Retrofret Vintage Guitars

Retrofret Vintage Guitars 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 Retrof

ret 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

Just arrived a 1931 Kel Kroydon KK-1 Flat Top Acoustic Guitar, made by Gibson!!  https://retrofret.com/products/gibson-k...
06/18/2026

Just arrived a 1931 Kel Kroydon KK-1 Flat Top Acoustic Guitar, made by Gibson!! https://retrofret.com/products/gibson-kel-kroydon-kk-1-flat-top-acoustic-guitar-1931-12096
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The Kel Kroydon KK-I flat-top is one of those wonderful and odd Gibson creations built for a specific time and place but eventually becoming recognized as a timeless if slightly off-the-wall classic. This is what is known as the “Birds” example of this originally low-budget classic, with the stunning (if garish to some) colorful decorative stenciling on the top of two quizzical semi-abstract parrots facing each other. Of all variants of the KK-1, this is the most celebrated and coveted.
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Just arrived a 1958 Wandre BB Model Semi-Hollow Body Electric Guitar!!  https://retrofret.com/products/wandre-bb-model-s...
06/17/2026

Just arrived a 1958 Wandre BB Model Semi-Hollow Body Electric Guitar!! https://retrofret.com/products/wandre-bb-model-semi-hollow-body-electric-guitar-1959-13974 Made in Italy.
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According to the Marco Ballestri’s “WANDRE-The Artist Of The Electric Guitar” The Model BB traces its origin to about 1957, conceived as a more “feminine” design then the angular extreme-cutaway “Rock Oval”. This more conventionally shaped guitar was unsurprisingly more successful and evolved versions stayed in production into the early 1960s. Based on the features this one would date to around 1959-60, with the earlier Davoli pickup installation but before the controls were moved to the body from the pickguard.
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Just arrived a 1966 Danelectro Hawk 2N12 12 String Electric Guitar!!  https://retrofret.com/products/danelectro-hawk-2n1...
06/16/2026

Just arrived a 1966 Danelectro Hawk 2N12 12 String Electric Guitar!! https://retrofret.com/products/danelectro-hawk-2n12-12-string-electric-guitar-1966-13926
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This Hawk 2N12 is finished in a crinkle brown lacquer on the body and headstock, a Danelectro trademark if the least colorful of the multiple options offered. The FON ink-stamped on the neck heel is 3106 indicating the neck was fabricated the 31st week of 1966; these are usually considered 1967 models but this shows that production actually began the previous year. Two classic Danno lipstick pickups are controlled by a 3-way switch and concentric pots with color-matched k***s, offering a lot of tone for the price. The pickguard holding all this is white enameled Masonite and the tuners are the company’s own proprietary “skate key’ design.
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Just arrived a 1965 Sparkle Sunburst Mosrite Ventures Mark I Solid Body Electric Guitar in its original brown alligator ...
06/15/2026

Just arrived a 1965 Sparkle Sunburst Mosrite Ventures Mark I Solid Body Electric Guitar in its original brown alligator hard shell case!! https://retrofret.com/products/mosrite-ventures-mark-i-solid-body-electric-guitar-1965-14046
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Nothing says “1960s California Cool” more than an original Mosrite Ventures model, but this one takes it to a whole other level! The custom “Sparkle Sunburst” finish is extremely rare, done by Semie Moseley on an occasional one-off basis either as a custom order piece or trade show display item. This red-to-gold metallic sparkle livery gives the guitar a stunning California custom car hot rod look, redolent of George Barris as much as the Ventures. Standard Custom-color Mosrite Ventures models are fairly rare compared to sunburst examples, but this 1965 sparkle version is exponentially rarer than either. This very hip 1960s 6-string would have been right at home on the Sunset Strip or indeed in any garage in America in that just pre-heavy era.
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Just arrived a 2020 Fraulini Ermida Flat Top Acoustic Guitar!  Made in Madison Wisconsin.  https://retrofret.com/product...
06/13/2026

Just arrived a 2020 Fraulini Ermida Flat Top Acoustic Guitar! Made in Madison Wisconsin. https://retrofret.com/products/fraulini-ermida-flat-top-acoustic-guitar-2020-14125
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We are always pleased to have one of Todd Cambio’s wonderful Fraulini guitars in stock; this one has been played and used but not abused and is beautifully broken in with a fantastic sound. This blonde beauty is a custom Ermida model, with the somewhat unusual wood selection of a Sitka spruce top over flame maple back and sides. This is a 15” wide guitar with fancy wood purfling around the top and soundhole, a Larson style bridge and mahogany neck with a bound ebony fingerboard.
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Just arrived this 1937 National Tricone Exploding Palm Tree Resophonic Guitar!  https://retrofret.com/products/national-...
06/12/2026

Just arrived this 1937 National Tricone Exploding Palm Tree Resophonic Guitar! https://retrofret.com/products/national-tricone-exploding-palm-tree-resophonic-guitar-1937-13815
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This distinctive 1937 Tricone is one of the most obscure of all National products, so rare whatever name the company may have had for it is lost to history. It is generally referred to as the “Exploding Palm Tree” Tricone, a nickname made up by collectors trying to describe the abstract decorative patterns on the body. This was codified in National reference books and has since become part of the general resophonic lingo, no official name having ever been unearthed.
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Just arrived a 1967 Fender Princeton Reverb AA-764 Tube Amplifier!  (See more in our profile link including internal pho...
06/10/2026

Just arrived a 1967 Fender Princeton Reverb AA-764 Tube Amplifier! (See more in our profile link including internal photographs).
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Overall this is one of the cleanest and most stunningly well-preserved example we’ve ever had of one of the hottest amps going today, vintage or modern, the black-panel Fender Princeton Reverb. The combination of clean, crunch and natural overdrive this model offers perfectly suits the modern world’s lower volume requirements, and they always sound great in any context. The mid-60s Princeton came as a Reverb and non-Reverb model, both featuring a single-channel layout with two instrument inputs. A dual 6V6-power section into a 10” speaker puts out around 10-12 watts of power. The Reverb-equipped model offers earlier clipping and more overall preamp saturation, due to the additional circuitry of the onboard effect. These are truly excellent gigging amplifiers and work perfectly as a stand-alone amp, as well as a pedal platform for the modern stylist.
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Just arrived a 1964   Solid Body Electric Guitar in a black alligator case!  Has the world famous Wild Dog setting!  htt...
06/09/2026

Just arrived a 1964 Solid Body Electric Guitar in a black alligator case! Has the world famous Wild Dog setting! https://retrofret.com/products/burns-jazz-split-sound-solid-body-electric-guitar-1964-14100
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This is a good player’s example of the Jazz Split Sound guitar, the most popular 1960s design from the always-eccentric James Ormston Burns of London. This model was available in the US labeled as Ampeg (1963-4) and Baldwin (after late 1965) but this “true Burns” example, dating to late 1964 or early 1965, is something of a rarity on these shores. Burns instruments were sold worldwide under the company’s name, but very few made it to the US due to the English firm’s lack of a dedicated distributor in this market.
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Just arrived a 1965 Wandre Tigre Electric Bass!  https://retrofret.com/products/wandre-tigre-semi-hollow-body-electric-b...
06/08/2026

Just arrived a 1965 Wandre Tigre Electric Bass! https://retrofret.com/products/wandre-tigre-semi-hollow-body-electric-bass-guitar-1965-14003
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All Wandre instruments are eccentric, sometimes to the extreme. This solid-body “Basso Tigre” is one of the tamer beasts from Wandre Pioli’s zoo, a creation that came in the latter half of the company’s production span in an attempt to reach a wider market than their more whimsical creations of previous years. The design is noticeably more Fender-like than previous instruments from Wandre Pioli’s endlessly creative imagination, something of a compromise with the often predictable tastes of most mid-60’s players.
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Just arrived for   this 1932 Gibson Nick Lucas Special Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar, made in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  htt...
06/07/2026

Just arrived for this 1932 Gibson Nick Lucas Special Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar, made in Kalamazoo, Michigan. https://retrofret.com/products/gibson-nick-lucas-special-flat-top-acoustic-guitar-1932-13948
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Guitar-slinging crooner Nick Lucas was the first pop artist to endorse a signature guitar, which was also Gibson’s first namesake model. Although largely forgotten now (except as inspiration to Tiny Tim) Lucas was a huge star in the 1920’s, on records then on the sliver screen. Prior to 1926 Gibson catalogs denigrated flat-top guitars as unworthy of the true artist, but with the Lucas Special the company abandoned that tack and made its first truly professional grade flat top. This one survives in very clean condition, it appears to have been re-factory worked at the Gibson factory likely in the 1940s or ‘50s but remains a super example.
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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

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