Old-world craftsman, new-world tech

There was an interesting exchange on Robert Meyer’s vintage guitars Web site a while back. The headline (“Collecting Vintage Guitars is a Financially Sound Investment”) insistently summed it up. Then, as evidence, Meyer went on to spin tales of a 1959 Fender Sunburst Stratocaster ($250 new) now bringing $17,000. And Eric Clapton’s favorite Strat from the ’70s, which sold for almost a million.

“Values only continue to go up,” Meyer wrote. To which a commenter replied, “Yes, interesting, but with the credit crisis, where will the vintage market be in a year?”

Meyer published his article on Sept. 28, 2008. The next day Congress rejected the $700 billion bailout package and $1.2 trillion disappeared from the U.S. stock market. And now James R. Baker of Shoreham can tell you where the vintage guitar market is a year and a few months later.

“This year has been very hard,” he told me the other day. In fact, he said, “I’m not sure why I’ve survived all these years” while other guitar makers and restorers have gone out of business.

A big reason is that Baker learned early on the value of diversifying. Raised in Queens, he lived in Huntington in the ’70s and ’80s and worked in Manhattan for design companies, doing projects of every kind, including furniture.

At his first firm his boss drove home the eggs-in-many-baskets philosophy. “All it takes is a slowdown and you’re really in trouble,” he was catechized. “That’s why I still make furniture and do design work.”

With the ’80s recession he and his family moved to Shoreham, which he describes as “a wonderful place – so many creative people here.”

Now another recession is gnawing and Baker is again finding ways to survive. That involves a three-prong assault, with an eBay outlet for lower-end instruments, a Web site for his most avant-garde guitars and auction houses for historic pieces. It’s all backed up by his custom furniture work. Plus he’s working on a book, which, fittingly, is about managing creative work.

Other than guitars, that’s the subject Baker is hottest on: the financing struggle faced by creative people in a bottom-line world. If you have a pizza place, no problem, he fumes. But if you make rare guitars, you’re in a gray area, regardless of the fact that you’ve never missed a bill payment. “And don’t even get me started on ARC loans.”

His solution: Work even harder, leverage your house and use credit cards when necessary. “What else can you do?” he said.

Countering the economic angst is the beauty of the work, which is its own reward. Baker loves woodworking and his James R. Baker guitars, which sell in the $4,000 range, show it. He’s one of a smallish breed devoted to the survival of archtop guitars. But that’s not his only focus. “My favorite guitars are the instruments with a story,” he said. “I could give you a 15-minute history on almost every one in my collection.”

Such as his Mario Maccaferri guitar, one of the first made by plastic injection. No, it’s not a classic rosewood Martin, but it represents a watershed moment in guitar history. “He had the guts to invent the next generation,” prefiguring Ovation and the others, Baker said.

Not that he doesn’t have his own stash of magnificent old Martins and Gibsons, plus some very rare instruments, such as a 1790s Fabricatore, dating back to the guitar’s very beginnings.

What’s striking about it all is that such reverence for old-world craftsmanship can find a place in modern times. A Web site offering such gems is like a detour in a time machine.

Baker is excited about it and about reaching a new generation.

“Kids today are really amazing,” he said. “So smart, so quick to absorb new things. They don’t have the cultural boundaries my generation had.” In other words, they’re not locked into a Les Paul as the only guitar worth wanting. “They’re not attached to one look,” he said. “Their vistas are open wide.”

And so, despite the struggles and the recession, Baker is optimistic that his guitars will play on. An indicator: He’s only been marketing via the Internet a short while but already he’s sold six guitars.

Long Island Business News / December 29, 2009