For some people, selling goods at the Treasure Hunters Roadshow in Middletown has been music to their ears — particularly if the good was a guitar.
The Roadshow, which evaluates valuables and antiques, has been at the Manchester Inn since Tuesday; today, Oct. 24, is its last day.
Many items, even if they’re antiques, haven’t been fetching high prices in the weak economy, said Greg Taylor, a manager at the Middletown show. However, gold, silver and guitars are the exceptions.
“Gold and silver prices are so high, and with vintage guitars, the wood they used can’t be reproduced today,” Taylor said.
For example, earlier this week in Middletown, someone brought in a Gibson ES 330 from the early 1960s. It sold for $300 when it was new, but a collector bought it for $4,500, said Taylor.
Someone else brought in a gold coin from 1871 that had a face value of $20, but sold for $3,500.
The Treasure Hunters Roadshow looks somewhat similar to “Antiques Roadshow” on PBS, but experts there appraise items for insurance purposes, Taylor said. The Treasure Hunters Roadshow buys items for collectors and gives the sellers a check.
As of Friday afternoon, 312 people had visited the show since it started Tuesday. Taylor didn’t have local sales figures but said a typical week brings in $100,000 or more.
Kim Holt of Middletown came to sell off some coins and “did pretty well.”
A man from Springboro, who asked not to be identified, was trying to sell a Disney toy train set that he guessed dated from the 1940s or ’50s. He was offered $300 for it, but decided to try his luck on eBay, where the same set sold for $600.

It may sound like rock-opera fiction, but it happens: Weekend Warrior hits garage sale and buys dusty old Fender guitar for $50 (or, cleans attic and finds the Gibson he bought in high school for $100). He visits a guitar shop in "Antiques Road Show" fashion -- and discovers the "beat-up axe" is a vintage collectible, worth $10,000. Or $20,000. Or $100,000.

The vintage guitar market has declined like other investments in this recession. But if you have cash to seed a small collection, why not start a fun hobby that's financially savvy? After all, when your 401K takes a beating, you're broke. When your vintage guitar takes a beating, it may continue to appreciate anyway, just because it looks so cool. Besides, who ever plugged a stock portfolio into a Vox amplifier and woke the neighbors?

I tapped a veteran vintage guitar expert, Wayne Sefton, owner of Midwest Buy and Sell in Chicago since 1990, for tips on what to look for when building your own collection. (His Web site is being revised; visit his MySpace page here.) Sefton has sold instruments to Wilco, Franz Ferdinand and Death Cab for Cutie. And in a 2002 Chicago Tribune article (now only available via an old Geocities link), I rated Wayne's shop as Chicago's coolest and friendliest, along with Terry Straker's Guitar Works in Evanston, Ill.

Here are Wayne's five tips for starting a valuable vintage guitar collection on a budget -- in this case, less than $5,000 per instrument, usually 10-years-old or more.

1) Buy brands collectors love. Sefton says Fender and Gibson are heritage brands bound to rise in value. Rickenbackers (played by the Beatles, Byrds and Tom Petty) are a bargain because even the rarest often sell for under $5,000. "They're great American-made guitars," Sefton says.) Avoid overseas brands.

2) Beware eBay. Guitars get bid into a frenzy there. "There's also a lot of shill bidding going on," Sefton warns. "They'll start stuff at $2,000 you can easily buy for $1,500 elsewhere." Plus, you can't pick up and play the guitar if it's halfway across the country.

3) Get an honest appraisal. Guitar Center chain stores can't do it; they may even try to give much less than your attic axe is worth. But guitar genius George Gruhn of Gruhn's Guitars in Nashville, does appraisals for the bargain price of $50. Many (including this writer) think Gruhn's is the best in the business, and so does Sefton. "I' do written appraisals for free, but that's because I'm a nice guy," he says, laughing.

4) Inspect for cracks, replacement parts and playability. A re-glued neck, refinish, or new tuners can drive a guitar's value down, Sefton says. If the guitar is all original and "mint," that's great. But so are older Fender Stratocasters and Gibson Les Pauls with that "road-worn" look. "Make sure the neck is good and playable," Sefton adds.

5) Relationships matter. Sefton takes time to educate and advise his customers, steering them toward smart investments. (Instruments I've bought on his advice have appreciated up to 300%.) "Get to know who you're dealing with," Sefton says, noting that a dealer wanting your money is far different from a dealer earning your loyalty.

Everywhere John Entwistle went, his one-of-a-kind bass guitar and "Boris the Spider" necklace usually went with him.
Now The Who bassist has gone where his belongings can't travel — he died of a heart attack in 2002 — and his beloved Buzzard bass and Boris necklace remain behind.
They're more than just mere belongings, though.
They're artifacts from the golden age of rock 'n' roll.
"He changed the face of music," said friend Steve Luongo, who drummed in The John Entwistle Band.
Those same artifacts are on display this weekend at Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center — along with other Who memorabilia, vintage rock posters from the 1960s and ’70s, signed guitars and more.
It’s probably the highest-profile event ever held at the fledgling art center, said center director Jim Griffith.
Sure, he said, they’ve had big-name Broadway actors and jazz musicians.
“But this is rock n’ roll,” he said. “It’s a whole other audience.”
In all, there will be 800-1,000 pieces in the show, said Paul Cola, a board member for The John Entwistle Foundation. The exhibit — plus an invitation-only party Sunday night — is a fundraiser for the foundation, which helps sick and poor kids get access to musical instruments and training.
The show features other rock memorabilia, including about 30 guitars signed by The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Sammy Hagar, James Taylor and more. All those are for sale.
But the Entwistle items, organizers said, should be the biggest draw.
Before those things arrived at the center, though, most of them lived at Luongo’s south Fort Myers house. Luongo is a former drummer for Mountain, Rat Race Choir and The John Entwistle Band (best known for “Horror Rock,” the theme song in the cartoon Van-pires”).
Recently, Luongo showed off many of those pieces to a visiting news-press.com reporter. From a back room, he hauled out a black guitar case, clicked open the latches and carefully lifted the lightweight, angular Buzzard bass into the light.
“That’s the one,” Luongo said. “That’s an old friend.”
He smiled weakly.
“I sat next to him every night and listened to it bark,” Luongo explained. “For years.”
For Luongo, these pieces are more than just memorabilia.
They’re memories.
And this weekend’s event isn’t just any show. It’s a tribute to his best friend — a man who happened to be the bass player in one of the most important rock bands of all time, The Who.
The necklace and the bass guitar will sit alongside rare 45 RPM records from Entwistle’s personal collection, outfits he wore on tour with The Who, handwritten lyrics and pen-and-ink drawings of his bandmates.
The Boris the Spider necklace, of course, gets its name from the classic Who song written by Entwistle. The bassist commissioned the pendant — the first of several — to commemorate his first hit with the band.
At his house, Luongo lifted the top off a cardboard box to reveal the spider. Its onyx body and ruby eyes gleamed in the kitchen light. “Don’t worry,” he joked. “He’s been anesthetized.”
Luongo smiled.
“He probably won’t bite you,” he said.
The Boris necklaces were special to Entwistle, said his son, Chris Entwistle of Stroud in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It’s rare to find a photo without him wearing one version of the pendant.
“The spider became very much associated with him,” his son said. “He had to play the song at every concert.”
John Entwistle wrote the lighthearted tune after chatting with friends about movie stars and wondering aloud what kind of animal would best represent them. Horror actor Boris Karloff, they decided, would be a spider.
John Entwistle wrote the song the next day.
“He said it only took him seven minutes to write” his son said.
Each piece in the show triggers countless memories, Luongo said. He’s only now gotten to the point where he can do something like this: Talk openly about his friend and immerse himself again in Entwistle’s world.
The wound still aches. While showing off the memorabilia, Luongo accidentally stumbled upon an old photo from June 27, 1987 — the day he and Entwistle met.
“Wow,” Luongo said, his voice choked, his eyes tearing. “I didn’t know this was in here.”
It gets easier with each passing year, though.
“This is the first time I can talk about him without turning into an idiot,” Luongo said. “I still can’t listen to any of our records.
“It’s painful. It’s extremely painful.”

Rediscovering his inner Hendrix inspired Jazz Festival marketing vice-president Jacques-Andre Dupont to launch musical instrument shows and a blues camp.

If Jacques-André Dupont hadn’t had one of those benign midlife crises, it’s entirely possible that a depressed 15-year-old kid wouldn’t be healed by playing the blues this summer. If Dupont hadn’t rediscovered his inner Hendrix, guitar fanatics from all over the world might not have a place in Montreal to gather every year and talk guitar geek. Most important, if a meeting with Montreal International Jazz Fest sponsors hadn’t been cancelled at the last minute, he might never have walked into Steve’s Music Store in Toronto.
That unexpected visit to the music store in 2003 was the turning point. Dupont, the marketing and business development vice-president of the jazz festival’s company, Equipe Spectra, had just turned 40. He hadn’t picked up a guitar in a couple of decades, but with his meeting called off and time on his hands, he walked into Steve’s.
And he emerged with a Gibson ES-335.
“I took the train home and there was space to play,” Dupont said during a recent interview at an Eggspectations restaurant in the Plateau Mont-Royal. On the train ride, he hammered out some remembered blues licks. “I was like a kid,” he said. “From there, I got crazy.”
It wasn’t long before Dupont started collecting vintage guitars, creating, in the process, a Web site to connect with other collectors. Before long, the business and marketing man was right-braining his energy into promoting music-making as part of the festival. When his bosses, jazz fest honchos Alain Simard and André Ménard, gave him the green light, the Montreal Musical Instrument Show was born.
The first show in 2005 offered not only a showcase for all kinds of musical instruments, but hands-on attractions like lessons on how to play guitar in an hour (the main secret: knowing the chords A, E and D), djembe jams and successful workshops by the likes of Pat Metheny and John McLaughlin.
This year, the instrument show is back, featuring the usual displays, activities and the 100% Guitar series, which offers free nightly shows at the new MMIS-GM Pavilion.
An offshoot of the instrument show, focusing on Dupont’s first musical love, was inevitable. The Montreal Guitar Show made its solo debut in 2007. Classes, concerts and interactive activities for would-be fretburners became as successful as the guitar exhibitions showcasing the world’s best luthiers.
During the guitar show’s second year, singer-songwriter Francis Cabrel bought $70,000 worth of instruments, Dupont said.
“There are more guitars sold every year than all other instruments put together,” Dupont said. “Have you ever heard of a clarinet hero?”
This year, nine ticketed Guitarissimo concerts at Cinquième Salle of Place des Arts, by Stanley Jordan and Russell Malone, among others, are also part of the event. Free shows at the Hyatt Regency Hotel between July 3 and 5 make up the Guitar Guitar series. The guitar show itself moves to the Palais des Congrès, near the jazz festival site.
As always, Dupont said, state-of-the-art instruments by the world’s best luthiers will make it the place for guitar fanatics from all over the globe to admire, discuss, buy, sell, try out and generally drool over some wondrous high-end axes. And this year, acoustic and electric models will each get their own room for exhibitors, mini-concerts, lectures and workshops, Dupont said.
If one of Dupont’s jazz festival projects seems close to his heart, it’s the Blues Camp, which, he said, was born of his desire to bring teenagers into the jazz festival. The day camp, offered in French, gives young musicians between 13 and 17 a chance to immerse themselves in the magic 12 bars in all their manifestations over a seven-day period.
While drums, piano, bass, horns and harmonica figure into the camp’s daily schedule, guitar – a staple of modern blues – is a heavy presence.
The rules are intricate, with an audition process that whittles about 400 applicants from all over Quebec down to 100 finalists. More rigourous interviews leave 55 standing. That group will spend an intensive week soaking up instruction from teachers and mentors, writing songs and forming bands – six groups, divided according to age. On the last day of the festival, the bands play an outdoor show on the Club Jazz TD Canada Trust stage.
Dupont said he has observed the life-changing effect of the event during the interview process. “I hear so many things like ‘I tried to kill myself and the guitar was the way I found to survive,’ or ‘I lost my mother and my dad this year and music is the way I get through.’ I even saw a 13-year-old boy who said to me: ‘I want to be the next Nina Simone,’ ’’ Dupont said.
“I see the impact,” he said. “I see that we do a job not enough people are doing. There’s less and less music in schools. Somebody has to step up to the plate.”
The Montreal International Jazz Festival’s third Montreal Guitar Show will be at the Palais des Congrès July 3 to 5. The fourth annual Blues Camp runs from July 6 to 12. The fifth annual Montreal Musical Instrument Show will be at the Village de la musique from July 10 to 12, although some activities are offered throughout the festival.

The Montreal International Jazz Festival runs from Tuesday to July 12. For further details, go to montrealjazzfest.com or montrealgazette.com/festivalcentral