87 Vintage Guitars: Music to Auctioneer’s Ears : Narcotics: The auction has attracted national attention. The instruments were seized in a Thousand Oaks drug raid last year.

Eighty-seven vintage electric guitars seized in a Ventura County narcotics raid last year will go on the auction block Thursday in San Bernardino County in a sale that has attracted nationwide attention.

Collectors have been calling from all over the country to ask about the guitars, said Doug Moran, contract administrator for United Auctions in Upland.

Every one of the 87 guitars “will be played” at the auction, Moran said. “They’re not just to be sold and taken away without them saying something, because we think they’re part of American history. We are going to salute these vintage guitars.”

For a $5 entrance fee, people can attend the auction and hear Los Angeles musicians play some of the guitars.

But anyone who plans to bid must put down a $500 deposit to be able to rub shoulders with the likes of Mac Yasuda, a renowned Japanese guitar collector.

Yasuda has amassed more than 350 guitars for a museum under construction in Beverly Hills and said he plans to buy some of the guitars in the collection. He appraised the collection last week and said he found several guitars that could fetch more than $5,000 on the auction block.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department hired United Auctions to liquidate the guitars, which were confiscated Sept. 20, 1989, from William Herbert Budnik, 32.

Budnik was arrested after sheriff’s deputies searched his Thousand Oaks home and found marijuana, hashish, cocaine and psilocybin. Deputies also seized $76,155 in cash, a 1988 Camaro and the colorful old instruments, which they claimed he had bought with drug-dealing profits.

Budnik argued in court documents that he had legitimately acquired the guitars, the cash and the car.

But after pleading guilty to possession of marijuana for sale and serving several months of a one-year sentence in the Ventura County Jail, Budnik sent a letter to court officials relinquishing all claims to the car, money and guitars.

He wrote: “I would like to consider this matter closed and would like to go on with my life.”

Budnik has refused to comment on his collection.

But Yasuda said last week that it was evident from the collection that Budnik was a player--someone who bought 87 guitars because he loved playing the instruments, not just for their value.

“This is just a mediocre collection,” said Yasuda, who has spent 23 years collecting rare and exotic guitars such as the pre-World War II Martin D-25 acoustic guitar--of which he claims to have seven worth $50,000 to $70,000 each.

“He has a lot of Fenders, like the Stratocaster. It’s a real player’s guitar,” Yasuda said. “Collecting, it would be much better to have the Telecaster or the Broadcaster, which is the original Telecaster.”

But Yasuda said Budnik’s collection shows a broad, intelligently chosen variety. The most valuable are a gold 1965 Stratocaster appraised at $7,500 and a metal-flake blue, 1962 Stratocaster that could bring up to $10,000.

“Maybe he didn’t have the chance to get real high-end guitars.”

Moran said the auction will begin at 7 p.m., but the guitars will be on display starting at noon. The demonstration combo is scheduled to play at 5:30 p.m.

United Auctions is at 2066 W. Foothill Blvd., Upland.