Strumming up the cash

For love and money, local ax enthusiasts gather at big guitar show at the fairgrounds.Many years ago -- so many he doesn’t remember exactly how many -- Gary “Big Hern” Hernandez bought a guitar for $50. Shortly thereafter, someone offered him $200 for the same guitar. That’s when he realized his true calling in life: buying and selling vintage and collectible guitars.

“I figured, Hey, there’s got to be something in this,” he said.

Hernandez, founder of the San Diego-based online guitar store Guitars West, was one of dozens of exhibitors at the California World Guitar Show, held over the weekend at the Orange County Fair and Exposition Center.

Vendors from all over the country turned out to buy, sell and trade new, used, old and rare instruments, as well as parts, memorabilia and books. Local musicians and future performers browsed the giant displays of guitars, which ranged in price from a couple hundred to a couple hundred thousand dollars.

The president of California World Guitar Shows, Larry Briggs of Tulsa, Okla., has been organizing exhibits since 1978 and has been doing shows in California for 16 years.

Exhibitors rent a booth for the weekend, and Briggs and his wife organize the rest.

Attendees pay a $10 cover fee and are allowed to bring in their own stuff to sell or trade at no additional cost.

Chris McNeil of Eagle Rock brought one of his guitars, a cherry-red 1965 double cutaway Melody Maker, which he was hoping to unload for $800.

A musician who sometimes refers to himself as “guitarded,” McNeil has quite a guitar collection and was in need of some extra cash, so he decided to sell a couple.

He was fortunate on Saturday to unload a 1976 Les Paul Custom for $4,000.

Dan Yablonka, a musician who runs a small guitar business out of his home in Laguna Beach, exhibits at guitar shows to sell his merchandise.

He said he doesn’t have the cash to compete with some of the big vendors, who can drop $20,000 or $30,000 on a collectible guitar.

However, Yablonka said he does pick up new guitars at shows because he is willing to buy items that some of the bigger dealers won’t.

Because he is a musician, he said, he will buy a vintage guitar that has been altered or needs work.

Having a direct line to many local musicians, he can then put it in the hands of a player who wouldn’t normally be able to afford that model of guitar.

Briggs said organizing these large-scale exhibits takes a lot of work, but because he has been doing it so long it’s becoming easier to market the shows and get exhibitors to rent the booths.

“This is our 123rd show,” he said.

“We know all these people; it’s like a big family.... We’ve just been doing it so long, we know how to do it.”

For more information on California World Guitar Shows, call (800) 525-7273 or e-mail [email protected].

* LINDSAY SANDHAM is the news assistant. She can be reached at (714) 966-4625 or lindsay.sandham@

latimes.com.

20060123itgktlnc(LA)Rein Thomasma of Hermosa Beach checks out some of the Gibson Les Paul guitars on display in the Jimmy Wallace Guitars booth during the guitar show at the Orange County Fair and Exposition Center on Saturday.20060123itgkt0ncPhotographs by MARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Tom Hilbe plays the guitar as Val King watches in the King Amplification booth at the California World Guitar Show.