Ok i have a 1977 Antoria Stratocaster made in Japan, its exactly the same as an Ibanez - ash body maple neck etc
Owned it since 1981 ish and paid £21 back in the day.
Now i see the same guitar with Ibanez on the headstock selling for £700 and ghe Antoria for less than half that.
So folks do you think its worth spending a bit of cash on a refurb (probably £300 quid + as it will need a refret) orshould i leave it on the wall
Does it play how you want it...
Do you like it...
Does it actually need a refret or just levelling and crowning?
Personally after 40 years of playing it if answers 1 and 2 were yes i'd be ignoring the cost and looking forward to the next 40.
It plays well to be fair so i think its going to get done up.
It will do another 40 years... me on the other hand?
take it to a decent guitar tech and ask their opinion, unless you've gigged it to death for 40yrs I bet a fret dress may be enough - is there big gouges in the frets? are they already very low?
Guitars are very long-lived, sentimental things IMO. They don't wear out in the same way as most stuff, they wear in - and it's often worth spending money on something that's important to you.
If you're doing it up to sell it, then give it the bare minimum and get shot.
But if it means something to you, and you want it to be its best, then by all means splurge. There's a huge difference between value and cost 🙂
My Father has an Antoria “Gibson Dove” acoustic. It was far nicer than any Gibson I’ve seen or played.
If you like it then a refret and or a bit of TLC from a good guitar tech will mean it’ll be good for another 40 years.
There’s been a lot of interest in classic Japanese guitars of late. It will only go up in value.
i leave it on the wall
I think you should take it off the wall and play it.
OP I'm in exactly the same predicament, only I have an early 70s SG copy with bigsby wammy. It's been sitting on my wall for I don't know how long. I've not seen a similar looking Antoria ever.
Again to make it playable needs some work, as well a re-fret it suffers from the usual bigsby tuning issues.
I would like to get rid of it as Mrs asbrooks says I have too many hanging on the wall. Plus the others on stands. I'm struggling to see her point..
Incidentally the 70's Antorias where made in the same factory as Ibenez guitars
Yes my strat has the same catalogue number as the ibanez and the same production run numbers, i have actually had an ibanez and my antoria in the same room and bar the headstock sticker they are identical.
But the ibanez fetches twice the money?