Vintage Verified founders Jon Roncolato (left) and Zach Ziemer
We don’t often talk about Renaissance high art and ’50s rock ’n’ roll guitars in the same breath, unless we’re forming a new rockabilly-prog band called Hot-Rod Maximus. (You’re welcome.) But in the modern world of art and guitar collecting, items reputed to be the work of either Leonardo Da Vinci or Leo Fender are subject to much the same scrutiny from experts in the field, are known for fetching vast prices from discriminating buyers, and, given the millions of dollars potentially involved in even a single sale, are likewise expected to stand up to the most rigorous high-tech scientific analysis, as well. Right?
Well, almost. While the worlds of high art, medicine, astronomy, police forensics, and environmentalism have all taken that last cue to heart by making data-driven determinations with the latest tools of chemical analysis, the vintage guitar market—and its many rightfully respected authorities—has generally proven resistant to sharing the process of authentication with the likes of spectrometers, microscopes, and 3D imaging, tools that have long proven their worth in identifying the material composition of everything from planets to polyps to paint thinners. Black lights on the backs of headstocks have typically been about the latest “tech" in the room.
Until now. In a story that feels ripped from The Da Vinci Code or Cold Case Files, two remarkably down-to-earth—if undeniably intrepid—guitar-shop guys from Nashville, Jon Roncolato and Zach Ziemer, have quietly upended the vintage-guitar market in a matter of months. Fueled by rotating batches of fresh-ground coffee, an abundance of nerve, and a stomach for study, they’ve tapped some of the most advanced and expensive analytical machines available to capture, catalog, and compare hundreds of thousands of data points from countless vintage and modern instruments—their lacquers, pigments, pots, pegs, pickups, and parts—building the largest dataset for guitar-component and finish comparison in existence.
In the process, they’ve issued a gentle nudge to dealers, appraisers, and collectors—and yes, they’ve even shifted the status of some long-held vintage “treasures.” Although they no longer appraise or sell instruments themselves, they’ve still managed to ruffle a few feathers and attract more than a few legal threats. At the same time, they’ve leveraged their diligence and strong reputations to assemble a trusted advisory team made up of some of the most respected minds in guitars, art, and hard science: icons like repair guru Joe Glaser, cultural-heritage scientist Dr. Tom Tague (who authenticated Da Vinci’s “lost masterpiece” Salvator Mundi), Music City session legend Tom Bukovac, pickup mastermind Ron Ellis, and analytical chemist Dr. Gene Hall, among others.
Vintage Duco reference/research materials
Jon and Zach are guarded about the technology, as you might expect. They don’t post selfies, they don’t have a podcast, and they won’t be starting one. As Ziemer puts it, they’d much rather “keep our heads down and keep hammering away” with laser-based spectrometers, plumb the deepest secrets of Fullerton red Strats, and compare the chemical makeup of Duco paints (ironically, both Pollock and Fender’s mutual go-to.) In their scrupulously clean Nashville HQ—which will expand to offices in L.A. and N.Y.C. in 2026—they seem pretty resigned to their current controversial status, and remain motivated primarily by going after, y'know, the truth.
Okay, that and a good cup of coffee.
What was the genesis of this idea to apply these types of cultural heritage sciences to vintage guitars? Is the problem with inaccuracies, refinishes, and forgeries really that widespread?
Jon Roncolato: We met while I was the GM at Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville. We initially hired Zach as part of the inspection team. It’s difficult to find people who have logged enough time examining vintage instruments to truly know what they’re looking at, but Zach had spent a couple years at Glaser Instruments—the go-to shop for repairs on high-dollar pieces.
When Zach became Head of Authentication, we began seeing questionable instruments come through with six-figure price tags that other experts had already signed off on. When you have a six-figure instrument and multiple experts all saying different things, you’ve got a problem. That’s when we realized there had to be a better way to do this—something grounded in science, not speculation.
Zach Ziemer: Everybody misses now and again. Most dealers are trying their absolute hardest with their experience, eye, and gut to tell an original from a fake or a refin. There’s simply some things you just can’t know unless you look at them with the kinds of tools that we’re bringing to the table. And it shouldn’t be that controversial: after all, literally every other collectible industry has a third party unassociated service like ours. The most obvious one is PSA with collectible sports cards. PSA is a little different than it used to be, but everybody still sees a sports card and a PSA box and if it says, “PSA 9,” for instance, you know you’re probably in good shape.
“In the art world, scientific validation has long been standard practice—pigment analysis, canvas fiber studies, dimensional scans. Sometimes it changes the story. That’s not an attack on tradition. It’s the pursuit of truth.” —George Gruhn, Gruhn Guitars
Jon Roncolato: In the art world, if you don’t have both iron-clad provenance and scientific analysis, it’s not possible to certify a piece as unequivocally “by the hand” of a given artist. Art dealers are very specific about their language, and there’s a whole hierarchy of degrees of certainty that directly correlate to the price of the piece. In the world of dealing guitars, though, even if you’re not 100% sure, you have to absolutely stake all your credibility on a guitar, even if there’s some doubt. You're not going to sell a $250,000 custom color Fender if you come out and say, “Well, I think it's a custom color. It looks good to me.” So that's just been the structure of the industry. Being in the underbelly of the whole thing, as we were, we realized what a big problem this was.
There must have been a ridiculous learning curve. You guys are guitar dudes, not scientists. Takes a bit of brass to bite off something like that, no?
Jon Roncolato: We have a framed quote in the kitchen from Wilbur Wright: "There are two ways of learning to ride a fractious horse: one is to get on him and learn by actual practice how each motion and trick may be best met. The other is to sit on a fence and watch the beast awhile, and then retire to the house." We chose the former.
That said, we spent the first year and a half offering no services at all—just studying the science. That included week-long training seminars where everyone but us had a doctorate attached to their name, and consulting with the top experts in the cultural heritage field.
We also didn’t get here alone. We caught a major break by connecting with Dr. Tom Tague and Dr. Gene Hall, two of the world’s leading experts in analytical chemistry. They took us under their wing and gave us a crash course in PhD-level material analysis.
Zach Ziemer: I can't even express how difficult it was to make heads or tails of any of this at first. Jon and I were not chemists, and a lot of what we do now is largely analytical chemistry. So the learning curve on that was incredibly steep. We always joked that we were smart enough to have the idea, but dumb enough to think we could do it. And while this process exists in other industries, the finished instrument industry is totally unique. The instruments are so modular, and you have finishes, plastics, hardware, pickups, and so you have to have an answer for all that information.
Jon Roncolato: That’s right. The process is designed to have an answer for anything and everything on the instrument. The headstock decals, the finish, the hardware, the fret wire, the fingerboard inlays—we have a data-driven answer for everything. That was really critical, because we didn't want to give incomplete information. Another absolutely critical principle for us was that anything we put in one of these reports has to be defensible in court. If we get subpoenaed to go to court, which inevitably we will, we need to know that Zach or I can show up and we can defend this and prove this. Our other guiding principle is that we remain completely independent, and not touch the buying and selling of the instruments.
“Vintage Verified is doing what we couldn’t do 20 years ago. They’re bringing in real tools—from forensics, from art conversation, from aerospace—and applying them to guitars. And it’s not about replacing experience. It’s about supporting it.” —Joe Glaser, Glaser Guitars
The workshop
Fair enough. So, what’s the most difficult or highly sensitive area of your analysis?
Jon Roncolato: Finish is easily the most complicated part of what we do, an absolute maze of information, and it’s also where you see the biggest value swings. Traditionally, if a guitar’s been refinished, the rule of thumb is that it cuts the value in half. Nowadays, it probably cuts the value by 40%. But if you start talking about custom colors, like a Fender Sonic Blue Strat, or the Fullerton red we have in our lab right now, this Strat here is probably a $250,000 Strat, assuming the finish is original. If the finish is, in fact, not legitimate, then potentially you’re looking at a $20,000 Strat.
And to determine this, you don’t just need that guitar’s own fingerprint, if you will, but you need to be able to conduct comparative analysis against a bulwark of trustworthy data. Where does that come from?
Jon Roncolato: We’ve been very fortunate to have guys like Joe Glaser and George Gruhn in our corner, who put their own cred on the line to help us scan and analyze literally thousands of vintage guitars, plus Dr. Gene Hall, whose work decoding Jackson Pollock paintings means he has the largest collection and database of period-correct Duco, Ditzler, R-M, Sherwin Williams, etc. paints on the planet, the same paints Fender used in their golden era. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. We now have millions of data points across several different machines, a good $500,000 worth of spectrometers alone. We spent eight hours a day, all day, every day, collecting data as much as we possibly could.
So is it very much a one-to-one comparison? “This finish’s chemical composition is true to the year this guitar purports to be, so we’re good”? Or is it more complex than that?
Zach Ziemer: A little of both. Sure, the data that I just grabbed matches the aggregate of the given model/era pretty well, so therefore we can say with a high degree of certainty that it’s a period-correct material. But what really blew the doors open for us was when we got past that level, and started to have a fundamental understanding of these lacquer formulations, how various formulations over time were degrading, and how the different components in a lacquer formulation—plasticizers, pigments, etc.—all interact and evolve. How did those components morph over time?
If the government set regulations, what was the regulation attached to? If you look at a spectrum of a given lacquer, you’ll have hundreds of chemical compounds. A ton of information in there. What we had to do was figure out which chemical compounds were going to be chief identifiers of who was using what, and when. Building out this timeline for the major manufacturers was the bulk of our work, just as much as developing an understanding of the complexity of the materials. In other words, the data is only valuable if you understand the materials that are producing the data.
You’ve encountered some backlash, and even dealers who later became supporters initially had their lawyers on the phone. What’s your message to dealers, appraisers, collectors, working players, and the business as a whole?
Jon Roncolato: We knew there would be a significant amount of skepticism and backlash early on, just as there always is around a new service or technology. It’s like the wagon wheel salesman in the age of the automobile. Zach and I think they’ll come around eventually. One positive aspect of our service is that it allows buyers who would otherwise not feel comfortable spending large amounts of money on a piece to now buy with confidence. For years, many people at the top of the market wouldn’t buy custom color Fenders, wouldn’t buy Flying Vs. Because they were largely under the impression that many of them are refins or counterfeit pieces. So, already we’ve seen that many of these people who previously were not buying custom colors, bursts, or whatever, are now joining that market again because they have the trust that these are authentic.
Zach Ziemer: Our mission is to make sure that the data and the information we provide is absolutely correct. That’s our lane. We're not the guitar police. We are not policing transactions, and we do not appraise or assign any type of valuation, monetary or otherwise, to any instrument, ever. We’re hoping that we can help dealers begin to understand that this is designed to be an asset. It’s designed to help you protect yourself. And look, as soon as we print out a report, and I hand it to you, you can throw it in the garbage if you want. But it’s an option for you. Ultimately, it’s something that we believe helps give people the confidence to buy and sell high-value instruments, and know exactly what they’re getting.
Khruangbin is a band that moves freely in negative space. They don’t deal in negative vibes, mind you, but the spaces in between objects—or in music, between notes and tones. In Khruangbin’s case, negative space isn’t quite as empty as it seems. In fact, a lot of it is colored with reverberated overtones, which is an aesthetic well suited to Mark Speer’s instrument of choice. Because if you want to color negative space without being a space hog, there are few better means than a Stratocaster.
Speer’s signature Stratocaster, is not, in the strictest sense, a classically Strat-like specimen. Its bridge and neck pickups, after all, are DiMarzio Pro Track humbuckers, with a design informed more by PAFs than Fender single coils. Nor is it modeled after a priceless rarity. Speer’s main guitar is a humble ’72 Stratocaster reissue from the early 2000’s. But the Speer signature Stratocaster is a thought-provoking twist on classic “Stratocaster-ness,” and one well-suited to the atmospherics that mark Khruangbin’s music, but also soul, reggae, jazz, and any other expression where clarity and substance are critical.
Mr. Natural Takes It In Stride
I have to admit—and no doubt some of you will disagree—for most of my life, as an early- to mid-1960s-oriented aesthete, an all-natural-finished Strat with an oversized headstock looked flat-out wrong. My opinion on the matter has softened a bit since. And I think the Speer Stratocaster is beautiful, elegant, and does much the flatter the Strat profile. The pronounced grain in the ash body is lovely, and it certainly doesn’t reflect the drop in ash quality that many feared when ash-boring beetles started to decimate swamp ash supplies. It also looks great against the milk-white single-ply white pickguard and all-white knobs (another nice study in negative space).
Elsewhere, many features are authentically 1972. The 1-piece, 3-bolt maple neck with a 7.25" fretboard radius boasts a micro-neck-adjust feature as well as the practical and cool-looking bullet truss rod. The tuners also feature early ’70s-styled machine covers. The neck itself feels great—slightly less chunky, perhaps, than early ’70s Strats I’ve played, and, oddly, not worlds apart from the neck on my Mexico-made ’72 Telecaster Deluxe, which has a much flatter 12" radius. Some of the similarities in feel may have to do with the jumbo frets, which here give the gloss urethane fretboard a slinky, easy touch. Less delicate players (like me) who tend to squeeze when chording should check out the Speer before purchasing to make sure they don’t pull everything sharp. The frets do make string bends feel breezy, though. Other details, apart from the jumbo frets, that deviate a bit from 1972 Fender spec include a bone nut and Graphtec saddles and string trees.
Warmth of the Sun
The DiMarzio Pro Tracks dwell in an interesting tone space. They’re built with ceramic magnets (vintage Strat and Gibson PAFS were made with alnico magnets) with a resistance of about 7.7 k ohms, which is in the range of a vintage PAF humbucker but hotter than most vintage Stratocaster pickups. In terms of tone signature, they sound and respond a little more like PAFs than Stratocaster pickups, too, which aligns with DiMarzio’s design objectives. But in the neck pickup in particular, the Strat-iness is very present. And when I switched back and forth between a Stratocaster and PAF-equipped SG as baselines for comparison, I marveled at how well the DiMarzios retained qualities of both. It’s hard to know how much Fender’s 25 1/2" scale factors into lending the extra bit of Fender color. But the sound is distinctly, authentically, Speer-like. (For the record, I replicated much of Speer’s circa 2018 signal chain for this test, including a Fender Deluxe Reverb, Dunlop Cry Baby, Boss PH-3 and DS-1, MXR DynaComp, and a Echoplex-style pedal).
The PAF qualities of the DiMarzios are most pronounced in the bridge pickup, which is much burlier and thicker than a Stratocaster single coil. The one single coil on the guitar meanwhile, the middle pickup, will sound and feel familiar to any old-school Stratocaster player. It’s also perfect for chasing Jerry Garcia tones if you’re selecting the Speer for its likeness to Jer’s “Alligator.” The real treat among the Speer’s many sounds, though, is the number 4 position, which combines the neck pickup and middle pickup out of phase. It’s snarky, super-focused, and just a little bit nasty, especially with overdrive and treble bump from either a wah, OD, or boost pedal.
The Verdict
For those players who fall in love with the comfort, feel, and looks of a Stratocaster, only to find it a bit thin-sounding for their purposes, the Mark Speer Stratocaster is an intriguing option. The humbuckers deftly thread the needle between Stratocaster and PAF tonalities, with a distinct lean toward the latter, and the out-of-phase number 4 position is a cool sound that lends the Speer Strat expansive smooth-to-nasty range. Like so many Mexico-made Fenders, the quality is superb. And while the $1,499 price tag represents a Signature Series bump compared to the similar $1,209 Vintera II ’70s Stratocaster, the Speer’s extra tone range and ash body do a lot to soften any sticker shock. If the options here fit your style, it could be well worth the extra dollars.
Like the Silver Sky, the NF 53 revealed Paul Reed Smith’s deep reverence for classic Fullerton designs and curiosity about how to expand on those templates. 2023’s NF 53 release left us impressed, and it was only a matter of time until an offshore-built SE model followed. That time has come: The SE NF 53 is here, dressed in the same lines and livery as the USA-built model, but at a more affordable price point thanks to PRS-licensed and supervised manufacturing by the Cor-Tek Musical Instrument Co. in Indonesia.
Like the NF 53, the SE model is more a riff on the Telecaster theme than a copy. Unburdened by tradition, PRS carved away at every line of the single-cutaway form, and the electronics are very much about enhancing versatility, rather than reducing componentry to the absolute basics. Even so, the SE NF 53 still drips with Tele-ness.
Single-Cut Minded
T-style traditionalists will find much that feels familiar, like the 25.5" scale length and bolt-on maple neck. From there, though, the SE NF 53 deviates from vintage T-style spec pretty quickly. There are 22 medium-jumbo frets, and the neck is constructed with a scarf joint that increases strength at the headstock break. The maple fretboard is sliced away from the neck and reglued after installation of the truss rod. Its width at the nut falls between Gibson and Fender camps at 1 41/64". The 10" radius also splits the difference between vintage Gibson and Fender specs, and it all feels great in hand courtesy of a rounded-C profile that measures about .87" deep at the first fret. The guitar’s overall weight is around 8.1 lbs.
In Telecaster style, the SE NF 53’s body is made from swamp ash—in this case, using 3-piece construction. It features belly and forearm contours, and a contoured cutaway for easier upper-fret access. PRS maximized the drama of the ash’s distinctive grain with a white doghair finish on our review sample, and black grain filler makes the wide, rippling lines pop and weave beneath the white. They reverse the effect entirely on the black doghair version, and hide the grain entirely on the pearl white finish.
In the hardware department, the SE NF 53’s bridge nods to a vintage Telecaster’s brass barrel saddles, but it uses a steel-base design with string-anchor notches rather than through-body stringing. It also deviates from T-style tradition by assigning three strings to a saddle with two adjustment bolts, rather than three saddles with two strings each.
Like the USA model before it, the SE NF 53 is fitted with a pair of PRS’s Narrowfield DD pickups, although these are the “S” variant, which are designed to enhance low-end tones while retaining snarl and twang. The “DD” stands for deep dish, meaning these single-coil-sized humbuckers are made with deep bobbins to enable extra coil windings, using a mix of magnet pole pieces with steel poles in between. They are wired through master volume and tone controls and a three-way selector switch on a plate that nods toward the late ’60s Fender Telecaster Thinline.
Taken together, the SE NF 53 is a cohesive design, made stronger by its robust build quality. There’s no real lack of refinement in evidence when compared to the USA model. Some of the woods and components are a different grade, but the overall result is a guitar that lends a sense of confidence.
Field Day
Plugged into a Fender Bassman head and 2x12 cab, a Vox AC15 1x12 combo, and a Fractal FM9 into headphones, the guitar reveals a genuine alternative to the T-style formula suggested by its components. Its character is distinctly its own—and with noticeably less hum.
The Narrowfield DD “S” pickups play a big part in the guitar’s success. The easiest reference point I can think of might be a blend of Telecaster and P-90 tonalities, but with plenty of their own thing going on. With a clean amp or setting there’s a meaty growl on top of the twang. Yet the guitar isn’t short on bright, sparkly chime, and sounds alive in those frequencies without being strident or spikey. This sonic foundation puts edge-of-breakup tones right in the SE NF 53’s wheelhouse, where the chewy bite segues into a little bit of breakup when you hit it hard. And it’s just as comfortable with high-gain tones, where the same sonic characteristics that contribute sweetness in cleaner settings enable clarity and cutting power while avoiding harshness in the highs. In fact, the guitar is at home in so many settings, sharing a Telecaster’s versatility and its effortless ability to handle almost anything with style.
The Verdict
The NF 53 platform is a very likeable tribute to the seminal T-style without trying to replicate it and, as a result, it’s versatile and inspiring guitar in its own right and in its way. And in the SE version of this design it delivers at a price that belies its vocabulary and its confidence.
Vintage spirit and looks live in a Telecaster and Stratocaster with contemporary refinements at every turn.
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage 50s Telecaster
Representing the pinnacle of innovation and craftsmanship, Fender American Ultra Luxe sets the benchmark for premium electric instruments. The new American Ultra Luxe Vintage series takes it a step further, showcasing the finest of Fender heritage – where timeless classics meet uncompromising modern refinement. The American Ultra Luxe Vintage 50s Telecaster features premium ash with carved contours that complement the aged Heirloom™ lacquer finish. Built for precision performance, the quartersawn maple neck with a Modern ‘D’ shape and Ultra rolled edges features medium jumbo stainless- steel frets, Luminlay side dots, and a Graph Tech TUSQ nut. Each instrument features a tapered neck heel to ensure unparalleled access to the higher register. Under the hood, Pure Vintage ’51 Tele pickups deliver classic Fender tones, from sparkling cleans to rich, expressive leads. Performance hardware includes a precision-engineered 6-saddle string-though-body bridge with brass block saddles and deluxe locking short post tuners for quick string changes and superior tuning stability. The American Ultra Luxe Vintage 50s Telecaster delivers flawless modern performance with distinctive classic design. Available in Butterscotch Blonde and White Blonde.
Fender American Ultra Luxe Vintage 60s Stratocaster
Representing the pinnacle of innovation and craftsmanship, Fender American Ultra Luxe sets the benchmark for premium electric instruments. The new American Ultra Luxe Vintage series takes it a step further, showcasing the finest of Fender heritage – where timeless classics meet uncompromising modern refinement. The American Ultra Luxe Vintage 60s Stratocaster features premium alder with carved contours that complement the aged Heirloom lacquer finish. Built for precision performance, the quartersawn maple neck with a Modern ‘D’ shape and Ultra rolled edges features medium jumbo stainless- steel frets, Luminlay side dots, and a Graph Tech TUSQ nut. Each instrument features a tapered neck heel to ensure unparalleled access to the higher register. Under the hood, Pure Vintage ’61 Strat delivers classic Fender tones, from sparkling cleans to rich, expressive leads. Performance hardware includes a precision-engineered 2-Point American Ultra synchronized tremolo with polished stainless steel block saddles, cold rolled steel block, and deluxe locking tuners for quick string changes and superior tuning stability. The American Ultra Lux Vintage 60s Stratocaster delivers flawless modern performance with distinctive classic design. Available in Ice Blue Metallic and Surf Green.
Raw, rowdy, rugged, and won’t break the bank—a no-frills double cutaway delivers on its decades-old streamlined design promise with USA-made P-90s.
The GibsonLes Paul Special was first introduced as a single cutaway model in 1955, and with the exception of the sunburst Standards that were produced from 1958-1960, it was the last of the original50s-era Les Paul model variants to be introduced. An enhanced version of the Les Paul Junior with increased sonic flexibility, it featured two P-90 pickups instead of the single P-90 found on the Junior and also added a bit of extra bling in the form of a bound fretboard and a mother-of-pearl headstock logo. In 1958, the body shape was revised from a single cutaway to a double cutaway, which delivered improved fretboard access, and the Special hit its stride in 1960 when a thinner SlimTaper neck profile and a lower neck pickup placement made it more robust and easier to play than ever.
Now, Epiphone, in partnership with Gibson Custom, is proud to introduce the 1960 Les Paul Special Double Cut Reissue, an Inspired by Gibson Custom recreation of the sought-after 1960 Les Paul Special Double Cut. Like the originals, it features a slab mahogany body with double cutaways that provide excellent access to the entire length of the fretboard. The one-piece mahogany neck has a fast-playing 60s SlimTaper profile and is capped with a rosewood fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and mother-of-pearl dot position marker inlays. The fretboard has a 12” radius that makes playing first-position chords and solos with string bends further up the neck equally effortless. The Gibson “open book” style headstock is equipped with Epiphone Deluxe three-on-a-plate tuners with white buttons and a GraphTech nut to help keep the tuning nice and stable, while a historic style Wraparound bridge with intonation screws solidly anchors the strings at the other end and contributes to the excellent sustain that the Les Paul Special is famous for. A pair of USA-made P-90 Soap bar pickups from Gibson Custom that can go from sweet and clean to outright nasty and dirty-sounding are hand-wired to individual volume and tone controls with high-quality CTS potentiometers and Bumblebee paper-in-oil capacitors for authentic vintage tones that are sure to please even the most tone-conscious players.
The 1960 Les Paul Special Double Cut Reissue comes packaged in a vintage-style case with a brown exterior and pink plush interior that features Inspired by Gibson Custom graphics on the exterior. It all comes together to deliver a vintage playing and ownership experience at an accessible price that is special in every way.
