GUEST: Well, it was my, uh, dad's, he bought it in 1953, uh, from a pawn shop in Dallas. He, uh, scraped up money and went, uh, hitchhiked there and bought it at a pawn shop. I know it says 1952 on the neck.
APPRAISER: On the end of the neck. So you've taken the neck off, and, and...
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Does it have also some initials?
GUEST: I know it has TG-825-52 on the neck.
APPRAISER: We can look down here to confirm that date of 1952 by the serial number, which is stamped on the bridge. Also, it has pole pieces on the pickup that are even across the top instead of at different heights. And another characteristic of 1952 being sort of a transitional year is that you have a mixture of slotted screws in the top holding in the pick guard, and two Phillips-style screws on either end of the control plate. So, transitional year, 1952, probably late in the year. But I want to talk a little bit about those initials that are on the end. TG were the initials of Tadeo Gomez, who was almost by now a legendary neck carver for Fender. Worked there a long, long time. And today, instruments that are made with his necks are the most highly esteemed from the period. When you plug them in, it's true what they say about the old ones, that they are real screamers. Have you had any kind of a, an evaluation done on it?
GUEST: No, we looked on the internet, it, it was about... We thought it was about $10,000, uh, five year...
APPRAISER: Well...
GUEST: Four or five years ago.
APPRAISER: Okay. I would conservatively rate this at about $25,000 as a bottom end.
GUEST: Uh-huh. But probably closer to $30,000, because it's so clean, for the year, and just in consideration that it is Tadeo Gomez.
APPRAISER: Wow.
GUEST: So a collector would mean a great deal.
APPRAISER: (chuckles) Okay.
