GUEST: My father bought it in 1956 from a little shop in Greensboro, North Carolina. So he's had it since it was new. He had recently taken his collection of guitars and had split them up amongst family, and this is the one that I wound up with. He used this guitar for many years playing in local bands in North Carolina. He played in a band called The Spectaculars, and while he was with The Spectaculars, they actually cut a record called "Boo-Da-Rac-Ka-Sacky." Sales weren't spectacular, but the band was spectacular.

APPRAISER: All right.

GUEST: And he taught guitar for many, many years, so music has been a big part of his life always. Now it's mine and I don't play the guitar, I don't know much about it, so I'm hoping you can tell me.

APPRAISER: Fred Gretsch was always known for making fancy guitars, visually flashy guitars. It's got the orange finish. This is a 6120, that's the model. Most people, when they think of Gretsch, they think of Chet Atkins, because that's a very famous player. It's a Chet Atkins model. Chet Atkins was an iconic endorser of Gretsch, played Gretsches his whole life. This particular guitar looks to be made out of what we call birch, probably veneer. Top, sides and back. The neck is maple, the front board is rosewood.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Pretty common wood for what we call electric acoustic arch tops of the day. This is a Western motif model. Everything from the beautiful wood-branded G in here. And this one has the beautiful strap with the metal buckle, all in the Western motif.

GUEST: Is the case original, as well?

APPRAISER: The case is original also. They wanted the guitar to stand out. The white, or cream-colored case with the leather band. When we saw you walk into the show, we said, "There's a Gretsch." We knew it from a mile away. You have very slight corrosion on the pickup covers and then on the bridge, which means the guitar was used, but he took very good care of it. This has stayed in amazingly good condition. This guitar, new, was probably around $500 to $600, I'd be guessing.

GUEST: He said he paid $400 for it.

APPRAISER: Yeah. And there was a time when this guitar peaked a little higher than it is now. But even in today's market in a retail store, I think that this is easily a $7,500 guitar to an $8,500 guitar.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: So, and a very, very nice example and I'm so glad that you brought it in to show it to me. That's a great return on the investment, isn't it?

GUEST: That's awesome. Thank you so much.