Around 1980, this old friend of mine, whom I just tracked down after 30 years of separation, loaned me a Gibson SG to gig with. It was in terrible shape, especially the frets. I sent it off and had it refurbed for about $175.00. Beautiful job. The plan was to give it back to him all spruced up. I told the guy I was doing it and he gave the green light for the repairs. But then he couldn't come up with the repair money, and so he just gave me the guitar. At the time, it was probably worth about $200 (before the repair). I ended up trading it for another instrument, this also back in the early 80's. I lost track of the guy until just recently, when I found out he had had a heart attack and got quad-bypass surgery. He still plays guitar and is doing okay, but he has had far more setbacks than I have. Long story short, my conscience is bothering me. I should have paid him the FMV of the guitar back then, before the repair, which would have been about $250 max, or alternatively given him the guitar back and told him to pay me for the repair some time down the road. So ... I now want to either give him a 1970-s era SG in good condition or, and I know this would be smarter, buy him a new SG for about $1400. There are two questions: 1) one is, do I get him something used of comparable value, made in the 70's, or a new one that will be great out of the box snd under warranty? 2) no matter what I do, I think this is going to embarrass him, "Aw man, you didn't have to do that," and possibly worse, a feeling of awkwardness on HIS side because the gift will be disproportionately valuable to what he gave me. My thought is to just ship him the new one, and if he really feels icky accepting it, I can tell him to keep it in my name and/or donate it back to me in his last will and testament. We were close friends back in the 80's and just drifted apart. He's a good guy and has had two kids in drug rehab that have cost him a fortune, but he is smart enough to know that that isn't my fault. What would you do?
