Maybe I'm pessimistic, but I don't see electric guitars sustaining their market value over the next century. We're moving ever further away from the period in history where electric guitar music so dazzlingly provided the soundtrack to the cultural zeitgeist. You can appreciate a Stratocaster as a mid-century design icon, in part because it was designed to be built at volume by unskilled workers to meet a demanding market. What I don't think you can do is expect a 1960 Stratocaster to forever stand up as a high quality musical instrument in its own right, unlike a 200 year old Italian violin made by a master luthier.
The guitar market is driven by people who heard 'Mr Tambourine Man' on the radio back in the '60s, and with every passing year there are fewer of those people around willing to throw money at collectible guitars. Again I think Gibson are miles off the pace with this latest venture. They're banking on a market that will largely be in boxes in the ground in the next twenty years or so.
