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I feel unable to provide an appraisal on your prototype Travis Bean. Any appraisal offered on an instrument of this type would be purely subjective. There simply is no “going market rate” for a prototype, especially serial number 1. Based on the fact that you have a letter from Travis Bean stating that it was in his personal collection and is number 1, I assume that either you or the person you got it from got it directly from Travis Bean. If you purchased it from him, I suggest that you use the invoice from him for the purchase price you paid as an appraisal for insurance purposes. This is not an item that can be given a monetary value based on supply, demand, and prior precedent and is not one I feel comfortable trying to appraise.



Sincerely,

George Gruhn

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Travis Beans Dating and Running Changes

There is also a question of dating Travis Beans and finding when a particular guitar was manufactured. Obivously the serial number goes along way to determining the date with higher numbers being produced later in the years of production. Some direction can be provided by looking at changes in production as well.

Serial Numbers:

Serial numbers can be very confusing. To date every theory or pattern that I've see put forth has proven to be flawed by epirical evidence. The following serial number schema may ressemble some truth, but it has been proven to be somewhat incorrect: Serial numbers are not unique number across all Travis Beans. All production model lines began numbering with #10. For the Wedge, the Bass, and the Model-500 models, serial numbers were unique for each of the three models. That is to say that each of these three models started with #10 and incremented upward as models were produced (to illustrate this point, there was a Bass #10, a Model-500 #10, and a Wedge #10). There are some Wedges numbered higher than #1000. Artists and Standards shared the same pool of numbers in the range of #10 through #1000. At #1001, the Artist and the Standard each began its own numbering (so there was only one Artist/Standard #1000 but there were two #1001's, one Standard and one Artist).

Regarding early serial numbers. I've mentioned here that production for each model began at #10, however over the years several Travis Beans have surfaced with lower numbers. These might have been prototype guitars and its possible that they didn't make 10 of each as prototypes. Early Model-500's were also manufactured without the Imron coating. These would be the rarest of all Model-500s numbering 20 or less.

There was a Travis Bean registry in the late 1990s run by Jodi Shapiro. It has since disappeared, but prior to that, I collected all serial numbers and models from that registry. Recently, I found about 100 form the old registry were not in the active registry at www.travisbeanguitars.com. Here is a list of those guitars.

Other than serial numbers, Travis Beans can be generally dated by production model changes and model introductions. The Model 500's were not produced until around late 1976, with most of them being produced from 1977 to 1978. Wedge guitars were probably not made much past 1977. Otherwise, other models were produced from 1974 to 1979.

In 1977, the shape of the horns on the Standard/Artist body design was changed. The horns became longer and the body width at the area of the horns became wider. This happened between Artist numbers of 1097 and 1145, and on Standard between 1215 and 1315.

In 1978, the Standard/Artist bodies became thinner. By Artist number 1028 the thinner body was in use. On the Standards the change occured sometime between 1315 and 1559. One could spectulate that it was done to either save weight, cut production costs or both. Either way, a Travis Bean prior to this change was 1-3/4" thick and the later ones were 1-3/8" thick. This change occured with Artists and Standards, I don't know if the Basses were changed. Most likely the Model 500's were changed as well.

Some early Artists were built with Ebony fretboards. Sales literature picked up at a music store in early 1976 described the Artist as only being available with an ebony fretboard (it is likely early Artists were also delivered with rosewood fretboards). In 1976-77 the switch was made to making all guitars with rosewood fretboards. An Artist with an Ebony fretboard could most likely be dated prior to 1977.

Serial number stamped into the head unit of the guitar where matched to serial numbers inked on the guitar body. The inked number was written inside the control cavity, and sometimes under the bridge plate. This was the initial intent and most likely holds true for many guitars, however problems must have arose that caused production to stray from this practice. Many guitars have been found to have mismatched neck number and inked numbers. I discovered this when I bought an unused guitar body several years ago. It was said to have been a left over after the business shutdown. It was clearly an unused guitar body, holes had not been drilled for the cavity cover or the strap buttons. Many years later the number inked on my body appeared in the online-registry. I contacted the owner, who explained that this had been a source of confusion. My theory is that as production was under way, a finished guitar body was found to have flaws, so another body was selected with a different inked number and assembled with that body. The flawed body was put aside. Once the order was upset, there was no setting it straight.

Fretboards can further date Travis Bean in that later models used a two piece fretboard with a thinner rosewood fretboard being epoxied to a an aluminum "shim" (this shim/fretboard assmebly was then epoxied to the neck). An additional note, later (mid-1978) guitars did not have the flat fretboard found on earlier Travis Beans.

Model 500's changed the shape of the pickguard. Earlier ones have a pickguard that extends to the end of the lower horn (later 500's rounded that point off before reaching the horn. On later 500's the contour of the pickguard along the tail of the bridge is parallel with the bridge and does not extend further toward the tail of the guitar until it has cleared the bridge. Early 500's are a little more graceful in the way they curve past the bridge (see the picture below).

I'd also like to express that this document is not meant to be the final word on Travis Beans. I've put together this information based on what I have seen, accounts from other Travis Bean owners, Travis Bean Sales Literature, a conversation with Travis Bean, and an occasional article or blurb in a guitar magazine. I've seen production figures and tables that contradict what other represent as being "correct". There is definitely debate about the facts and history surrounding the Travis Bean, however I don't think there is any doubt that these guitars are remarkable instruments.

ThunderDawg wrote:

Isn't that basically saying that it is too rare and valuable to appraise?
Although, I wouldn't go as far as priceless, since it is 'only' about 34 years old.
Maybe you should have asked Sotheby's or Christie's.

I don't think eBay is necessarily the right venue, but auctioning it sounds like your best bet if you are parting with it.

Olive wrote:

ThunderDawg wrote:

Isn't that basically saying that it is too rare and valuable to appraise?
Although, I wouldn't go as far as priceless, since it is 'only' about 34 years old.
Maybe you should have asked Sotheby's or Christie's.

I don't think eBay is necessarily the right venue, but auctioning it sounds like your best bet if you are parting with it.

That's kind of what I got. But more than too rare and too valuable, it's more like "there are too few made" therefore that leads to, "too little interest." Like he said, there is no going market rate, so every sale kind of sets the precedent.

Crazy thing is, for the 4 Beans I own, I didn't pay $3,000 in total. I sold a TB500 for $6200 the other day.

This whole deal is a rather melancholy event. I bought them to play them. Time moved on, my life's direction has changed. As much as I love them... I just don't play them anymore (and haven't in over 2 years now,) and I really don't see myself playing them ever again. At least not enough to justify keeping them and taking up space, and going into debt here and there instead of selling them off for a good reason. The sad thing is... it's mainly collectors buying them. They'll get them and strum them once or twice. They will never be rocked out again. And that's sad.

On a positive note, some collectors (no offense to anyone here is meant) are total fanatics, and if their pockets are deep enough, will pay most anything to say "I have one."

The rest of this years tuition for the wifes school is now paid off with the sale of two of them. So while I'm sad about parting with them... I don't have these crazy tuition bills floating over my head.