PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Vintage Family Heirloom Gibson Guitar to be preserved in Museum

As many of you know and others can see from my Avatar, I have ownership of a Vintage prototype Gibson Double Neck Guitar. The guitar was purchased for my mother Jeanette "Dixie Lee" Fogle in 1959. It has remained in my family since then but not played very much since my mother passed away in 1967.

The guitar was featured in early 2010 on PBS Antiques Roadshow and some of the guitar's history was revealed.

Most recently, I allowed the guitar to be used by a very good Eagles Tribute band, EagleWing during the last song of their show which at the time was "Hotel California". They are nearly a note perfect concert and very authentic musical recreation of an Eagles Concert. Don Felder made the Gibson Double Neck a famous part of the real Eagles concert performance of "Hotel California" so this vintage guitar really stepped up and excited the crowd at EagleWing's grande finale version of "Hotel California" at their concerts.

Most of the time in the years between 1967 and 2017, the guitar saw little use and remained in the case for long periods of time. I would play it on occasion and would bring it out as a novelty when friends visited that could play guitar. One such occasion was several years ago when BIAB forum member Pat Marr stopped by and was able to spend a few minutes playing the guitar.

During the years my mother played the guitar professionally, more than a few professionals had the opportunity to play the guitar as well. Leon Rhodes, Larry Carter, and Don Gibson are some that myself and other family recall.

As I grew older and with the passing of time, it became obvious this guitar had a provenance and authentic historical value that needed to be preserved beyond my generation. On one hand, I could sell the guitar to a private collector but the guitar once sold would lose all the provenance and the family history of the guitar. It was important to me that the history be preserved if possible because it was as valuable to me as was the vintage of the guitar itself.

My late brother Harold was connected with the band Pure Prairie League in their beginning years. Later, Superstar Vince Gill was with the band. Today, Vince Gill is with The Eagles. Vince Gill is a noted vintage guitar collector.

Thus I began a journey to contact Vince Gill with plans to sell the guitar to him. First I'd break the ice with the family connection between my brother, Vince and Pure Prairie League. Make a connection between my vintage Gibson Double Neck and Vince's passion for collecting vintage guitars. Ultimately, Vince Gill would buy This Gibson guitar.

Vince Gill is a celebrity and virtually impossible to get in touch with. Emails to his agent with a letter and photos of the guitar and the same to his fan club all went unanswered and nothing happened for a year or so.

Then one day a few months ago I discovered a YouTube video of Vince Gill at the grand opening of a new guitar museum that not only collects, house and preserves vintage guitars, but also features events where celebrities play the vintage guitars live in concert with proceeds going both to fund additional purchases, and scholarships to a local college music department.

I contacted the museum (currently the largest vintage guitar museum), discussed the particulars of the Double Neck, and within a few days sent them a dozen or so detailed digital photos.

My discussion with the museum director was very pleasant and the director was very knowledgeable about the production of this guitar and the other 45 similar ones manufactured before actual production models began to be marketed.

The museum board met and contacted me and made an offer. We negotiated a price and agreed to a physical inspection of the guitar by one of their curator guitar technicians. If the physical inspection beared out the authenticity of the guitar and the soundness of it physically, the museum would purchase the guitar at the agree price.

An appointment was made for the curator guitar technician to fly from New York City into Myrtle Beach Airport, I met him at the airport and we traveled a few minutes to a nearby music store that I've done business with for years and also played several years in a band with a long time employee there. This provided us with the facilities where the tech could complete the examination.

It was very interesting to watch the thoroughness, care and expertise of the tech complete the inspection of the guitar. He removed the PAF Humbucker pickups, checked the pots, frets, neck, fretboard, paint, tuners bridge, nut - everything imaginable and photo'd each piece with his iphone and sent the photos to a group of other curators in NYC with a live group discussion taking place during the inspection. The guitar was of course authentic and we completed our deal. They wired the agreed amount of purchase to my bank. In 2009, the guitar appraised for up to $35,000 on Antiques Roadshow and it sold to the museum for considerably more than that amount.

We went to lunch and the tech took the guitar (in the original case) to lunch and it sat right beside us at our table. I carried the tech and guitar back to the airport for the flight back to NYC and the tech had also purchased ticket and seat for the guitar to travel with him during the flight in the seat beside his...

Important to me, and a big factor in selling the guitar to a museum rather than to a private party, was preserving the history of the guitar and my family connection. That was also important to the museum so I had to research with family members and reconstruct as much of the history that we could determine. Especially the period when my mother owned the guitar. Much of that was beyond my recollection due to my age and at that time, me not playing music.

An interesting thing I learned from the museum's research of the guitar is the fact we had always assumed the guitar was a 1959 model because that's when the guitar was purchased and each of these guitars during this period were considered special order and no two guitars were exactly the same. For all the years we owned the guitar, there was a Gibson catalog that remained in the case. We always assumed the catalog was the catalog used to select the guitar and from which the guitar was ordered from. That turned out to not be the case. The catalog was for 1960-61 and the photograph for the Gibson Double Neck model in the catalog was this particular guitar owned by my family. The guitar was actually built in 1957 and sold to us in 1959. It was one of the first, if not the first one made.

My family is comfortable with the guitar going to a museum and the fact it can be properly taken care of and preserved for many years to come. We are happy the provenance the guitar's connection for over 50 years in our family will be preserved.

Currently the guitar is located in NYC at a guitar shop being cleaned, set up and fined tuned before being delivered to the museum. The guitar's ultimate home will be Songbirds Guitar Museum in Chattanooga, TN.

So if you ever are in that area, you may find it interesting to drop by and see a guitar you have at least a passing familiarity with. I'm hoping my children and grandchildren can make it there some day. You may even get to see it played in a concert.