I’m sometimes obliged to watch the Antiques Road Show when I visit my parents. I always wondered why I never caught any cool guitar appraisals (I remember seeing a couple of celebrity guitars on Pawn Stars but none fetched tens of thousands).
Fellow Guitarbites member Bluesdawg sent me this. A wonderful web clip of a 1957 or ’58 Fender Stratocaster with tweed case appraised June 2006 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
GUEST: I bought this from a gentleman I work with. He bought it from a guitar instructor in Ogden, Utah. And...
APPRAISER: What year did you buy it?
GUEST: I bought it in 1960, ‘61.
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: And it happens to be a '57. And I've really enjoyed playing it. It's been around for a long time.
APPRAISER: Do you still play it?
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Okay. This is a model Stratocaster; you know that.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: The Fender company made it in '57. It's possible that it's a '58. And it's in blonde finish. I understand they didn't make the blonde finish until '58.
GUEST: Is that right?
APPRAISER: That was the Olympic white finish. But you can see a lot of the grain through the finish here.
GUEST: Yes. Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: That makes me feel more like this is the blonde finish rather than the Olympic white. The Olympic white was a bit more opaque white finish. This you can see through a bit more.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: And you can see the serial number right there, and that shows me that it's sometime in '57, but I think quite late '57. It has a very nice neck on it.
GUEST: It's easy to play.
APPRAISER: Oh, the neck is fabulous. It's a nice-feeling neck. Without opening this up and without looking inside and taking the pickups apart and everything else, visually it looks like it's completely original. Has anything ever been done to it to your knowledge, since 1961?
GUEST: Not other than changing strings… maybe adjustment on the neck.
APPRAISER: Because it has all the characteristics of a pure blonde finish
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: '57 Stratocaster-- maple neck, maple fingerboard, black dot inlays. Original decal, untouched. Original pickups, original whammy bar, tremolo bar... original tweed case with red lining.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: It looks like a period Fender Deluxe amplifier, which looks to be in okay condition. How much did you pay for it back in 1961?
GUEST: I paid...as much as I can recall, about $300.
APPRAISER: $300. Which was a big decision.
(laughs)
APPRAISER: I can imagine. It might surprise you to know that these models, in the last year or so, have really skyrocketed. All solid-body Fender and Gibson guitars have gone a little bit crazy.
GUEST: Is that right?
APPRAISER: So I would say this one in this condition, which is, I'd say, about a... 8 1/2 of ten scale, in a retail situation, that this outfit with the case and the strap and the amplifier and the guitar being this original, $50,000 to $60,000.
GUEST: Oh... my word. Takes my breath. Whoo-hoo! I love rock 'n' roll.
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