Thursday, December 23, 2010

Billy Corgan offers $20,000 for the return of his "Gish" guitar.





UPDATE!
Billy Corgan stated on his facebook page(RIP) that he would pay $20,000 No Questions Asked for the return of his "GISH" Stratocaster guitar.(pictured above) At the time of its disappearance the guitar was Yellow with hand painted multi-colored "flowers"
If you have any info regarding this guitar please leave it in the comment section of this blog. Thanks to Grunge Report.net KROQ.com WXRT.com and all the other media outlets that have been helping spread the word.


Pictured below is Billy's backup guitar from the same time period. THIS IS NOT THE GUITAR THAT WAS STOLEN!





I bought this guitar around 1989 or 1990 because I needed a spare for playing live, and wanted an almost identical sound to go with my main one at the time which was an early 70's Strat (yellow that I hand painted). THAT guitar was the featured guitar on Gish and was probably my favourite guitar ever. It was stolen in 1992 out the back door of St. Andrews Hall in Detroit and has never resurfaced. I would still pay good $ to get that guitar back, no questions asked. So THIS guitar is the last remnant of that period of my life, and I really cherish it. It was painted ala Eric Clapton's cream era guitar by my friend crazy Nick. As you can see it's taken a bit of a beating back from a time when I used to throw my guitars around like candy. The history of this guitar is its a 1978 'bullet' Strat with the flat pickups (as opposed to the staggered pole pieces). I preferred these pickups at that time because it allowed for maximum gain by running the pickups up really close to the strings. This guitar does have some recording history of note, as it was the guitar I would use for solos as it seemed to just have more cut than the main one. So all the solos on Gish were done with this guitar. It has a vicious attack as you can hear on songs like 'Tristessa', 'I Am One', 'Rhinocerous', and 'Siva'. I'm fixing this guitar up now and I hope to use it again soon. I've started using more old-school amplification, like my 1969 Marshall Super Tremolo head (currently ailing) so guitars with this kind of cut are what I'm looking for. It makes me laugh that I'm sort of back to where I started when it comes to gain and attack. I see the BC Dimarzio pickups as more the modern application of gain, and the older type pickups as a more vintage approach to the use of gain.

18 comments:

Rachel said...

Karma has an interesting way of working things out. I would place a bet that the person who stole the guitar probably did not reach the same successes. I would also have to argue that this is not the last remnant of that time period. Pictures, video, and sound will always live on. The future is the key, right? Or is sentiment? Funny how everything does come full circle.
*r*

aeiou260199038 said...

The sound will labatterie
always live on.

Fernando Ramires said...

Billy deleted his FB page :( Why?

Dave said...

^^ (same question as Fernando)

studiodog said...

Yes Billy Deleted his facebook.

Shan Jia Nai said...

It should be this yellow colored guitar he is looking for... no?

http://www.my-mistake.net/infinitepics/billy/billy546.jpg
http://www.my-mistake.net/infinitepics/billy/billy113.jpg
http://www.my-mistake.net/infinitepics/band/band262.jpg

studiodog said...

Yes I will post those pictures... thanks Shan Jia Nai

J.K.P. said...

Tell Billy we really enjoyed his FB page while it was active. I know that I speak for alot of people when I say that it was a real treat to read his responses to the serious questions. Thank you.

Menrad said...

Totally agree with Joe !

And for the stolen guitar, if I knew anything, I would make everything I can to return it, for free ! It's a shame a jewel like this never got returned to Billy.

Dave said...

funny thing is i was starting to check facebook daily after barely checking it once or twice a year. anyway, thanks for this blog Kerry. its pretty cool of you to take the time to do this and sorta give us a link to your awesome world.

sophia smith said...

Nice guitar..I am big fan of Billy..Thanks for posting blog here..
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Jacob said...

Was it birdseye-ish at all? Just saw one of similar color here on craigslist:

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/msg/2492452522.html

chuckcapps said...

Was the one stolen a hardtail stratocaster?

a said...

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Vince said...

Can't believe it has been found! Amazing

++! said...

He got it back.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/billy-corgan-reunites-stolen-gish-guitar-790482/