GUEST: This guitar was purchased by my father, I believe, in the year 1962.

My dad was a Marine, and when he got out of the Marines, married my mom and moved to Minneapolis area and decided he wanted to learn how to play guitar.

So he went to the Minneapolis either "Star" or "Tribune" and looked in the, uh, ads, the... APPRAISER: The classified.

GUEST: In the classified ads.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: And he called, uh, the woman who was selling it, and she said, "Well, I bought it for my son, and he doesn't play it, and so I'm selling it."

And he asked her, "How much do you want for it?"

And she said, "Well, $300 for the amplifier, the guitar comes with a case, and, uh, the guitar."

And he thought that was a good enough bargain back in 1962... APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: ...to purchase it, and, uh... That was a good deal.

APPRAISER: This is a ES355.

The 335 came out in '58.

In '59, this was, model was introduced.

This particular one is mono.

Usually, these were stereo.

The mono's a little more desirable.

The Bigsby is factory.

The cherry in, from this era is unlike anything they ever did.

It's sort of a watermelon, it's just beautiful.

GUEST: Yeah.

Yeah, oh, I love the color.

APPRAISER: And they never really did that again, 'cause it is a stain.

This is late enough era that these pickups are patent applied for, or P.A.Fs., as they're known.

Sort of the Holy Grail of guitar pickups.

There's a certain era, late '59, part of '60, where Gibson ordered the wrong color, or somehow they got shipped the wrong color.

They're white coils, so...

I'm not going to take it apart.

We don't have the ability to do that here.

But if those are double-white P.A.Fs....

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER:...they're worth considerably more.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: It adds a lot of value to the guitar.

As much as maybe ten, ten grand, more.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Part of the thing that makes this package, so to speak, is the, the original case, and unusually, the original hang tag accompanies it, still.

And a lot of times, those things disappeared.

Makes it more collectible because it has all the juju that came with it.

GUEST: My father taught hims, himself how to play guitar.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: He played it his whole life, I've played it off and on.

My brother played it quite a bit, 'cause he lived closer.

The incredible fun it's created for us... APPRAISER: I'll bet.

GUEST: ...I, I can't tell you.

APPRAISER: I bet.

Well, do you want to know what, probably, market value is on this at this current time?

GUEST: Sure.

APPRAISER: Is roughly around $45,000.

GUEST: My father would be so incredibly pleased to find that out.

APPRAISER: And... And that's if it has the double whites, which, I'm assuming it probably does.

GUEST: Oh, my gosh.

That's, that's crazy.

My, my dad would be so proud to know that.

APPRAISER: If these are not double-white P.A.Fs., it's going to back it down a little bit.

Somewhere between $6,000 and $10,000.