Fender Telecaster Guitars with Beatles Photo, ca. 1960
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GUEST:
In 1963, I bought that one. I was in a group on the road. A guy came in when we were rehearsing one afternoon and he said, "I'm down on my luck. $50, you can have that guitar." So that's what I paid for it, and it's been mine ever since. The reason I got the second one is because the group I was in was pretty particular about the way they dressed and how we looked and we had uniforms, and that didn't fit. That's just the way it looked when I bought it, and they didn't really want me to play it on stage. I bought this in 1964 from a local music store.
APPRAISER:
Do you remember how much you paid for it?
GUEST:
$250. That photograph is an original photograph that was taken February 13, 1964. They came into the Peppermint Lounge. We were the house band for three years in Miami Beach. We were a pretty versatile group-- we were able to do the horns and the guitars-- and in tribute to the Beatles, I announced we'd like to do a medley, and we did a couple of their tunes, and they thought that was pretty nice of us to do that. They waited to meet us, actually.
APPRAISER:
Wow.
GUEST:
So we had a chance to visit with them a little bit. We wanted a photograph, and Brian Epstein said, "Absolutely no photographs. None. Do not take that picture." Thanks to Ringo, he said, "Hey, take the picture." That's how quick it happened. That was a big night. I had a lot of fun with it.
APPRAISER:
An original photo like this by itself is probably worth close to $500 just for the photo.
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
Guitar collectors love a story. They're oftentimes buying the whole package of where the guitar has been, where the owner of the guitar has been, so the photo adds more than that to the value of the guitars. The one you bought so that you would look appropriately cool on stage is a mahogany-bodied Telecaster from 1964. Most of them are an alder body. That wood and that finish is rather rare.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
That guitar in a specialty shop or at auction would probably sell for $11,000.
GUEST:
Wow! (laughing)
APPRAISER:
Because you do have the original case with it. Now, this one, even though it doesn't look as good, is worth almost twice that because it's a Telecaster custom. It has binding around the edge. The standard Telecaster is just the bare edges of the wood body. This is the second year they made them, 1960, and it's the kind of wear that guitar players don't really mind. It has what we call "honest wear."
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
So it would probably sell close to $20,000 today.
GUEST:
Geez! (laughing) Oh.
APPRAISER:
If the two guitars were sold at auction with the photograph, the package would probably go for at least $30,000, maybe as much as $35,000.
GUEST:
Wow. I didn't pay too much for them then, I guess.
APPRAISER:
Right, right.
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