Bachman's never-ending search
for one that got away
Rocker never stopped looking for Gretsch guitar stolen in 1976
  
Adrian Chamberlain
Victoria Times Colonist;
Canwest News Service
Saturday, July 12, 2008


For years, British Columbia rocker Randy Bachman searched in vain for his holy grail.

It's a late-1950s orange Gretsch guitar, the Chet Atkins model. It was stolen in 1976 from a Toronto hotel room.

Bachman used the beloved instrument -- "my first real professional guitar" -- on the Guess Who hit Shakin' All Over, and later for Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Takin' Care of Business. He has yet to find it.

Still, during 30 years of touring -- scouring music stores, pawn shops and garage sales around the globe -- Bachman did manage to amass the world's largest and finest collection of Gretsch electric guitars. That treasure trove of roughly 375 instruments has now been purchased by the Gretsch company for its museum in Savannah, Ga.

"It's worth several million dollars," Bachman said yesterday. The collection includes Gretsch amplifiers, banjos, dobros, ukuleles and an organ.

It was mostly housed on Saltspring Island and in White Rock, B.C. The Gretsch collection includes such rarities as a 1957 White Penguin model. The White Penguin is considered by some the ultimate electric guitar collectible. There is also a mint condition 1958 prototype of the Country Gentleman model still in its original factory wrapping.

"When the museum curator saw that, he said, 'I can't believe it,' " Bachman said.

In the early '90s, Fred Gretsch, grandson of the company's founder, borrowed some of the Canadian rocker's guitars to use as templates for reissues. The Gretsch factory -- and the guitar designs within it -- had been destroyed by fire. Bachman's collection includes many rare and one-of-a-kind models. The relationship between Bachman and Fred Gretsch ultimately led to the sale of the collection, already sent to Savannah.

The guitars will be displayed at the museum as the Randy Bachman Collection.

Bachman said he will not miss his guitars, as he rarely saw most of them. He compared his collection to a library.

"You can't read them all," he said. "And you can't play these guitars all the time."

Some of the instruments, from the 1920s and '30s, are unplayable in their present state. They were made in the age of horse-glue, which deteriorates over time. And some early models lack metal rods Gretsch later used to reinforce the necks of its instruments.

Bachman's hero, Chet Atkins, sent him a similar guitar to the stolen one after hearing of his loss. Featuring an autographed pick-guard, it is one of only three. Atkins, who died in 2001, owned one, while Paul McCartney owns the other. This is the only Gretsch guitar Bachman has kept.

"That won't go to the museum," he said. "That is my personal gift from Chet Atkins."

As for the lost instrument, Bachman continues his search. He believes it might be in the possession of a member of the Thompson Twins, a British pop group. Bachman once saw a Thompson Twins music video and thought he recognized it. The guitar is identifiable by a blemish on its body caused by a knothole in the natural grain.

When the Thompson Twins played GM Place in Vancouver years ago, Bachman convinced a friend working backstage to approach the group to see if they'd sell the guitar back to him. A guitar technician with the band said the Gretsch guitar hadn't been taken on the tour.

"The guy said, 'I'd never take it on the road. It's too valuable.' "

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