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SALT LAKE CITY -- Do you have some old musical instruments tucked away in a closet or down in the basement that haven't been played in a long time?
If you have some items that are pre-1970, you should head to the Red Lion Hotel in downtown Salt Lake this week.
The International Vintage Guitar Collectors Association is hosting a vintage guitar show, and they're looking to increase the collection. If you have an instrument that you haven't played since you were in that garage band way back -- these folks will probably buy it.
Wednesday, Sam Smith brought in a dusty guitar case and pulled out a well-worn, oft-played Gibson Les Paul electric guitar. It's one of many guitars that he owns but no longer needs.
As the front man to the "Samuel Smith Band," he's looking for some extra cash.
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Whether it's the need for gas money or just to clean out the basement, people are lining up all this week to see if their old instruments are really worth anything.
But the group isn't just buying guitars. "We're looking at banjos, saxophones, flutes, trumpets...the whole entire realm," said spokesman Noah Wenger with THR Associates. "Basically if it plays, we write checks on the spot for those instruments."
The International Vintage Guitar Collectors Association holds buying shows like this all over the country. It also represents collectors looking for particular instruments.
The setting is similar to the PBS TV show "Antiques Roadshow." People will sit down with an expert who will give the instrument the once-over. They're not appraised, but if the instrument meets certain criteria, a database is checked to see if a collector is looking for such an instrument. If so, the sale is made.
"We don't only look at top name-brand instruments, we look at student-grade instruments as well," Wenger said. "Everything from entry-level to professional is what we look at."
Sometimes, it's a good chunk of change.
"We bought a Gibson ES 345 yesterday, a 1962, that we wrote a check for $10,000 for," Wenger said. "So yeah, pretty cool."
No appointment is necessary to have your instrument examined. And even if you're not sure whether it's worth much, bring it down anyway.
Red Lion Hotel
161 W. 600 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Thursday: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Friday: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
"We're all guitar geeks," Wenger said. "We love to take a look at the instruments to get an idea of when the guitar was made, and whether or not it was worth more than the person thought it was worth. We love seeing the smile of a person's face when they tell us that they bought it for $150 back in 1955 and now it's worth 40 grand!"
Instrument owners aren't the only ones attending the show. Some folks are stopping by just to look and dream.
A man who identified himself only as Dave said, "These are great vintage guitars that we've all played as kids and brings lots of memories back. Really cool."
The show runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday at the Red Lion at 161 W. 600 South in Salt Lake City.
Email: kmccord@ksl.com
