Mix a knack for numbers with a love of previous guitars and also you get… properly, you would possibly get any of a thousand babyboomer accountants/collectors. However one is a supercharged model named Ram Tuli.

A skilled information analyst, Tuli is the brand new co-author (with Classic Guitar founder/writer Alan Greenwood) of The Official Classic Guitar Value Information, the journal’s annual survey of the collectible market. He replaces Gil Hembree, who for 22 editions crunched the numbers after retiring from Common Motors, the place he labored in monetary administration/inside management.

Tuli has been a “tone freak” since his teenagers, when he found Robin Trower’s Bridge of Sighs.

“By the second time I listened to it, I knew I needed to play guitar and sound like that,” he stated. “I didn’t know a lot, however I knew I wanted a Stratocaster.”

In 1984, he enlisted for a six-year stint within the U.S. Navy. Coaching and dealing as a nuclear electrician aboard the plane provider USS Enterprise, he watched, bemused, as most fellow sailors getting back from deployment would head ashore in Alameda, California, and “…blow their cash on booze and ladies and no matter. However with 2,000 bucks in my pocket, I’d go straight to Actual Guitars, on Lafayette Road in San Francisco.

“They’d see me and instantly say, ‘Hey, look what we acquired!’” he stated. “The primary guitar I purchased there was a ’52 Telecaster.”

Aboard ship, Tuli’s social circle was principally fellow musicians.

“My buddies had been all gamers. There was somewhat lounge close to the place the [nuclear] reactor employees lived, and my ’77 Tele was at all times there for anyone to play. There was a Roland amp, and a bass, and once we had been underway, I spent 12 hours a day enjoying guitar.”

Rising up in California, he carefully adopted the San Francisco blues scene and have become pleasant with a number of the best-known bands. When his hitch led to 1990, he was set on enjoying blues for a dwelling.

“I used to be on the prime of my recreation – I used to be practiced, I had the blackface Tremendous Reverb, the Tele, and the Strat. However sooner or later I noticed that these guys – my pals and idols – had been dwelling hand to mouth. I needed a spouse and youngsters and a traditional life. So I made a take care of myself that I’d concentrate on constructing a secure life, then begin a blues band.”

He enrolled in school and earned levels in electrical and nuclear engineering, then started a profession in information evaluation.

“I labored for Science Functions Worldwide Company (SAIC), doing probabilistic threat evaluation – mainly, making an attempt to conceive of each attainable failure of one thing. For instance, if we had been working for a nuclear energy plant, we’d create databases monitoring potential dangers, the probability any of them would happen, and what it meant if one thing did.

“I turned fascinated not a lot by what the reply is, however the way you get to the reply.”

Every time he wasn’t on the clock, he’d spend time along with his spouse and rising household, refining his guitar expertise, monitoring down cool classic items, and studying about his interest.

“I learn A.R. Duchossoir’s The Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Electrics from cowl to cowl,” he stated. “Elements of them, I all however memorized.”

In 2002, Tuli left SAIC and moved his household to Phoenix, the place he took the reins of his father’s plant-nutrient enterprise.

“Dad had determined he was going to both promote the corporate or let me take over the manufacturing facet,” he stated. “So, we rolled the cube and started to broaden.”

That development spurred a flashback/light-bulb second.

“I bear in mind strolling by means of our new warehouse sooner or later when it occurred to me, ‘Now could be a very good time to begin a band as a result of we may rehearse proper right here.’”

So, he set about gathering members of what would develop into a blues band they dubbed Psychedelic Mooj. At first, they’d get collectively for informal jams each Saturday, however finally started enjoying out, and up to now have recorded 5 albums.

“It was nice,” Tuli stated. “I’d work through the day and gig at night time. In our heyday, we did a present each week.”

One in every of their yearly gigs was the Rock and Roll Marathon, in Phoenix.

“They’d put us on the end line as a result of we may play throughout the entire thing – 4 to 5 straight hours.”

Aside from the day job and the band, Tuli slowly gathered about 40 guitars.

“At first, it was my dream to have a Stratocaster from yearly – even the dangerous years. That didn’t occur as a result of I acquired practical (laughs), however I’m 60 now and nearly there. I don’t have a ’54 or ’55, however I don’t want them as a result of I’ve a ’57. And I at all times inform folks, “You’ve acquired to have an early-’60s Strat, and proper now my #1 is a ’60 with the actually skinny slab fretboard. These are unimaginable. For some purpose, I just like the ’66 to ’69 Strats; my ’69 is a maple-cap, which makes a giant distinction.”

After looking guitars for years. Tuli began amassing classic amps, and with that pursuit got here a realization there was a lot to be taught. Analysis generated loads of notes, which he compiled.

“My first guide, Bare and Dimed, was a means for me to get to know my very own amp assortment. As a young person, I had a blackface Tremendous Reverb and I assumed, ‘Effectively, that’s all I would like.’ I assumed all Fender amps appeared like that (laughs). However in fact as I began exploring, I noticed that 80 p.c of 1’s tone comes from the amp, not the guitar, and that from one Fender to the subsequent, there’s loads of distinction in sound.

“The primary classic amp I purchased to make use of onstage with Psychedelic Mooj was a ’64 Deluxe Reverb, and it blew my thoughts. So I needed the guide to assist me determine why I liked previous amps. It began as electrical-engineering venture the place I used to be finding out schematics and working an oscilloscope to determine the place odd and even harmonics got here from. However I found out which you can’t be taught the true purpose that means, as a result of it’s all about really feel.”

The identical motivations carried over to his different three books on guitars and amps.

“Folks typically inform me they purchased a brown Princeton as a result of I wrote about how small brown Fenders had been low cost and would blow their thoughts. They used to promote for about half the worth of a tweed Deluxe. Now, not a lot.”

Tuli’s enterprise, in the meantime, gathered steam till it attracted consideration from Scotts Miracle-Gro. In 2017, it was purchased out by Scotts and Tuli started a brand new part in life.

“I wrote Stratocasters and Telecasters: A Love Story after I bought out and needed to convey all of my guitars and amps dwelling. My spouse requested, ‘What number of guitars do you could have?,’ and that was the primary time I needed to really rely. Then she requested, ‘Why do you could have so many?’ and I couldn’t reply.

“So I wrote the guide to clarify why a man who collects guitars his complete life seems to be again and realizes it’s principally Stratocasters and Telecasters. There was physics concerned, however there’s additionally magic concerned. The guide is me making an attempt to reply for myself.”

Now, his innate curiosity and many years of experience can be put to make use of conducting the analysis and finding out the information behind the valuations introduced in The Information.

“For lots of people like me, a part of our wealth lies in our guitar assortment,” he stated. “So it’s essential to know what’s happening: Why is it going up, why is it taking place? Over time, I’ve fine-tuned my understanding of the components that create variables and fluctuations.

“Turning into a part of The Information workforce is a dream come true as a result of A) I really like classic guitars and amps, and B) I’m a knowledge freak. For 30 years, I’ve been in a position to learn information like most individuals can’t.”

His assortment sits at about 40 guitars and an identical variety of amps, and he’s been shopping for The Information because it was produced each few years in a comparatively slow-moving market. It has been printed yearly since 2001.

“I nonetheless have the primary one I purchased – the third version – and each one since,” he stated. “When Alan known as to gauge my curiosity in working with him, I informed him, ‘I’ve watched the guide evolve.’”

His enthusiasm for “benchmark information” and monitoring developments will improve The Information.

“Information evaluation – studying the way you get the reply – is simply as essential as the reply itself. That’s what I wish to convey, and within the 2024 intro, customers will examine how I targeted on what’s going on. It’s one factor to say, ‘The value is that this…’ however that value is a vector; it’s been someplace and it’s going someplace. I’m making an attempt to point out the way it acquired there, the place it got here from, the way it’s used, and by whom.”

The result’s a broader view; the place earlier editions targeted on the basic market – Gibson, Fender, Martin – tracked through The 42 Index, Tuli says, “I’ve saved monitor of 3,000 guitars. So, within the 2024 version I’ll overlay charts displaying the 2007 bubble for the blue-ribbon items and exhibit how there wasn’t a bubble within the broader market. Jaguars, Jazzmasters, and Duo-Sonics didn’t go to loopy numbers in 2008.

“The $5,000-to-$10,000 market zigzags, but it surely’s at all times shifting up,” he provides. “The ’58 Les Paul Customized… yeah, it quadrupled in value main as much as 2007, then misplaced half over the subsequent 5 years, but it surely nonetheless superior the broader market.

“That’s why The Information is crucial. And since I’m a collector, there can be a bias towards the collector; I’m not a supplier, I by no means promote something.”

He provides that whereas the normal market – Les Pauls, Strats, Teles, SGs, 335s, and so on. – will at all times be bellwethers, the non-traditional market is more and more dynamic – “…the Ampeg Dan Armstrong Lucite, the Dano Coral Sitar, the Travis Bean stuff.”

“Then there’s what we name the ‘rising market,’ which is the pointy-headstock/swirly-finish stuff that’s 30 or 40 years previous. It has develop into an enormous element. You possibly can’t examine a ’57 Strat to a Charvel, however when you acquire Charvels, you’re in for a shock given how they’re shifting. Identical factor when you’re into Ibanez Jems, B.C. Wealthy, Hamer, or Music Man Eddie Van Halen stuff. There are extra folks in search of it, and The Information will discuss these issues. If in case you have 10 grand to spend, you possibly can get some fairly cool issues which can be going to maintain going up in worth.”

The primary – and maybe most-noticeable – reflection of Tuli’s enter is the duvet of the 2024 guide.

“When traditionalists see it, they’re going to assume, ‘Whaaaat?’ However as I’ve walked by means of guitar reveals, I’ve been blown away by how a lot these guitars are going for.”

This text initially appeared in VG’s October 2023 problem. All copyrights are by the writer and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.