GUEST: Well, my father-in-law played in a cowboy band back in the '50s and '60s. And he bought this guitar in 1954 for $300, and played it for several years, and then it kind of got put in the basement for about 50 years, and he passed away a couple of years ago and gave it to my husband. He so enjoyed it his whole life. And my husband plays the guitar and he wanted my husband to have it, so... Here we are today.
APPRAISER: You brought in a Fender Esquire, different from the Telecaster in the sense that it only is fitted out with one pickup, which gives it this wonderful, twangy, hard sound that country-western players loved.
GUEST: Ah, okay.
APPRAISER: Which is why he probably chose this guitar.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: It is the guitar that Stephen Stills built a career on. It's a guitar that David Bromberg built a career on. It is the model of guitar that Bruce Springsteen built his career on. There's a lot of different methodologies of dating these instruments, one of which is to pull the instrument apart and look at the dating processes inside. But we don't need to do that today. We're going to sort of unweave a little puzzle here that's sort of put together.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Um, great, great instrument, survives with its original bridge cover that they call the ashtray.
GUEST (chuckling): Oh, yeah, I see it.
APPRAISER: And that's why they call it that. And the bridge bears a serial number, and that serial number is 0-3-4-9. Pretty early for Fender. Between 1950 and 1952, this series of serial numbers pops up. But we're not sure where in the equation.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: So, we want to look at it a little bit closer, and when we turn it around and look at the back, where later serial numbers turn up, on the neck plate...
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: There's nothing here.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: That's a good thing. We don't want to see anything there. But suddenly, we see the screws are Phillips head screws-- these four bolts that hold the neck in place-- and that tells me that it was made at some point in 1952, because prior to 1952...
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: Straight screws. Straight screws.
GUEST: Ah! Interesting.
APPRAISER: Like the screws used on the pick guard. Fabulous condition on this instrument. And it has something else, another determinant of value, and that is freshness to the market. I would advise an insurance valuation on this guitar of $35,000.
GUEST: Oh, my gosh. Okay. My husband will be very happy. (both laughing)