Vintage Gibson guitar now worth $30,000

WATERLOO — The phone line crackled along with the 92-year-old voice speaking over it.

"I got this here old gee-tar and I want to sell it," a voice from Iowa told Mark Stutman.

Yet Stutman didn't fret. These cold calls, with six strings attached, come into his vintage guitar shop in Waterloo all the time. The World Wide Web makes it simple for anybody to dial up Stutman's Folkway Music on Dupont Street.

Just another day in the international bygone-instrument biz.

Send us some photos and we'll have a gander at this archaic axe, Stutman instructed the caller.

That was two years ago. Six months later an envelope arrived, Stutman said.

Inside were blurry, processed-film pictures of a pristine guitar. It wasn't garish or covered in pearl inlay. But it was pre-Pearl Harbor with a spectacular sunburst finish.

The photos were murky but they were revealing to Stutman's experienced eye. This was no beaten-up banjo or mangled mandolin that would waste his time.

It was a Kalamazoo-built Gibson J-35 dating back to 1941.

"I could tell enough — that it was a really rare model," he said. "It was totally original and it was in perfect condition. That's all I needed to know."

So, 16 months ago, Stutman flew to Iowa and bought it as an investment piece.

The round-shouldered guitar the old man bought for $35, before shipping out to the Pacific to serve in the Second World War, is now worth $30,000 Canadian, Stutman said. With the loonie's decline working in his financial favour — vintage guitars sell in American dollars — he's taking offers for the guitar now.

Email inquiries have come in from Europe, Japan and the U.S., he said.

The original J-35 model was only produced for a few years after The Great Depression. Gibson revived the line after our most recent recession as a cut-rate acoustic.

Original J-35s, worn and weary, come through Folkway Music every so often. The store sold one about two years ago and has flipped about eight of them over the years.

Stutman won't reveal what he paid for the guitar, or the identity of the original owner, but he says the man's daughters were downsizing their father's belongings when they discovered the Gibson in the basement of the family's original home.

They had no idea he played guitar. He had hidden it from his kids so they wouldn't ruin it by mucking with it. His protectionist policy paid off over 70-plus years.

The mahogany back and sides are still magnificent. The spruce top remains spiffy.

"The combination of rarity and condition make it the splash it is," said Stutman, who had coffee and an afternoon chat with the guitar's owner in Iowa before the purchase.

So, from an Iowa cellar to a Waterloo seller, J-35's journey has only begun, but its long decades of sitting silent and untouched may finally be over.

"They're loud guitars," Stutman said. "The trebles are very thick, full and rich. You don't often find that in a guitar that has big bass."

So it's not all about that bass after all. It's the timeless treble in a bottom-end vintage guitar that might deliver modern musical richness

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