The guitar was a solid spruce and mahogany Martin D-18, and Shelby Williams was pretty stoked to have found it when he was just browsing through the clothes at the charity shop, as he told Wales Express.
“I thought it was valuable but didn’t know if it was real… It turns out it is like the Rolex of guitars,” says Williams. “The people in the shop didn’t know how much to charge for it and I didn’t know so I had to make a decision… It’s beautiful to play and was even in tune when I bought it.”
He then took it took it to be valued at a nearby music shop, as he wasn’t super convinced that it wasn’t fake, where it was found that the guitar was worth about 18 times as much as he had paid for it. “In 20 years here I have never seen anything like this,” says Steve Butler from the shop where it was valued. “The guitar he bought is worth £1,900. The case alone is worth £150. To open that up and see what was inside, well, I am curious to know who donated it to Ty Hafan.”
Williams has decided to auction the guitar off to finance his new tiling business, and says that he will donate some of the proceeds to the charity shop where he originally bought the guiar. So, next time you find yourself at the Salvos looking for a new flannie or a jacket, it might be worth having a quick look around the store to see if there’s any guitars on sale.
