Latest news with #guitars
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Rare guitars donated to Witney charity shop fetch £12,000 at auction
A collection of rare guitars anonymously donated to a charity shop, including two favoured by Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan, have fetched more than £12,000 at six valuable guitars and an amp were donated to the Oxfam shop in Witney towards the end of last been assessed by shop volunteers, the guitars were quickly identified as being potentially very valuable and went up for auction last week, where they raised £12, those sold was a Gibson Custom Shop Banner 1942 J-45 acoustic guitar, which was a personal favourite of Elvis Presley. It sold for £2,200, whilst a Martin D-28 acoustic guitar - favoured by artists like Dylan and Neil Young - fetched £3,400. Explaining how he and his fellow Witney volunteers received the donation, Chris Meadows said: "Near the end of last year, a chap came in and asked if we took in guitars as donations.""I don't know anything about guitars, but I remember seeing the cases and thinking they looked valuable – not knowing quite how valuable they were."Mr Meadows said he and his fellow volunteers researched the collection and "pretty quickly realised how special" the guitars were."The very generous gentleman who donated them must have known they were very valuable, and knew what kind of money they might be able to help make for Oxfam," he added. The collection, which was sold at Ewbank's auction house in Woking, Surrey, also included a Gibson ES 335 electric guitar and a Gretsch White Falcon G6136-55VS electric Silke, Ewbank's Music Valuer, said each one of the guitars would be "high on any guitar players' dream list"."Instruments of this quality and condition don't come in every day so this was a very special and generous donation. It is fantastic that they have been able to raise so much money for Oxfam," he said. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Starter music instruments & tariffs: basic instruments could go up in price
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Another industry may bear the brunt of international tariffs between the US and China: starter music instruments. Joe Chiappone has owned Northfield Music in Pittsford for 42 years specializing in guitars and guitar accessories. He estimates that about 75% of his inventory comes from overseas, which doesn't account for the Asia-made parts in American guitars. He says that he seen more products go up about 5% to 10% this year, including starter guitars, many of which are made in China. Chiappone is keeping his prices lower, despite some manufacturers increasing the cost in their back stock. 'We've tried to put that off as long as we can, so when a new product comes in, we're paying more, and we're going to put new stickers on them,' he said. 'But we've got a bunch of items that are still at the old price.' Northfield Music is at 50 State Street, tucked in a shopping center next to Schoen Place. For Payton Violins in the City of Rochester, rentals are about 10% of their business, but is headed by sales and repairs. A number of those rental instruments are starter violins from China, which the owner of Payton Violins, Samuel Payton says are cheap and easy to play. The Peterson Institute of International Economics estimates that Chinese instruments account for 83% of us imports in this market. With the tariffs as constituted, the price of newly made and bought instruments could go up 145%. Payton says that many of the Chinese models in his rental fleet are a couple of hundred bucks. Even at their rental price point, it takes them three years to earn back the cost of the instrument. They have plenty in stock, but if they have to order more, Payton Violins may have to eat that increase. 'It's not a huge part of the business financially, but it's a really important part of the business in developing young players,' he said. 'And if we can't develop young players, we can;t get advanced players who invest in finer instruments… So it's crucial for the longevity of a business to have a connection with young players and to build those relationships.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to RochesterFirst.
