1950s Fender Broadcaster Neck on Reissue Body
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GUEST:
I acquired this through my son. Uh, my son is deceased, he passed away in 1999.
APPRAISER:
Sorry to hear that.
GUEST:
Thank you. Um, he had a love for music and a love for guitars. And this is something that he basically left behind for me. I don't know what he paid for it. A friend of his told me it was in the $2,000 range. It might have been at a guitar show or it could have been some other way, but that's all I really know.
APPRAISER:
And do you play this now, yourself?
GUEST:
I do, kind of a self-taught singer-songwriter type.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
The way I started is because I had a dream, uh, about him. I woke up, wrote down some notes, created a song, and the rest is history. From that day forward, I've been playing guitar as much as I can, so...
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm. It's a Fender Broadcaster neck, but I took the body apart. I took the, uh, pickguard off to see... Uh, there were, a couple of things about it concern me, as far as being a Broadcaster. One, the finish doesn't quite match the neck on the, from the body.
GUEST:
Exactly.
APPRAISER:
The neck is, in my estimation, is an original Broadcaster neck. It's not dated, but it's probably from around 1950 or '51.
GUEST:
Okay, wow. (murmurs)
APPRAISER:
Uh, the body, however, while it, it is a Fender body, this, I believe, is a reissue from their vintage reissue series, probably made in the, around the 1980s.
GUEST:
Oh, okay, hmm.
APPRAISER:
And the pickguard also could have, it could be original to that 1980s Fender-bodied guitar. But everything else on the guitar-- the neck plate, the pickups, the wiring is the original cloth wiring, the control plate-- all the, all the parts on this guitar, the tuners included, are original to the original Broadcaster.
GUEST:
Broadcaster, wow, okay. Um...
APPRAISER:
So, it's a perfectly, I'm sure, functional fine-playing guitar.
GUEST:
Yes. Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And probably sounds, sounds great. But, value-wise, this guitar, with the changed body, is worth approximately $8,000 to $10,000 at retail.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
If this thing was original right now, it would probably be worth about $40,000, uh, at retail.
GUEST:
I'm going to keep it and continue playing it, continue to love it and enjoy it. To honor my son, Jason.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
Appraisal Details
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