Grandpa's Guitar

[mjdawson1969]

Thanks for the add. Looking for some info. This guitar belonged to my grandfather that passed in 1989. I believe that it's a 58 Starfire. He played professionally for 50 years. Supposedly, he knew and played with greats such as Roy Clark, Chet Atkins and Buck Owens. This guitar had 1000s of hrs of play and had been back to Guild at least twice. (Headstock repair and a re-fret) Guild had notoriously bad record keeping early on, and I read that they also had a fire in the late 50s or so, and lost a lot of records. The story that my uncle tells me is, that this guitar was part of a block of guitars (a dozen or so) given to Chet Atkins to play, as a marketing move. Wondering if anyone could verify or dispell this story. I'm also considering selling. I don't play it, and she needs some TLC. I've had some of the banding repaired a couple of years ago, but it's advancing again. Case is original also.

 

[SFIV1967]

Welcome to LTG! It is not a Starfire but a "Slim Jim T-100D" and from 1959. (last 58' number was about 8300)
The pickguard and the tuners are not original.



Ralf

 

[chazmo]

Welcome aboard mjdawson.

What a beautiful guitar! Yeah, it needs quite a bit of TLC, but I'm sure someone will love to have it for another 50 years.

I can't speak toward the chain of custody of this guitar or the Chet Atkins connection, but I doubt any of that would affect the value.

If I were you, well, I wouldn't sell the guitar for sentimental reasons. But, if you do go that route, you should probably sell it in the condition it is in and let the next owner decide on the originality issues, etc.

In any case, good luck, and again welcome aboard. If you join us for a little while, you will be allowed to list this in our for-sale section. Good luck.

 

[Opsimath]

Welcome! Wow! What a story, and what a terrific guitar! Good luck on whatever direction you take with it. (I agree with Chazmo, I'd keep it, too.)

 

[GGJaguar]

Welcome to LTG and thanks for sharing! The Chet Atkins story might not be so easy to confirm, but you've got a very interesting guitar to remember him by.

 

[SFIV1967]

The Chet Atkins story might not be so easy to confirm,...

Unless @hansmoust knows something about it.

Ralf

 

[fronobulax]

Welcome.

i did some searching and the Chet Atkins connection is not going to be easy to document from what is on the web. But given the Gretsch models he played it seems plausible that Guild did build something similar for him in an effort to entice him to play a Guild. But unless someone steps up with some more info I doubt we will get from plausible to "beyond a reasonable doubt".

 

[mjdawson1969]

It's more for me to verify than anything else. I doubt I'll sell it. Hoping my teenage
son decides to learn how to play, so it can continue on in my family. I just don't want to be telling some B.S. story in relation to it. I know for a fact that he played and tired with a USO band after Korea, and the guitar had been all over the world and played for the Queen Mother of England in the early 60s.

 

[Opsimath]

It's more for me to verify than anything else. I doubt I'll sell it. Hoping my teenage
son decides to learn how to play, so it can continue on in my family. I just don't want to be telling some B.S. story in relation to it. I know for a fact that he played and tired with a USO band after Korea, and the guitar had been all over the world and played for the Queen Mother of England in the early 60s.

Wow! Just wow!

 

[jp]

What a great artifact from your family history. I love how much the guitar shows that it's definitely been played and played. It would be nice to keep it in the family on the chance that someone will give it new life again. It also would be exciting to see if you can track down some kind of provenance to substantiate its history, like a photo of your grandfather holding or playing it with one of the old country greats.

It would be worth it to get someone to repair it with discretion--i.e., to maintain the natural wear but repair the necessary elements so that it's playable again.

Whatever you choose to do, we're glad you joined the forum. Welcome!

 

[Default]

I'll tell you something Mark Dronge told me. When he was working for his dad at Guild, a situation came up where he noticed Johnny Farina from Santos and Johnny was playing a really beat up old guild x175. This was when "Sleepwalk" was HUGE. He got in contact with them, and decided that it would be a good thing to give him a brand new guild x175, and they could take the old one in trade, refinish it at the factory and resell that. So he gave Johnny a brand new guild x175 right out of the factory. Then they were going to go on a European tour so they drove straight to the airport. When Al heard that, he flew into a fury, drove to the airport, ripped the guitar out of Johnny's hands and threw the old beat up x175 back at him. Mark said the next time you saw Santos and Johnny playing, the guy was playing a Gibson.
Al really didn't understand anything about artist endorsements, particularly if you weren't a jazz player. Al really only cared about the jazz market. He was a child of the Great Depression, Mark said, and he didn't give anything away for free.
The biggest name non-jazz guitar players were Merle Travis and Duane Eddy and only Duane had a significant run as far as production numbers.
Maybe Chet got one or two and that would be cool if it could be confirmed.

 

[mjdawson1969]

I've actually taken it in once already. (About 5 years ago) to do exactly that. He did great work. Looks like she needs another trip.

 

[Uke]

When Al heard that, he flew into a fury, drove to the airport, ripped the guitar out of Johnny's hands and threw the old beat up x175 back at him.

I'm probably being dense, but, why was Dronge so angry? Because the guitar wasn't going to get U.S. exposure immediately?

 

[GGJaguar]

why was Dronge so angry?

He didn't want to give away a guitar for free.

 

[Default]

He didn't want to give away a guitar for free.

Absolutely this. One story I had heard was when when Buddy Guy was a Guild endorser, he would come in once a year and get one(1) electric and one acoustic guitar. And that was all you got for being an endorser.
I could just be setting myself up for a royal hansing, but that's what I read somewhere.