Vintage Jazzmaster Tort Value

[simonhpieman]

I've got some old tort on a 1970 Jazzmaster that I'm pretty sure isn't original to the guitar. Looks far more like early 60s tort to me than the later stuff which seemed a bit... tighter in terms of pattern? I'd appreciate a forum consensus on that opinion but either way I'm pretty confident it's old.

I'm likely swapping it out for a "white" guard and have no real affinity to the tort given it's not original to the guitar. But what are they actually worth these days? Is £300 about right? Doesn't seem right for me to leave it in a drawer attached to a board.

The tort in question:
1970 JM Tort

[AwesomeWelles]

Looks early 60s to me as well. By mid 60's the pattern was less blurry, later 60s was the meatball type.

[AwesomeWelles]

For comparison:

'65 tort guard


DSC09410 by Lars Fred, auf Flickr

20160412_085555 by Lars Fred, auf Flickr


late 60's tort


20160229_140008 by Lars Fred, auf Flickr

[simonhpieman]

Thanks man, yes, less blurry is a great description!

[Axolotl]

Definitely an early 60s guard. £300 sounds about right, compared to crazy ebay/reverb prices.

[Gonkulator]

That's definitely vintbage tort! Nice coloring too.

[rexter]

Looks very similar to a 63/64 guard I bought and sold about 7 years ago. That lovely orangey/fuzzy look.

[simonhpieman]

Looks very similar to a 63/64 guard I bought and sold about 7 years ago. That lovely orangey/fuzzy look.

That might make sense actually. Do you remember who you sold it to (and for roughly how much if it's not impertinent to ask?).

It was put on a 1970 JM that was restored from all over thick poly white to a much more tasteful LPB refin, all of which was happening around that sort of time.

Good to hear from you as well, mate. Hope you're good!

[Mechanical Birds]

Holy shit that’s beautiful

[rexter]

Looks very similar to a 63/64 guard I bought and sold about 7 years ago. That lovely orangey/fuzzy look.

That might make sense actually. Do you remember who you sold it to (and for roughly how much if it's not impertinent to ask?).

It was put on a 1970 JM that was restored from all over thick poly white to a much more tasteful LPB refin, all of which was happening around that sort of time.

Good to hear from you as well, mate. Hope you're good!

hey Si, yeah all good thanks, hope you are too!

Found the old listing from my Reverb account, don't think it's the same guard though. Looks like I sold it for £220 seven years ago.
I bought it along with the full original 1964 wiring harness and shield on ebay shortly before that, probably for around £200. Someone was parting out a 1964 JM (feel bad for them!).

This is the one:


Looks like I sold the guard for £220 and the harness and shield for £260.

If I was selling an unshrunken 1964 tort guard now I'd work on the price having doubled since 2017, things as they are. I think £300 would be a good deal for someone I knew or through this forum but if I was selling on the wider market I'd probably stick it up for £500 and see what offers I got.

[AwesomeWelles]

These really don't come up for sale that often but a few months back there was one in Germany that sold for €500 if that helps

[simonhpieman]

Thanks guys, that's really, really useful. I do have the shield as well but the guard has shrunk just a tad over the years.

Definitely not the same guard, either

I'm actually on the fence about selling it now as I know I'll never fork out for another in future, but it WOULD pay for my JM to have a decent refin... Plus lavaguards and such are VERY good these days...

I'll update with a hammer price if I do decide to move it on. Thanks all!