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Monday 12pm - 7pm Tuesday 12pm - 7pm Wednesday 12pm - 7pm Thursday 12pm - 7pm Friday 12pm - 7pm Saturday 12pm - 6pm

Retrofret Vintage Guitars

Name: Retrofret Vintage Guitars
Address: 87 Luquer Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, US
Telephone: +17182374040
Price range: $$$
Rating: 4.8

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Retrofret Vintage Guitars

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Brooklyn's go-to shop for vintage guitars and stringed instrument repairs.
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Welcome to one of the world's great vintage guitar shops -- located in the heart of Brooklyn, New York and serving musicians and collectors from all over the world since 1983! Along with vintage electric, acoustic, and classical guitars, we buy and sell banjos, mandolins, violin family instruments, ukuleles, amplifiers, and even musical ephemera through our companion site, Musurgia.com. The Retrofret staff includes skilled luthiers and technicians able to handle everything from routine set-up, to complex historically accurate repairs. Our sales team has decades of experience appraising and authenticating instruments for major museums and working musicians in every geographical location and musical genre. "Entering the serene, light-filled showroom, you are greeted by rows of Martin acoustic guitars propped on stands on a large Oriental rug. To the right is a wall of banjos, and to the left a room of electric guitars, where Fenders and Gibsons hang from the walls like so many lacquered lollipops." - The New York Times

10/19/2026

Just arrived this 1932 Martin 0-18 Model 32 Flat Top Acoustic Guitar! https://retrofret.com/products/c-f-martin-0-18-model-32-flat-top-acoustic-guitar-1932-14428
This is a really lovely and historic Martin, made at a crucial turning point in the company’s history. This 14 fret version of the 0-18 was introduced in early 1932 as the “0-18 Special”, sometimes later called a “Baby OM”. At the time the Depression was at its worst, and one of the few things creating sales enthusiasm for Martin were the 000 sized 14-fret OM “Orchestra Model” guitars. To expand this new market, Martin applied the new formula to the smaller 0-18, creating a novel design that quickly supplanted the old 12-fret models, the first spread of the new 14 fret flat-top paradigm from the specialist OM’s into the “standard” line.
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10/18/2026

Just arrived this 1968 Wandre Psychedelic Sound Semi-Hollow Body Electric Guitar! https://retrofret.com/products/wandre-psychedelic-sound-semi-hollow-body-electric-guitar-1968-13978
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The double-cutaway body is 16” wide and 1 7/8” at the rim, built of thin plywood with an arched back, flat top with large double-bound F-holes and multiple binding on the top edge; the back is unbound. This Psychedelic Sound” mounts a pair of late-model thin coil Davoli pickups with the company logo on the top of the plastic casings. These are somewhat sharper sounding then the larger earlier Davoli units but still quite versatile, controlled by a conventional rig with a 3-way switch and single master volume and a tone k***s. The jack is mounted to the rim. The vibrato is the standard Wandre unit, mounted near the back edge of the body under a black plastic cover.
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10/17/2026

Just arrived this 1933 Gibson L-5 Arch Top Acoustic Guitar in its original black hard shell case! https://retrofret.com/products/gibson-l-5-arch-top-acoustic-guitar-1933-14448
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This 1933 L-5 is a beautiful example of the pre-eminent orchestra guitar of its era — the original f-hole archtop guitar — and a timelessly beautiful and fine-sounding instrument. Debuting in 1923-4, the L-5 was the first modern F-hole archtop; at the time this one was built nearly ten years later it was still the top of Gibson’s line and generally considered the finest carved top guitar made.
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10/15/2026

Just arrived this 1956 Fender Stratocaster Non Tremolo Solid Body Electric Guitar in its original tweed hard shell case! https://retrofret.com/products/fender-stratocaster-non-tremolo-solid-body-electric-guitar-1956-14407
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This now 70+ year old “Hardtail” Fender Stratocaster is a lovely early example of a sometimes nearly forgotten variant of Fender’s most popular guitar, built without the tremolo system that is one of the model’s hallmarks. This guitar is in largely original condition; it has been refretted and the fingerboard overfinished. It also has an unusual anomaly: Although the electronics are original to the guitar, internally there was some additional minor routing to the cavities after the body was finished, slightly lengthening all three pickup routs on the bass side and the control cavity rout on the treble. This is now the SECOND early 1956 Stratocaster we have had with EXACTLY the same post-finish rout pattern, which would have been a quick solution if a final assembler was having trouble fitting the pickguard down to the body and resorted to opening the routs up just a bit. This sort of “assembly line finagle” is a known factory fudge on some makers’ guitars, but is uncommon on early Fenders. While we can’t absolutely state this was factory work, it looks consistent to the period and really there is no other reason why it would have been done.
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10/13/2026

Just arrived this 1959 Wandre Waid Bass! Link in our profile.
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Whatever its theoretical origins, the Waid launched in 1958 as a semi-hollow guitar built on a thin but very wide body, initially with two abstract soundholes. By the time this 4-string bass example was built in 1959 or ‘60 the design had evolved, including losing the soundholes. The body is very wide, over 17 1/2” at the lower bout but less than 1 3/4” at the rim. The shape is more conventional than many Pioli creations but has a bulging contour on the upper edge, with a sloping-back cutaway on the treble side. The most unusual feature is the top, which is concave instead of convex like almost every other guitar ever made. The top slopes inward and downward from the rims, leaving the metal neck extension/centerpiece fully exposed. While this looks wildly eccentric, the “negative space” effect does not affect playability in any negative way!
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10/12/2026

Just arrived this 1964 Gibson SG Junior in its original brown alligator chipboard case! Link in our profile.
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This is a very clean original 1964 SG Junior, made the year after the “Les Paul” logo stencil was deleted from the headstock. As either a “Les Paul” or an “SG” this Junior distills the essence of Gibson’s 1960’s sculpted solidbody aesthetic down to the bare minimum. Fittings on the deep cherry-finished body and neck are no frills in the extreme, with a single P-90 pickup, solid bar bridge and endless unadorned fingerboard to play on. This one remains all original with the classic ‘64 look and feel.
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10/11/2026

Just arrived for this 1960 Gibson ES-175 Arch Top Electric Guitar in its original brown hard shell case! PAF Humbucker, orange label, original case; what’s not to like? https://retrofret.com/products/gibson-es-175-arch-top-hollow-body-electric-guitar-1960-14381
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This is a generally VERY clean example of a single-pickup ES-175 from Gibson’s finest era, nearly all original with amazingly little wear. This guitar represents the design apex of Gibson’s 16” electric Jazz guitar perennial, with one “PAF” humbucker in the neck position. Over the years, many of these very fine instruments have been stripped of their PAF pickups, highly sought after for Les Paul re-creations. This single pickup guitar offers less material than its double pickup siblings so has happily escaped that fate. It unfortunately lost its original tailpiece along the way but otherwise remains complete.
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10/10/2026

Just arrived this c. 1890, Martin 0-28 Flat Top Acoustic Guitar in a period black coffin case! https://retrofret.com/products/c-f-martin-0-28-flat-top-acoustic-guitar-1890-13952
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This is a very nice playing and sounding late 19th century Martin Style 0-28, a survivor from America’s first Gilded Age fully playable in the 21st century. It resides in a period Martin coffin case labeled for a style 0-30 but the guitar itself appears to be a style 0-28, one of the company’s popular offerings in the 19th century that survived in the line well into the 20th. This was a high-mid-line model listing in the late 19th century around $60; Martins were NEVER cheap! Although the size “0” is considered a small guitar today, before the 1860s it was the largest standard size Martin made and the company generally recommended it as the best instrument for “soloists” well into the 20th century. This one shows some wear but survives in largely original condition.
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10/08/2026

Just arrived this 1938 Martin 000-18 Flat Top! https://retrofret.com/products/c-f-martin-000-18-flat-top-acoustic-guitar-1938-14410
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This is a super vibey, VERY worn player’s example of a 1938 000-18, showing evidence of decades of hard use and a number of mostly older repairs. “Rode hard and put away wet” would be the old-timer’s description. There has been finish work to most of the instrument long ago with what appears to be additional lacquer added to different areas at different times, mostly connected to old crack repairs to the top and lower side in particular. Apart from this legacy of mishaps this is still a very solid playing guitar, worn in overall but even so more original than some.
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10/07/2026

Just arrived this c. 1939 Favilla Deluxe Arch Top Acoustic Guitar! Made in New York City, serial # 1091, sunburst lacquer finish, maple back and sides, spruce top; laminated maple neck with ebony fingerboard. https://retrofret.com/products/favilla-deluxe-arch-top-acoustic-guitar-1939-14382
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This is one of the most interesting acoustic archtops we have seen in a while, a very fancy nearly 17” wide fully carved instrument labeled “Favilla Deluxe” on the headstock. This very elaborate fully carved guitar looks to have been built sometime just before WWII, at least based on the first generation Kluson Sealfast tuners that were fitted as original equipment. Very few Favilla archtops exist, and there is little concrete information on them. Favilla branded carved top guitars were usually described as “Model A” but this instrument is much fancier than any of those we have seen. One similar guitar surfaced not too long ago recorded as built in 1953 for Philadelphia broadcasting guitarist Hal Columbo.
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Address

87 Luquer Street
Brooklyn, NY
11217

Opening Hours

Monday	12pm - 7pm
Tuesday	12pm - 7pm
Wednesday	12pm - 7pm
Thursday	12pm - 7pm
Friday	12pm - 7pm
Saturday	12pm - 6pm

Telephone

+17182374040

Website

http://www.retrofret.com/

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