$54,000 worth of guitars donated to Anchorage School District

The Anchorage School District got a pleasant surprise earlier this month when the US Department of Fish and Wildlife donated a set of electric guitars to the district. But these aren't the cheap plastic ones you might expect to find at a school. They are hand-crafted, unique guitars, made out of Brazilian rosewood, a wood you can't make guitars out of anymore.

Owen Parduhn plays guitar in the West High jazz band, and his new guitar is changing his sound.

“Feels a lot more easier for me to play than my Stratocaster, and this one actually has a lot more frets and stuff so I can go higher up on the fretboard." Parduhn says.

That's just one of the ten Paul Reed Smith guitars donated to ASD - ten guitars with a very unique history

“They were sold to a dealer, then sold to another dealer, who then tried to ship them overseas,” says ASD Director of Fine Arts Bruce Wood. “But because they have rosewood in them, you can't do that without special permission, and these guitars did not have that permission, so on the way to Hong Kong, they were seized by US Fish and Wildlife, brought back to this port of entry, and... so they sent me an email asking if we might be interested."

And they were interested. The guitars were given to all of the high schools in the district.

“In our jazz programs, high school kids will get to use them, and we hope to have some absolutely rocking jazz bands because of it." Wood says.

The guitars are worth quite a bit of money. Their estimated retail value is $54,000, but it's hard to put a price on the memories they'll make.

“I'm definitely gonna remember this thing when I’m graduated." Parduhn says.