Autographed Electric Guitar
Watch
APPRAISER:
I always thought I was the ultimate music fan until I met you today. And here we have this guitar, 150 signatures on this, some of the biggest names in music. Everyone from Johnny Cash to Johnny Winter, and it took you 16 years to accrue these. Let's flip this over. How did you decide to do this? Why? It's such a journey.
GUEST:
When I got the guitar, it had been painted-- model paint-- by someone, and so I took it, stripped that off, carved the front of it and cut 23 spaces along the center of the back.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
Those got filled a lot quicker than I had anticipated, and it ended up where it is now.
APPRAISER:
How did you decide who to go after?
GUEST:
There was no real rhyme or reason-- people I appreciated-- and had them sign for that.
APPRAISER:
We span everything from jazz to bluegrass to country to rock 'n' roll. I see one here, fabulous musician, unfortunately no longer with us, Stevie Ray Vaughan. You said he was one of your favorites. How'd you get him?
GUEST:
Yeah, he was a really nice guy. I had gone down to Louisville, which is fairly close, and it was a general admission concert. I went down the night before and was there first thing in the morning, not knowing when he would arrive, and it started snowing. His tour bus pulled up, and he invited me on. So then, I'm there talking to him and he's signing my guitar--really, really nice guy.
APPRAISER:
We've got Dizzy Gillespie down here. We've got Chick Corea. Peter, Paul, and Mary, all together. It's a "who's who." The way I would appraise this guitar is, A, I'm looking at the fact that you have everyone from Bonnie Raitt to Don Was, John Denver. You have Timothy Leary--going back to the acid age of the '60s. Johnny Cash, Elton John, David Crosby, Aretha Franklin, Bill Monroe--bluegrass. So when you take that breadth and width of musicians all together and put them into 150, it's amazing. A lot of them may not be rare and each one of them separately may not be worth much, but you put them all together and that is quite a grouping, plus the fact of the time. I mean, how many hours do you think you spent on the road?
GUEST:
I couldn't begin to tell you. Way a lot. I really enjoy it, and these are people who I've greatly admired, and it was a chance to actually get to meet them as well.
APPRAISER:
Absolutely. So that's really the thrill for you, is that you get to meet these musicians. So looking at all of this, I would put an auction estimate of the guitar for about $4,000 to $6,000.
GUEST:
Wow, thank you.
Appraisal Details
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
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."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
