If you have an orange guitar from 1963 Gretsch circling, Bob Wegner would like to know. It can be the appreciated stolen instrument of the Canadian rock icon Kim Mitchell during a trip to Hamilton in 1975.
Wegner, a professional musician and historian, learned about the stolen guitar while writing a book about the Hard Rock Band of Mitchell of the 1970s, Max Webster.
“No guitar will replace the guitar on which you cut your teeth,” he said. “Only a part of you disappears.”
Inspired by successful efforts to return lost or stolen guitars to people like Paul McCartney, Randy Bachman and Jimmy pageWegner said he wanted to do the same for Mitchell.
In spring, Wegner launched Kim’s Lost Guitar Project, a website with photos and information about Mitchell’s guitar, and an email for people to communicate if they believe they have found it.
Wegner, who is based in Montreal and was born in Hamilton, said only 30 Gretsch Nashville 6120 guitars were made. The instrument has double cuts, red felt around the silent switch, painted f holes and a horseshoe in the head. Mitchell had a scratch on the back of the body and a cigarette burned in the head next to the E Bew adjustment plug.
Mitchell’s father bought the guitar at a time when the money was tight, Wegner said.
“‘His house was $ 11,000 at that time. The guitar $ 700. Take the calculations today and know that he really spent huge dollars for me,” Wegner told Mitchell on his website.
The shining orange clash with Mitchell’s outfits? Maybe, Wegner said. “But it doesn’t matter. I could rock anything and just looked great with him.”
Wegner said Mitchell also told him to play the guitar with a Marshall amplifier was the best guitar sound he had heard.
“Getting that plug in a Marshall would be worth it again.”
CBC Hamilton contacted Mitchell to comment, but did not receive an answer before the publication time.
Wegner said he has not yet received any advice on the guitar, so he is trying to raise awareness about his efforts.
Stolen guitar from Van after the Duffy’s Tavern concert
Max Webster was included in the Canada’s fame walk in 2023, noting that with Mitchell as leader, the band released seven albums from 1976 to 1981, six of which received a gold state certification and a platinum certification in Canada.
Born in Sarnia, Ontario, Mitchell became a successful solo career, with songs that include Go to Soda and Patio lanterns. He is now 73 years old and continues to act.
Wegner was not born yet when Max Webster broke, but said he grew up listening to the band and loved it.
When he was interested in the history of music, he realized that no one had made a book about the band, so he decided to write one. The result was Max Webster: High classFor which he interviewed members of the band, including Mitchell.
Through that process, Wegner learned about the stolen guitar. He said Mitchell’s bandmates remembered how devastated Mitchell was when he was taken from the band’s truck before they left the city after a series of shows in Duffy’s Tavern.
Earl Johnson, Hard Rock guitarist, born in Hamilton, Moxy, appeared in the same area as Mitchell and Max Webster, although he said he did not meet Mitchell until decades later.
Johnson told CBC Hamilton that Duffy’s was “a great rock club” and the place to see new music in the city.
It was a basement club near King and John streets and opened six nights a week, Johnson recalled. At that time, he said, the musicians often played six nights a week, lived outside the hotels and traveled between cities and towns.
It is “difficult to understand” how many clubs were in Ontario, he said, adding that there were so many places that he could probably have traveled for a month at Yonge Street alone in Toronto.
Now, Johnson said, live music is much less profitable and the young musicians who know says that they run the risk of losing money playing live.
As for Mitchell’s stolen guitar, Johnson said he has heard of such things that happened to musicians before. He said he once had a guitar that fell from his vehicle, but fortunately he realized and could find her.
Wegner said the guitar has probably gone through many hands since it was stolen.
The person who probably stole it ” [who] Sold to another person, and he gave it to his friend’s dog, and his dog gives it to the squirrel on the street, and the squirrel dies and some kind inherits it, and now he is sitting in this basement and has no idea who the guitar is. This is how these things are going. “
Wegner expects anyone who thinks to know where the guitar “will do the right thing” and get in touch through their website. He said that he is not looking to have anyone problems and that the police are not involved.
“We don’t care who stole it. There is no compensation. There is no anger, or anything. He is simply recovering the guitar in the right hands.”
