About 20th Century Toys

What’s the ethos behind 20th Century Toys?

To provide high quality vintage guitars and the best authentic vintage reissues for collectors and players alike. So anything from investment grade to player grade vintage, as well as affordable reissues. First and foremost, I hand pick all the guitars on the basis that these are guitars that I’d love to own myself. My aim is to provide excellent quality guitars at good prices and with complete transparency.

When did you first get into vintage guitars?

I’ve been into guitars since I first got into music as a 10 year old, gazing into guitar shop windows at every opportunity. However, it was getting a copy of Tom Wheeler’s American Guitars book in the mid 1980s that really started the ball rolling as far as vintage guitars go. Then I started scouring the classified ads in the music papers and places like Loot for vintage guitars as well as frequenting all the guitar shops on Denmark Street in London and Vintage and Rare Guitars in Earl’s Court.

My first vintage guitar was a 1962 Gretsch Country Gentleman which was then closely followed by a 1960 Fender Jazzmaster. And so began the journey down the rabbit hole of vintage guitars!

Why did you start 20th Century Toys?

After three decades of buying, playing and immersing myself in vintage guitars, I felt the time was right to start 20th Century Toys. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, my trade as a professional photographer was impacted, which gave me the time to devote to setting up 20th Century Toys.

Really, it’s about the love of these great guitars and wanting to pass my enthusiasm on to other collectors and players, both established and starting out.

To read more…see Guitar magazine feature - link below.

https://guitar.com/features/collections/the-collection-photographer-phil-bournes-guitar-collection/