The Apple Music Museum of Rare and Vintage Musical Instruments

What’s the deal with all those cool
old guitars that are not for sale?

As you look around the shop you will see a couple hundred old guitars, amps, synths, banjos, mandolins, and ukuleles that are part of Apple Music’s vintage collection. Most of these instruments arrived, one at a time, through the front door over the last four decades. I never started out trying to collect instruments: it was serendipitous. I was just crazy about the old stuff and Apple’s customers were equally enamored. Some musicians traded or sold them to Apple Music because they knew they could revisit them at any time.

Kelly, at age 20, a working musician at the time, showing off a couple of his guitars - guitars he still owns and hang at Apple Music.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, my penchant for collecting old instruments began in 1960 when I bought my first used (1956) gold top Gibson Les Paul. I traded in my used Airline guitar and paid about $25.00 difference - no small sum to me at the time. People ask me which guitar is my favorite, and I guess on purely sentimental terms it is the ’56 gold top that hangs in the shop today. Originally, I never put much thought into the value of these instruments. I kept what I liked best. Like most musicians I let some fine instruments pass through my hands - in winter of 1968 in Eugene I sold my ’54 Fender Strat to pay to keep the heat on and I sold my ’63 Gibson Firebird to Brian Setzer. Some of the instruments have a famous past, like the Fender ’63 Jazz Bass that was used on the Chantay’s 1963 recording of Pipeline and Heck Harper’s 1948 Gibson J200. Heck was a local TV personalty in the 1950’s.

Most good vintage instruments either ended up in private collections (many overseas) not visible to the public, were customized or just worn out by pragmatic hardworking musicians. As you may be aware - there are no fully original Stradivarius violins in existence today. While there are some good books on vintage instruments in print - there are few places where admirers can take a trip down memory lane. Please enjoy the collection and if you have any questions we’ll be glad to share what we know.

Our customers are still enjoying these instruments

so they are not for sale.

Here is a small sample of guitars in the museum.  Stop by the store to see the collection.

We've categorized the guitars by brand. Use the links below to browse.

Dan Armstrong
Dean

Epiphone
Fender
Gibson
Gretsch

Mosrite
Rickenbacker

Others