Auction Houses Capitalize On Vintage Guitar Mania
Several hundred guitars were sold at Guernsey’s “40 Years Of
Rock & Roll” auction held January 21 [1995] in New York City.
Bidding reached $425,000 for the 1948 Fender Broadcaster
prototype, but this was short of the seller’s minimum price
[$500,000] so the guitar was not sold.
-- Vintage Gallery, July 1995, page 4
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1949 FENDER BROADCASTER PROTOTYPE
This may not be the most beautiful or finely crafted guitar in
the world (in fact, it’s downright butt-ugly), but it is undoubt-
edly one of the most historically important instruments of the
20th century. In 1949, Leo Fender completed his first solid-
body prototype, which became the template for one of the
most popular and enduring electric guitars ever built, the
Broadcaster (which was later dubbed the Telecaster). Al-
though the prototype differs slightly from the final version
of the Broadcaster (the prototype has a three-on-a-side
tuner configuration, a small pickguard, angled controls and
a crude sliding pickup cover), it has the same body shape,
angled bridge pickup and bolt-on neck construction as the
Broadcaster.
After being displayed to the public for the first time ever in
1994, as part of the Fullerton Museum’s “50 Years Of Fen-
der” exhibit, the guitar was sold to a private collector for
$375,000, the highest price ever paid for a [non-celeb-
rity] guitar. There may be earlier solidbody guitars (such as
those made by Les Paul, O.W. Appleton and Paul Bigsby),
but this axe was the cornerstone of the world’s largest and
most successful electric guitar company.
-- Guitar World, May 1997, page 64
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