VISIONARY - Music Inc. Magazine

OKLAHOMA VINTAGE GUITAR I BY KATIE KAILUS
VINTAGE-FIED GUITARS
Bobby Boyles doesn’t
just sell vintage guitars.
He makes them.
Through a top-secret
process, Boyles,
owner of Oklahoma Vintage Guitar
in El Reno, Okla., can take a
new 1960 Les Paul reissue and
make it look like an original that’s
been broken in over 50 years.
“My goal is to take a guitar
from my vintage collection,
which spans from the 1840s to
the 1970s, and make the customer’s
reissue look like what
I have in my collection,” Boyles
said. “The [vintage customizing]
is one of the most fulfilling things
we do because not everyone can
do it.”
Since 1998, Boyles and two
other employees have been vintage-fying
guitars in the store’s
custom shop. Boyles said he got
started after receiving a bad
refinish job on one of his own
vintage axes.
“I learned how to take it, put
a new finish on it and make a
1957 Strat look like it was made
in 1957 and not refinished in
1987,” he said. “People started
seeing what I was doing to my
own collection and started asking
me to do that to their guitars.”
Roughly 25 percent of the
store’s business is generated by
or because of the custom shop. In
fact, Boyles said that a good portion
of business is created while
the custom shop clients wait for
their instruments. He believes a
professional repair shop keeps
customers in the store, boosting
retail traffic.
Plus, Boyles’ location, about
25 miles outside of the center
of Oklahoma City, encourages
browsing.
“If it’s going to take an hour
16 I MUSIC INC. I JULY 2011
Bobby Boyles
Roughly
25 percent of
Oklahoma
Vintage Guitar’s
business is
generated by,
or because of,
its custom
vintage shop
or two, the customers are going
to stay here in the city and wait,”
he said. “We sell a ton of guitars
to people who are sitting and
waiting for their old guitars to
get fixed. It helps tremendously.”
WORD OF MOUTH TRAVELS FAST
Boyles hasn’t advertised his
custom shop outside of the
store. But word of mouth alone
has kept Oklahoma Vintage Guitar
busy with about 100 models
coming in to be vintage-fied each
year.
“That comes out to be about
a couple a week, and that keeps
us extremely busy,” he said.
One way Boyles advertises
within the store is by merchandising
guitars for sale that have
already been vintage-fied.
“I’ve taken a few new Martins
and made them look like they
are mid-’50s guitars, and they
sell like crazy,” Boyles said.
He added that the store sells
many new guitars to vintage
guitar owners who want their
instruments replicated.
“If someone wants their
1953 Telecaster copied and they
don’t have the 1953 reissue, we
will sell them the relic to copy
their other one,” Boyles said.
“That is also heavy business
for us.”
Working on legendary artists’
guitars is an example of how
word-of-mouth can spread, according
to Boyles. While he won’t
name names, he did reveal that
many top country artists’ instruments
have passed through his
custom shop.
“We have had some big
names,” he said. “A lot of them
have us work on their guitars for
security purposes. They might
not want to parade their real
1960 Les Paul around, so they
play our customized one.”
SUPER-SECRET PROCESS
So what goes into making a
brand-new Martin look 50
years old? Boyles won’t explain
his secret process, which can cost
guitarists anywhere from $400–
$1,000, for fear someone might
copy it. But he will reveal how he
knows when a guitar is finished.
“When I lay their guitar out
and it looks just like the one in
my collection, and I have trouble
telling which is which, then I
know I am ready to give it back
to the customer,” he said.
And for the truly curious,
Boyles jokingly offered a less
high-tech method for “seasoning”
a guitar.
“I’ve got three boys,” he said.
“My youngest is 15 years old,
and the best way to make a new
guitar look nasty like this is to
tell him not to touch it. Turn
around, and in a couple hours,
it will look like this.” MI