The Vintage Room at Guitar Center's flagship Hollywood store has been an image that embodies the passion and commitment of our devotion to ensuring historic and interesting instruments are readily available to players and collectors. It's also become, through its exposure from social media, television productions, event livestreams and more, a tourist destination, hand-in-hand with Guitar Center’s RockWalk at the store's entrance. Recently, Guitar Center Vintage held a special, invitation-only vintage event at the Hollywood store to feature some of the most interesting, valuable and rare vintage guitars they've found over the past few years. We had a chance to pry Guitar Center Vintage Director Jack Hetherington and Nick Conte, one of their more experienced vintage buyers and appraisers, away from the preparations for a brief talk about some of the valuable pieces that would be available at this event.

One of the first instruments we discussed was a guitar of which only two exist in the world, a Telecaster prototype made of zebrawood. Dating to the 1970s, it seems to have been considered as a follow-up to the vaunted rosewood Tele that Fender had built a few years earlier, famously played by George Harrison in the film documenting the production of Let It Be. The guitar was discovered by Nick Conte at a guitar show in San Rafael, California. As Conte told us, "It's a prototype. I think there's two of them that were ever made. One of them's in the Fender book. This is the other one. It has a receipt with it that I think says, ‘NAMM Show prototype.’ It's just a really rare guitar." Hetherington added, "It's in awesome condition—a super well-preserved example of a very rare guitar. I've been doing this for 30 years at this point, and these things just don't pop up." For more Telecaster info, see our article on the History of the Fender Telecaster.

Pictured: 1970's Fender Zebrawood Telecaster Electric Guitar Prototype

Another instrument that Conte found at a guitar show is a Gibson Byrdland in a factory walnut finish. Conte said, "I'd never seen a Byrdland in walnut before. It’s in the Gibson ledgers as a Byrdland Special."  Verifying guitars like this one, which may be the only factory walnut finish Byrdland ever made, is an important and integral part of what Guitar Center Vintage does. As Hetherington noted, "There's a really stringent authentication process that's well established. We spend a lot of time before we make the decision on a piece, especially a high-value one. When you can get something—especially something that's so unique—to be backed up in the book … it just helps so much." As with the zebrawood Telecaster, there is supplementary documentation verifying the instrument’s provenance, as the original owner, guitarist Joyce Miller, had custom engraving done on the truss rod plate, and there are numerous photos of her playing the guitar.

Pictured: Custom Gibson Byrdland in Walnut

But it's not just at guitar shows where Guitar Center Vintage discovers unique treasures. Sometimes they simply show up, as is the case with our next example, a rare custom-finish 1965 Stratocaster in Sonic Blue. "I've seen maybe one or two other Sonic Blue guitars period in the last 20 or 25 years. There are just not a lot of them out there, and this one just walked into a store." As a side note, if you have the itch for a vintage Strat of your own, check our article and video on “How to Buy a Vintage Stratocaster.”

Pictured: 1965 Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar in Sonic Blue

Another guitar that just showed up is a 1972 Rickenbacker 331 "Light Show" guitar. One of the quirkier guitars that Rickenbacker produced, the 331 features a frosted Lucite top with a psychedelic color organ of lights beneath it. This one is particularly unusual in that it still has the original power supply, which often gets separated from the guitar over the years. As Hetherington observed, "It's got the kind of hippie, ’60s Summer of Love vibe ... it's just an interesting guitar that's exceptionally rare."

Pictured: 1972 Rickenbacker 331 "Light Show" Electric Guitar

Lest you think that Guitar Center Vintage only buys electrics, one of the treasures featured at this event was a 1936 Gibson Trojan acoustic. It was only in production for three months, with total production numbers as low as 39 (we haven’t been able to find a definitive source on that). The Trojan was Gibson's initial take on the "Jumbo" body style and would evolve into the J-35 and then the J-45, still in production today. With a smaller soundhole than the later Jumbos would have, the Trojan is a sweet-sounding acoustic with a highly individual voice, not just a historical curiosity. "It's an incredibly rare, cool acoustic," said Hetherington. "I personally have never seen one in person except this one."

Pictured: 1936 Gibson Trojan Acoustic Guitar

Also featured at the Vintage Room event were a matching pair of SG Standards in Gibson's Polaris White finish. What makes these so exceptional? Conte explained. "Usually it [Polaris White] is only on three pickup SGs [Customs] or SG Juniors, so to find a Standard is extremely rare in its own right. But to have two … they’ll never be in the same room again unless the same person buys both of them."

Pictured: 1965 Gibson SG Standard Electric Guitar in Polaris White

Chatting with Hetherington and Conte, one of the strongest impressions was the desire for stringent accuracy and a passion for the instruments themselves that permeated the entire discussion. When we mentioned this to the pair, they were effusive. "There's the process itself. I mean, it's very involved. It's taking guitars apart. It's pictures. It's blacklight pictures. It's Nick, reaching out to his numerous contacts in the business and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ The combined experience of the team is probably at this point like 150 years of doing vintage and buying and selling cool stuff. If they didn’t love it, they couldn’t do what they do, which is literally sit behind a laptop, take emails and messages, and phone calls all day every day about this stuff," said Hetherington.

While Guitar Center Vintage has certainly handled its share of historic and renowned instruments, that passion and stringency isn't just for the high-ticket items featured at high-profile, star-studded events like this one. "We might spend however many minutes—half an hour—talking about something that's an $800 Strat or amp that's a little bit unique or unusual, or you don't see every day. But it may take two or three hours—in some cases longer—to get all the team involved in the discussion and really get as close to being able to say we're confident that this is what we think it is." So, if you have always craved a particular vintage piece, or just wanted to own a vintage instrument, amp or piece of gear, please browse our vintage collection online or check your local Guitar Center store, and you may find the treasure you've always desired.