Appraised by George Gruhn in February 2014 for $5,000.00 {appraisal included}. Check my other sales for lots of cool guitar related vintage items. Thanks!Buy your new or vintage Danelectro from the experts. We wrote the book! Neptune Bound...The Ultimate Danelectro Guitar Guide.Check out the DEFINITIVE online vintage Danelectro site: WWW.DANELECTRO.GURUCheck out the LARGEST Facebook Danelectro community: \"The Danelectro Fan Club\"A truly rare opportunity on this one of a kind piece of genuine documented guitar history. Do a Google search on Vincent Bell. He\'s a living legend in the music industry. This rare one of a kind R&D instrument is featured in the book \"Neptune Bound, The Ultimate Danelectro Guitar Guide\". Note: The first three pics were taken in Vincent Bell\'s home in New Jersey. This is a working prototypeof a Silvertone/Danelectro model #1449 guitarwith stand that wasconceived, built, & paintedby thelegendary Vincent Bell in late 1961in the Danelectro factoryfor the sole purpose of Research and Development including testing neck pitch and neck relief designs, testing neck materials, and many other of Bell\'s design concepts in that period. These tests resulted directly in the development of Danelectro\'s innovative ‘Neck Tilt’ design, left un-patented by Danelectro, and as a result, later patented by Leo Fender as the \"Micro-Tilt\".It served as a test instrument for seven years until 1969 when the Neptune, N.J. Danelectro factory closed down for good. Vincent Bell took this ‘Neck Jig’ home with him and it resided in his basement for the next 39 years until 2008 when I purchased it directly from him. Unique to the guitar is the absence of the steel truss rods present in all Danelectro built instruments. This lack of a truss rod accommodated the bolts that threaded directly into the back of the neck right through to the fingerboard. It was purposely built this way by Vincent Bell. No headstock logo was ever applied. No serial number assigned. No strap buttons were ever installed. No strap button holes were ever drilled. No \"Neck-Tilt\" slug in the neck heel. The pick guard mounting screw nearest the input jack was never installed/drilled either. This was not a regular production guitar pulled off the line but was built specifically by Vincent Bell for the intended purpose...R&D testing. It is however, a fully functioning instrument. The jig attached to the neck can be removed, as well as the guitar detached from the stand. It includes a signed and notarized document from Vincent Bell and a Gruhn appraisal dated February 2014.George Gruhn\'s appraisal quote: \"It is difficult to apply normal standards of supply, demand and prior precedent to pieces such as this, however, based on over 45 years experience dealing musical instruments, I believe this guitar would have a current market value of $5,000 {five thousand dollars}.\" Your offerding on the EXACT item described & pictured. If you have any questions or need a better description, just ask. I always consolidate shipping on multile purchases.

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