There’s a fairly popular reality-television show that focuses on a pawn shop in Las Vegas where, in the opening credits, the proprietor says, “You never know what is gonna come through that door.” I imagine that to be true of most pawn shops, and I also know it to be true at guitar shops. In fact, it’s been true of every one I’ve ever worked in, especially applicable at my store, Relic Music. Maybe it’s because of the left-of-center stuff we typically specialize in; maybe it’s our geographic location; maybe it’s our reputation. But folks never seem to shy away from bringing us things we’ve never seen before (and often, never even knew existed). Like so many others, this particular story began with a phone call, and it ended with one of the most peculiar instruments I’ve ever had the chance to check out.It’s not uncommon for people in this industry to get called to sites to look at collections, and that was the case with this call. The gentleman on the phone was vetting several shops to find the right fit to help sell his friend’s guitar collection. After calling several, he found us to be that fit. So I got in my car, drove up the Garden State Parkway to Rockland County, New York, and examined a collection that was truly remarkable. Beautiful and rare Parker, Klein, Teuffel, Spalt, and Linda Manzer pieces were some of the stars of the show.But what stood out to me most about this collection was that out of 75 incredible guitars, he had just one Fender and one Gibson. Most people with a collection that large would have a much more sizable percentage of each brand given their dominance in the marketplace; but not this collector. And when that Gibson case caught my eye, sizable was the exact word that came to mind. Sometime in the early 1990s, Gibson Custom Shop manager and master luthier Roger Giffin received a request from a client asking him to build something very special. It wasn’t David Gilmour, it wasn’t Eric Clapton, and it wasn’t Jimmy Page. It wasn’t a special, historic Les Paul, or a lavish L-5, or even an SG. It was an 18-string Explorer-style harp guitar. Yes—you read that correctly. When I opened the case, it took my brain a while to process it. At first, I thought, “Despite the Gibson logo on the headstock, this is the craziest Frankenstein-mod-job in history.” But then I remembered the case was clearly Gibson, and given the selected nature of the rest of the collection, it was probably something legitimate and very special. Research was needed. Calls had to be made. And above all else, I was dying to set this monstrosity up in an open tuning, plug it into a vintage Hiwatt stack with a bunch of pedals, run a bow across the strings, and bask in its potential magnificence. (Sadly, I never got to do this, and I will probably regret it forever.) I made sure to put it in the car first—not because it was beyond wild, but because I had to make sure it fit. I got the guitar back to the shop and we started to dig in.It was made of all mahogany, finished in what appeared to be a slightly naturally aged wine red. It had a beautiful Brazilian rosewood fretboard detailed with two aged-pearl stripe inlays, an enormous Seymour Duncan pickup—which was in reality three Duncans wound together—an adjustable mute, custom tailpiece that artistically matched the rest of the guitar, and single volume and tone knobs with pots from 1968. It also had a 5-ply black pickguard, gold hardware, a special cutout on the neck’s bass side (for what I assume to be easier carry), and, finally, an absolutely huge headstock adorned with one of the coolest “stingers” of all time.Once everything checked out, my brain immediately shifted into “who would dig this?” territory. After all, we all have things on our lists that we hope to see whenever we enter guitar shops, and if these shops are doing things the right way, they remember someone saying something like, “If any one-off ‘Harp-splorers’ come in, please call me.” Aside from the usual cast of characters you might imagine wanting something like this, I knew where this piece had to end up. After calling our friends, and taking a road trip from New Jersey to Nashville, this guitar ended up back home at Gibson. Is this guitar for everyone? I think the answer is obvious, but pieces like this keep what we do fun and interesting. Do we love finding pre-CBS Fenders, pre-war Martins, and ’50s/’60s Les Pauls & SGs? You bet. But still being surprised by the crazy, seldom-seen guitars that are out there, waiting to be re-discovered is a reason to get up in the morning.
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