital

I've got a Uriah Heep album signed by all the (then) members of the band.  It seemed plausible enough, because they'd been in town shortly before I bought it - I was at the gig. 

It took me a while to realise that the handwriting all looks the same... and Trevor Bolder (RIP) apparently couldn't spell his own name.

Funkfingers

A friend of mine paid over the odds for an Ibanez JEM with a squiggle on it. No supporting evidence for whether the squiggle had been made by Mr. Vai.

The same person took his Maton Tommy Emmanuel signature guitar to a gig. The man himself was kind enough to sign it and be photographed doing so. I was the mug taking the photographs. 

Clearly, my friend was an almighty fanboi. The ideal customer for these items.

hollywoodrox

I had a Japanese strat Scalloped & everything  signed By Yngwie & His wife  with a Japanese gig program and lots of photos with Yngwie his wife & him signing it etc   In Japan  it didn’t help when I needed to sell it though . I also had a crafted in Japan proper yngwie model that wasn’t signed . I’d like a vai signature on a guitar or one of my magazines or books etc to keep in the case 

TDubs

I have a 1996 Fender Stratocaster signed by Jimi Hendrix if anyone is interested 

Philly_Q

hollywoodrox said:

I had a Japanese strat Scalloped & everything  signed By Yngwie & His wife  with a Japanese gig program and lots of photos with Yngwie his wife & him signing it etc   In Japan  it didn’t help when I needed to sell it though . I also had a crafted in Japan proper yngwie model that wasn’t signed . 

That sounds like a proper collector's item, shame you weren't able to hang on to it - at least until you were able to find a more enthusiastic buyer.

impmann

TBH, it really depends on the musician and the guitar - but just a signature, not used by them its not going to add much if anything. 

FWIW, I used to own Matt Deighton's psychedelic Tokai Strat - the one on the back cover of the first Mother Earth album that he used for all the early gigs (very cool). I was a big fan of Matt, Acid Jazz and all that so it meant a lot to me to own it - especially as I bought it from him personally. When I decided to part with it, the phone didn't exactly fall off the hook with enquiries and it ended up selling for not much more than a standard Tokai Super Edition Strat. I've got no idea where it is now, but its in a collection somewhere - and whilst I miss the idea of owning it, I don't really need it in my life. 

However, if it had been a busted up old SG with a replacement neck that some dodgy old slightly racist blues player a legendary blues-rock pioneer owned back in the day, I could have paid off the mortgage.

Philly_Q

impmann said:

However, if it had been a busted up old SG with a replacement neck that some dodgy old slightly racist blues player a legendary blues-rock pioneer owned back in the day, I could have paid off the mortgage.

Several mortgages, in fact.

icu81b4

I have a trans black EBMM EVH signed by the man himself back in 1996.