The Strat in the Attic: Thrilling Stories of Guitar Archaeology by Dickerson Deke & Kellerman Jonathan

Author:Dickerson, Deke & Kellerman, Jonathan [Dickerson, Deke]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, pdf
Publisher: Voyageur Press
Published: 2013-06-01T07:00:00+00:00

An unidentified band playing pioneering Rickenbacker electric guitars. Michael Dregni Archive

Dave Hinson from Killer Vintage in St. Louis has another great story. This one is about a gold 1956 Fender Stratocaster, a guitar of such rarity and value that even the mere words “1956 Fender Shoreline Gold Strat with gold hardware” would make most guitar geeks sit down to catch their breath.

Dave Hinson: “Around 1995 or so, a lady from Milwaukee contacted me through an artist friend, Duke Tumatoe. She had heard that old guitars were worth a lot of money. Her son had an old Stratocaster, and I talked with her for a long time on the phone. Her son’s Strat was a 1956 in Shoreline Gold with gold hardware. Her son bought the guitar from a husband-and-wife duo in the Milwaukee area, and this was the wife’s guitar. She remembered him buying it in around 1963.

“He played in a few bands in high school but got drafted in 1968. He spent several months at Fort Hood, Texas, after boot camp and had asked his mom to send the guitar to him in mid 1969. Unfortunately, he then got shipped to Vietnam in late summer of that year. She kept the guitar at home for his return after the service, but on Halloween night, 1969, he was killed by enemy mortar fire. The guitar was actually left in a house she used to live in for several years before she decided to retrieve it for a keepsake. We spoke many times over the next few months and decided if anyone was going to get the guitar it would be me since I had been upfront and forthcoming in the value of the instrument.

“Finally one Saturday in the fall of 1996, I flew to Milwaukee to meet her and see the guitar in person. It was in astounding condition and Louise was a very sweet lady. There was a bit of emotion when she sold the guitar, as I am sure it meant that in a way she was also letting go of her son. The break of the bond is something I have seen many times before and since. In some way the guitar could be letting go of youthful dreams, or a memory of a loved one, as it was in this case. Louise would periodically check in with me and talk sometimes for an hour or so for the next few years until she passed away at nearly ninety years of age.

“The guitar has been known since as ‘Louise’ and remains with the same owner to this day in the USA in a private collection.”

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