Musical Instruments

1928 Gibson Granada Banjo

Transcript

GUEST: I've had it for about eight to ten years. My husband and I went to a storage unit sale. I saw this and another guitar, and I got it, and we've had it for that long a time. Have you had this appraised?

GUEST: I've had it appraised once, and they told me it was, like, between $2,500 and $4,000.

APPRAISER: Okay, and what did you pay for it?

GUEST: I paid three dollars.

APPRAISER: Three dollars?

GUEST: Three dollars.

APPRAISER: Three, three.

GUEST: For... three dollars. Like, three dollars?

GUEST: Three dollars. Okay. The materials is maple back and sides and the resonator and the neck. It's Brazilian rosewood fingerboard, which is endangered-- that require a CITES certificate, permit, to ship outside of the U.S. It's mostly original. This has been added, which is no big deal. It has a plug on its side.

GUEST: Yes.

GUEST: Which, this is not an electric banjo. What it is is, people would put lights inside for their show, which a lot of banjo players did back in the '30s, even the '40s. It has two Christmas lights that are easily taken out. This was a 1928 Gibson Granada banjo. This is a tenor banjo, which is a short-necked four-string. The only issue this has is, there is a crack in the headstock that somebody put a screw in.

GUEST: Oh, I didn't notice that.

GUEST: It's not a huge deal, and it can be fixed. It really doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Price-wise, a little bit. The gold plating is in pretty decent shape. There's engraving under here-- there's some oxidation. You have to be careful what you use to get this off. You can't use solvents, because it will take the plating off, too. Oddly enough, the best thing is saliva.

GUEST: Oh, wow. Really?

GUEST: To take it off.

GUEST: Oh.

GUEST: 'Cause it's just enough acid to break down the oxidation without damaging the plating. It's also a rosewood tone ring. You see the back of it.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And there's the damage, but it's pretty minor. But all that is repairable. Considering that, this has a retail value around $7,000.

GUEST: (both gasp) (chuckling) Wow. Oh, my. Wow, $7,000?

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: Oh, my goodness. (laughing) I did not expect that.

APPRAISER: No.

GUEST: I did not expect that.

APPRAISER: You don't want your three dollars back?