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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

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United States
Brooklyn, NY
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 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

09/17/2026

Here’s something you won’t see everyday. An Arbiter Custom Model E-270 Model Solid Body Electric Guitar, c. 1975, made in Japan! https://retrofret.com/products/arbiter-custom-model-e-270-solid-body-electric-guitar-1975-14008
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In the early 1970s Dallas/Arbiter were a merger of the two firms then comprising one of the largest jobbers in the UK, famous in retrospect mostly for their electronics. Classic effects like the Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster, Arbiter Fuzz Face and the Sound City amp stacks are still well regarded, but the guitars they sold are less well remembered. Arbiter were Fender’s exclusive UK distributor from 1966, and under the Hayman brand interesting original UK-made instruments were offered for a few years in the early ‘70s, with input from Jim Burns.
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09/16/2026

Just arrived this 1920 Gibson F-4 Mandolin in its original black hard shell case! https://retrofret.com/products/gibson-f-4-carved-top-mandolin-1920-13079
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When it was built just over 105 years ago this F-4 was Gibson’s top of the line mandolin and the company’s flagship instrument. This one has been somewhat worn in over the past century showing signs of use and minor repair but remains a lovely instrument nonetheless.
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09/15/2026

Just arrived this 1962 Wandre Selene II Semi-Hollow Body Electric Guitar! https://retrofret.com/products/wandre-selene-ii-semi-hollow-body-electric-guitar-1962-13976
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The Selene design is a variation on his slightly earlier “Waid” model, a semi-hollow guitar built on a thin, wide body with no soundholes. Compared to the Waid body the obvious difference is the contour of the upper edge, with no upper bass bout to speak of sloping up to a wide lower bout but a standard cutaway on the treble side. The most unusual shared 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 quite eccentric, it does not affect playability in any negative way!
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09/14/2026

Just arrived this 1936 Dobro Electric Spanish Guitar in its original black hard shell case! https://retrofret.com/products/dobro-electric-spanish-arch-top-hollow-body-electric-guitar-1936-14048
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This rather battered but historic instrument is a very early commercially built electric guitar, the newly merged National/Dobro company’s first serious entry into nascent amplified Spanish market. The earlier Dobro “All Electric” with its pickup stuffed awkwardly into a resonator guitar a had been a resounding flop, so this more conventional attempt was launched in 1935. We have seen variants of this model branded both National and Supro, but this is the first “Dobro” logo’d example this early we have come across. The guitar surfaced in Canada, and the small “Made in USA” stamped into the pickup housing indicates it was likely ,originally sold there.
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09/13/2026

Just arrived this 1938 Rickenbacker B-6 Lap Steel Electric Guitar in its original black hard shell case! https://retrofret.com/products/rickenbacker-model-b-6-lap-steel-electric-guitar-1938-13093
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This is a nicely preserved original pre-WWII Rickenbacker (spelled Rickenbacher on the nameplate) Model B-6 six-string Bakelite steel guitar. These instruments were the professional standard of their day and are still considered by many the finest-sounding lap steels ever made. This B-6 features the famous 1 1/2” horseshoe magnet pickup found only on pre-war guitars and strings loading through the body, the combination of features generally considered to produce the finest sound.
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09/12/2026

Just arrived this 1942 Martin 0-15 Flat Top Acoustic Guitar! https://retrofret.com/products/c-f-martin-0-15-flat-top-acoustic-guitar-1942-13604
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This is a well-worn but great-playing early wartime 0-15, the lowest-ranked guitar model in Martin’s 1940’s line. This one was built around mid-1942, the tail end of the brief period when Martin experimented with using tortoise shell plastic peghead overlays; it sports a particularly attractive example of that rare feature. Besides this oddity the 0-15 — first produced in quantity in 1940 — is a study in tasteful economy with decorative appointments kept to a minimum.
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09/10/2026

Just arrived this 1961 Wandre Rock Basso Electric Bass Guitar. This is the matching bass to the guitar we posted yesterday. https://retrofret.com/products/wandre-rock-basso-solid-body-electric-bass-guitar-1961-13986
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This bass features a single Davoli pickup mounted in the neck position wired to a volume k**b all the way down at the tail, where the jack is also situated. The sculpted body has some interesting ergonomic features unique to the bass version; the smaller angled hole cut through the body serves as a finger rest for thumb style playing, while there is a shallow trough in the top edge of the upper body that can be used as a thumb rest for finger style playing.
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09/09/2026

Just arrived this 1962 Wandre Rock 6 Solid Body Electric Guitar with its original gig bag case! https://retrofret.com/products/wandre-rock-6-solid-body-electric-guitar-1962-13985
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Marco Ballestri, author of the essential text “WANDRE-The Artist Of The Electric Guitar” traces the origin of the Rock 6 to mid-1961. The most obvious characteristic is the minimal and overtly sculptural body, carved from natural-finished solid Padouk wood with a noticeable use of what art schools describe as “negative space”, including a large cutout behind the bridge and a smaller round hole on the upper treble bout. This piece of wood looks like it might have been poached right out of an art gallery and fitted with a neck and pickups! Some have noted its passing similarity to a wooden toilet seat, perhaps a wink from Wandre Pioli to Marcel Duchamp!
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09/08/2026

Just arrived this 2025 Premier E-730 Solid Body Electric Guitar. The original scroll-body Premier guitars are some of the coolest and quirkiest 6-strings ever to come out of the New York area, but in the late 1950s-early ‘60s had only a very short shelf life. These unique instruments have now been lovingly recreated right here in New York by the revived Multivox company, inheritors of the original Premier Mojo. We are thrilled to have several of the very first and coolest examples of the reborn line here in our showroom. (Link in our profile).
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09/07/2026

Happy Labor Day! Please note that our showroom is CLOSED today but you can still purchase ON-LINE. Our showroom will be open at its normal time of 12 noon tomorrow Tuesday September 8th. Just arrived this 1966 Candy Apple Red Fender Electric XII, Electric 12-String Guitar in its original black tolex hard shell case.
https://retrofret.com/products/fender-electric-xii-12-string-solid-body-electric-guitar-1966-14113
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This is a beautiful later-1966 custom-color example of the Fender Electric XII, finished in the flashy and always-popular Candy Apple Red metallic lacquer. While not one of Leo Fender’s best-remembered creations the Electric XII is nonetheless is a superbly engineered, great-sounding and extremely practical 12-string. Introduced at the July 1965 NAMM Show at the dawn of the CBS/Fender era the Fender XII married the popular Jaguar/Jazzmaster style offset body to a new 12-string neck with a distinctive extended “hockey stick” headstock. The neck itself is typically Fender; slim and very comfortable. These are often considered the best-playing electric 12s of the 1960s, and with good reason. Custom color examples like this are fairly rare, and particularly striking looking guitars with the elongated matching headstock.
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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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