GUEST: My grandfather gave me this guitar when I was about 12, 12 or 13, 1967 or '68. And it's a 1955.
APPRAISER: It's from late 1955, which is about two years after it was introduced.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And this guitar was $325 in 1955 when it was new.
GUEST: That's a lot of money.
APPRAISER: That was a lot of money in 1955.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: It was Gibson's attempt to come up with a fancier, more deluxe Les Paul. So it had a lot of features that the regular Les Paul lacked, including all the extra black and white binding around the edges,
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: and the pearl inlay on the Fingerboard had better tuners than the regular Les Paul. The split block pearl inlay on the head stock. So it was a serious...
GUEST: Fancy.
APPRAISER: ...serious piece of gear, and a major step up from the regular Les Paul, which had a gold top at this point.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: So this was quite different, you would have-- if you saw them both in the showroom, there would be this kind of gold, metal flake colored Les Paul, and then this one, which they called "The Black Beauty,"
GUEST: Ah.
APPRAISER: 'cause it was pearl, and white, and black, and very dramatic.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: So it came in two versions. So one version had a Bigsby tail piece with a vibrato. And the other version had a stoptail piece. This guitar originally had the stoptail piece, but whoever had it wanted to be able to, you know, use a whammy bar
GUEST: Yeah. (laughs)
APPRAISER: and so they filled the holes for the stoptail piece.
GUEST: Ah.
APPRAISER: And bought this after-market tailpiece with the whammy bar on it. That was a major, major change, but it meant that they could get that, you know, kind of tremolo sound. Unfortunately, that didn't do a lot for its value.
GUEST: Lowers the value.
APPRAISER: It's a really nice version, it has, you know, all its original hardware, except for that change, and the original case, and the finish has some wear, but it's all what we would call honest wear.
GUEST: Yeah, it's been played.
APPRAISER: Tell us about what you played on it.
GUEST: I played... "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," and "Evil Ways," and all kinds of music like that in an all-girl band in the '70s.
APPRAISER: How many years did that band last?
GUEST: One. (laughing) One and a half, maybe. But we had two or three gigs.
APPRAISER: In its current condition, in a vintage specialty shop, it would probably sell for about $12,000.
GUEST: Awesome.
APPRAISER: But that's about two-thirds of what it would sell for if it hadn't been modified.
GUEST: Oh...
APPRAISER: So a 1955 with its original stoptail piece in the same condition would be closer to $18,000, maybe even $20,000.
GUEST: Yeah. Well, that's okay, it's a family heirloom, and it's going to stay in the family. Get the band back together.
APPRAISER: Lots of times people do that. They'll track down the ol' pals and...
GUEST: Yeah, lots of times they shouldn't.
