1960 Gibson Les Paul Guitar

Appraised on: July 23, 2011

Appraised in: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Appraised by: Jim Baggett

Category: Musical Instruments

Episode Info: Tulsa, Hour 3 (#1603)

Originally Aired: January 16, 2012

IMAGE: 1 of 3  

Appraisal Video: (1:34)

GUEST: This young kid had it way back in the '60s, and I don't know if he needed the money or why he wanted to sell it or just didn't play the guitar. And at that time I thought, "Well, my dad had a violin, I'll buy a guitar and play and record with him," and that's what he wanted to do.

APPRAISER: So you've had it since then?

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: You bought it in about 1960?

GUEST: Yeah, about '65, probably. I think we paid about $85 for it.

APPRAISER: Okay, okay. Well, when you bought the guitar it was probably about five years old, because it's a 1960. It's a Les Paul Junior. This was a fairly inexpensive model at the time, but an extremely well-built model and has become really popular with players. It's as good to play today as it was the day it was made. And where has the guitar been all this time?

APPRAISER: Well, I've had it in my house and then my grandson wanted to have the guitar to play in a little band. And then I thought, well, it's a Les Paul Junior, and on Antiques Roadshow, I've seen that they're not for free, you know. So I said, "Nicholas, "you're going to put that underneath the bed and go buy a different guitar." So it's been at my daughter's house and I haven't... this is the first I've seen it for many years, really.

APPRAISER: It's very well-kept. I'd say you made a pretty good investment from... you said $85?

GUEST: Yep. $85.

APPRAISER: Even in this market, they've gone down a bit, but I can conservatively say in a retail environment, this guitar is worth about $5,500 to $6,000.

GUEST: Oh, that sounds very nice. That's a good investment.