1962 Left-handed Fender Stratocaster
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GUEST:
This was given to my father for his 11th birthday in October of 1962. I know that it's a left-handed Fender Stratocaster. I know that it was special-ordered. However, not by my grandfather, who bought it for him-- by somebody else who didn't have the money to pay for it. And so it was available just sort of on a fluke. And that's about all I know.
APPRAISER:
And this is your father here?
GUEST:
Yeah, this is him posing with it.
APPRAISER:
Well, this is a Fender Stratocaster. So popular at that time, all the great rock bands at the time-- The Ventures, The Beach Boys-- they all used this guitar. What makes this guitar a little bit more unusual is, is, it's a left-handed model. The other thing that makes this particularly interesting is the fingerboard on this. It's what we call a slab fingerboard. Later in the year, they changed to a different style of fingerboard. Makes it a little more exceptional. Because of the serial numbers on the instrument, we can tell the year the instrument was made, and we know it was in 1962. You have a sales brochure from 1962.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Showing this model Stratocaster for $289.
GUEST:
Yup.
APPRAISER:
Now, this is what we call a custom-ordered instrument, in that the color of the instrument, this Olympic white, was a custom color-- it was a special order.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
You can also see that, that the white is in very good condition. This guitar is just almost perfect shape. There's, there's very little wear on the instrument at all. This was a very light guitar.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Made it very easy to play. These instruments are highly desirable today, because of the way they play, the history behind them. Being a left-handed model, it makes it a little bit harder to sell, because there's fewer people out there buying them.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
As opposed to a, the standard right-handed model. I've consulted with my colleagues on this, and we believe that in this preservation-- you have the original case and everything-- we'd put a value at retail of $48,000 on it.
GUEST (laughing silently): Are you serious? (laughing)
APPRAISER:
I'm serious. (laughs)
GUEST:
Oh, my!
APPRAISER:
I'm as excited as you are. It's a great guitar, and it's, it's just, it's really fun to see it.
GUEST:
Wow, thank you! (laughs) My dad is going to be very surprised. Maybe I'll sell it back to him.
Appraisal Details
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Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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