It’s been a big year at Joel’s Vintage
Guitars with operations full steam ahead after the showroom opened in
Gladesville, Sydney. 

In late May, we travelled up to Brisbane for the
annual vintage guitar show there. The show is a great way to catch up with
other dealers and meet keen players and collectors, while having the
opportunity to showcase our latest stock. We met lots of new friends over the
two days and managed to sell four incredible pieces to some happy customers
including a 1953 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, a 1963 Gibson ES335TDC, a 1966 Fender
Telecaster, and a 2006 Fender Eric Clapton Masterbuilt Stratocaster.  After a successful weekend we made the journey
home with more than a dozen extra instruments as well. The Brisbane trip is one
we love doing, and we hope we get the chance to do it again next year.

We have had a busy 2 months since the store
opened here, with dozens of vintage and used instruments finding new homes – however
there’s one sale we had in June that we want to share with you all. One of our
favourite things about vintage guitars is the history and stories that come
with each instrument. Each one has its own tale to tell – most, we will never
even get to know and will forever remain a mystery. Early last month, by absolute
chance, we managed to reunite a 1976 Fender Stratocaster hardtail with the
family of its original owner over 40 years after it left them.

A few weeks earlier a regular customer of mine
Mark Evans traded this guitar in at the store– and it lucked out, that the
moment we advertised the guitar on social media, Dan, the son of the original
owner of the guitar saw our ad and recognized it immediately. Dan raced down to
the store the next day – where he was reunited with his father’s guitar 40
years after it was sold.

It's moments like these that make the job. The
look on Dan’s face was priceless. This exact guitar was the one Dan first
learnt to play on and searched for decades for after his father made the hard
decision to sell it in the 1980s. The guitar was more than just a musical
instrument to him and his family, it was a sentimental memory of his father
that couldn’t be replaced, after his father sadly passed away a few years ago.
It was such an incredible experience to be a part of Dan’s reunion with it, and
we are so glad that here at Joel’s Vintage Guitars we had even a small role to
play in helping Dan find his father’s beloved guitar – just an amazing day.

Things don’t seem to be slowing down here at the
shop – keep an eye out for new items being updated regularly to the website as
stock is constantly being refreshed. Until next time– Joel and the team

May/June Highlights

We are excited to announce the opening of a new Joel’s Vintage Guitars showroom in Gladesville in Sydney’s northwest.

Our stock includes a wide array of vintage and used guitars from brands like Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, Gretsch and more. We offer a personalized buying, and selling experience and are strictly by appointment only.

The showroom is within walking distance of a selection of other guitar stores, making Gladesville a must visit for any guitarist in Sydney.

Checkout a bunch of new listings now live on our website, with a select range of vintage and used amplifiers that will be available in the coming weeks. 

We also now offer the ability to purchase directly through our website.

Contact us today to book an appointment 🎸

New Sydney Showroom - April 2025

Towards the end of the 1960s Fender had a significant amount of experimentation going on, including multiple new variations of the Telecaster being released. One of these variations is the original Rosewood Fender Telecasters made between 1968, and 1971.


Initially only a handful of Rosewood telecasters were made, being designed by Roger Rossmeisl, who previously worked for Rickenbacker, and built by Fender luthier Phil Kubicki. The most well documented example of this model being the one George Harrison used for the Beatle’s last public performance on the rooftop of the Apple headquarters in London, 1969.


Below we have a pair from 1969, on the right is a genuine first production run Rosewood Telecaster, and on the left is a very unusual example featuring a factory ash body and neck stained to appear like Rosewood.


This guitar most likely originated from Fender's research and development department, probably as an experiment with different woods due to the issues Fender experienced making those first Rosewood Telecasters in 1968. 

As mentioned, a unique aspect to this guitar is that it has a factory ash body and NECK. From my research I cannot find any documented Fender guitars from the 1960s with an ash neck, making this a real anomaly.


As you can see both the body and neck have been stained to appear like Rosewood, afterwards having had a clearcoat of polyurethane lacquer much like the other real Rosewood telecaster, or any other Fender guitar of that time period.


Here you can see the neck is stamped ‘special’, instead of having the usual date stamp. Despite being made of ash, the same jig holes in the neck heel and between the tuners are present. Unfortunately, due to the unstable nature of ash as a neck timber, the rosewood fingerboard was replaced due to extensive damage from previous movement. Luckily the work was done professionally, and therefore the guitar plays very well.


Here you can see the typical finish specifications of the era, involving a flattened piece of pipe being affixed to the neck pocket to apply the final clearcoat.

A close-up showing the remnants of the original headstock decal, though faint. It appears to only say ‘Fender’, much like the actual Rosewood Telecaster.


Other specifications that you typically see on this era of telecaster are present including pots dating to 1966, in this case the 34

 week, a patent # stamped bridge plate, Fender ‘F’ tuners, and the filled dowels down the centre of the body just like a standard model.


 Photo credit: Well Strung Guitars, Farmingdale. NY

Interesting to note, I was close to posting this article when a very similar example was shared by Well Strung Guitars in NY, USA. It appears this other example has a rosewood neck, having come from Bill Carson who was closely associated with Fender.


This means there are at least 2 examples known to have this stained finish on an ash body, which begs the question of how many were actually made?


After reading their article on this guitar and speaking to the store about Rosewood Telecasters, im told there were issues preparing and finishing the rosewood, which may explain why these guitars were made with lightweight ash.


Despite not knowing the full story of how this instrument came to be, it still represents an interesting slice of CBS Fender history. Considering this is the only ash neck Fender I can find from the vintage era, I am proud to share some information on this rare instrument with you all!


This guitar is now available, for more information checkout the listing attached.

Fender Telecaster 1969 Rosewood/Ash Prototype

To start off 2024, I will now be sharing with you all some special vintage guitars from collectors all over Australia. 

Note that these guitars are often not for sale, however are very much worth sharing!




Some of my favourite guitars and amps were built by Fender Electric Instrument Company between 1950 and 1965 in Fullerton, California. Just recently I was able to meet up with a long time collector here in Sydney who has an epic Fender guitar and amp collection. 



We managed to get some fantastic photos of original pre-CBS and early CBS Fender guitars and amps from their collection, and my store. Checkout some of the examples below... 

'52 Esquire Refinish, '52 Telecaster Refinish, '58 Telecaster Blonde, '62 Brown Vibrolux 

'55 2-tone sunburst w ash body, '61 3-tone sunburst w slab board, '63 3-tone sunburst, '63 Fiesta Red over sunburst, '64 Candy Apple Red w 4ply pickguard, '67 3-tone sunburst

'55 Stratocaster, '61 Stratocaster, '63 Stratocaster, '65 Fiesta Red Jaguar, '62 Brown Princeton, '58 Tweed Deluxe, '58 Tweed Bassman

'63 Stratocaster Fiesta Red over sunburst, '64 Stratocaster Candy Apple Red w 4 ply pickguard, '67 Stratocaster 3-tone sunburst, '66 Electric XII Candy Apple Red, '51 Tweed Deluxe, '67 Princeton Reverb, '59 Tweed Bassman, '55 Tweed Twin

Joel's Vintage

Recent Listings

Fender Stratocaster 1963 Sunburst Refinish

Fender Precision Bass 1965 Lake Placid Blue Refi...

Gibson Les Paul Deluxe 1971 Goldtop

Fender Jaguar 1965 Sunburst

Gibson 'The Paul' 1978 Walnut

Fender Esquire 1966 Blonde Refinish

Mosrite Ventures II 1965 Sunburst

Heritage H-150DLX 1991 Cherry Sunburst

Price Drops

Epiphone Coronet 1965 Cherry

Gretsch 6122 Chet Atkins Country Gentleman 1972

Gibson ES300 1946 Sunburst

Gibson Custom Les Paul Axcess Standard 2010

Fender Champion Lapsteel 1952

Gibson Les Paul Junior 1991 Black Custom Order

Gibson SG Junior 1965 Cherry w Stamford Case

Fender Custom Shop '72 Telecaster Custom 2013 Bl...

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May/June Highlights

New Sydney Showroom - April 2025

Fender Telecaster 1969 Rosewood/Ash Prototype

Fender Electric Instrument Company

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