Collecting vintage guitars has become big business, writes local musician and guitar collector PETER GRADWELL. Peter, 50, of Rishton, is studying media studies at Blackburn College and is member of revivalist group The Accrington Rockers.

THEY may not appear regularly on Antiques Roadshow but the market for vintage guitars has flourished over recent years.

The indisputable fact is that guitars have become collectable - as musical instruments, certainly, but also as historic objects, cultural icons or even pieces of industrial art.

Since the early 1960s, interest in vintage guitars - along with their values - has increased dramatically.

Prices for single instruments can range from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands.

A great worry to collectors is the guitar's originality. It should have no modification or restoration.

To the musician this seems absurd but modifications to make a guitar more playable - what a player really wants - instantly devalue it in the eyes of the collector.

So is a collectible guitar for play or showing?

Ideally, both should be possible. In 1990, a Fender Stratocaster once owned by Jimi Hendrix sold for almost £200,000.

A Hendrix fanatic, rather than a collector, bought it. This started a trend.

But in the same year a quite ordinary acoustic guitar, which once belonged to Buddy Holly, sold for £150.

This is because collectors in the main reject value-by-association and rely on quality, desirability among other collectors, age, condition and rarity.

Unfortunately, the musician's choice of guitar has, in the last few years, become fashionable among collectors, who have in their turn pushed the price to a level where most players cannot afford them. The Britpop boom of the 1990s is at least partly responsible.

The likes of the Gibson Les Paul Standard 1958/60 Flame-Tops are currently valued from £30,000 to a staggering £250,000.

There are also many fakes for the unwary buyer to beware of.

Age isn't everything in a guitar - it depends if it was a good instrument in the first place and how it has subsequently been treated.

Even modern quality guitars, like the Paul Reid Smith brand, are becoming collectable, despite being less than 10 years old.

So take care of your axe - and do your homework before making a big investment.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.