That guitar collectors are a conser-vative lot has always struck me as curious. You’d think that the instrument which “killed fascists,” in the immortal Woody Guthrie’s phrase, would inspire a more progressive attitude, at the very least. But no, most folks would like a ’50s Les Paul. Who could blame them? But some of us may question whether or not there’s thousands of dollars worth of pleasure in these guitars, especially when, for that amount of money you can have ten, twenty, even more guitars which are pretty interesting.

Even