SOME BODY STOLE REM's RICKENBACKER!!

[delcosmos]

I can' believe it:

Sadly, Peter's signature Rickenbacker guitar was stolen from the stage immediately following tonight's performance in Helsinki, Finland. This is Peter's infamous signature Rick, which has been the staple of Peter's arsenal both live and in the studio since the band released Chronictown in 1982. Needless to say, this instrument means a great deal to Peter and to R.E.M. It is our sincere hope that whoever is responsible for the loss, or whoever has information which can help recover the guitar, will come forward to receive a generous reward, no questions asked.

Email information to fanclub@remtour.com or phone (001) 706 353-6689...

R.E.M.HQ: NEWS

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[dbbubba]

Why would he be carrying a "vintage" guitar on tour?

Why not a modern version or re-issue?

[delcosmos]

Originally Posted by dbbubba

Why would he be carrying a "vintage" guitar on tour?

Why not a modern version or re-issue?

That's what I thought.

McCartney should leave his bass in a safety place and use a re-issue.

[Yoda117]

Man, where were the security staff when this happened?

OPSEC people, got to maintain good OPSEC.

If something's valuable to you, then it's valuable enough to someone else to try and steal it.

[LeMauce]

I don't giva it back! fuuck

No really, what tha hell. Com on thats one of the reasons that you have sec.gards around. Damn...

[Mark Kaufman]

Originally Posted by dbbubba

Why would he be carrying a "vintage" guitar on tour?

Why not a modern version or re-issue?

Because it's his guitar. Next question please.

Seriously, wouldn't you expect Neil Young to play his beat-up '58 Les Paul?

But yes, I would also expect my security staff to guard it like the crown jewels...

[delcosmos]

Originally Posted by Mark Kaufman

Because it's his guitar. Next question please.

Because it's his guitar, he should use a re-issue and leave the original for... studio use, videos, mmm... his grand sons!!

I'm sure he regrets for that.

[ripper]

hell, that gtr looks EXACTLY like one that was stolen from me in 1980 when I lived in the south... no joke! it was a heartbreaker...
hmmmm... and it wasn't that far away from ATHENS GA!!!

I guess what goes round comes round!

[Igotsoul4u]

I gotta say that the road is no place for anything that you don't mind losing. Yeah its his special favorite guitar, but does his guitar control the actions of others???? Guess not. Lesson learned i hope. Still sucks though. I think the security guards took it!!!

[cortisol]

What an awesome rick sound those guys get. I hope they get the guitar back. Thievery is not cool. Still REM are excellent musicians and will make magic regardless I'm sure.

Peace,
cortisol

[radiospace]

If he's been playing that guitar every night since Chronic Town I'm surprised it has any frets left on it.

[vespiz]

Damn, doesn't make us look good here..

[baikonour]

Originally Posted by radiospace

If he's been playing that guitar every night since Chronic Town I'm surprised it has any frets left on it.

Big news: frets can be replaced.

[baikonour]

Originally Posted by dbbubba

Why would he be carrying a "vintage" guitar on tour?

Why not a modern version or re-issue?

It's not a "vintage" or "special" guitar per se, just a normal Rick he bought new around 1981. But it is his own and played it for 26 years. So I bet he's quite pissed off.

[sonicdefault]

Thieves are such opportunists- they always wait till no one's looking. They are the lowest of low. Few things dishearten a person as strikingly as a thief.

It is a beautiful guitar. Perhaps Peter should keep an eye on ebay


-SD

[peeder]

Originally Posted by Mark Kaufman

Seriously, wouldn't you expect Neil Young to play his beat-up '58 Les Paul?

I played Neil's old Les Paul Jr.

He was trying to sell it...

[kafka]

Originally Posted by vespiz

Damn, doesn't make us look good here..

Yeah, you Fins are treading on thin ice here, buddy. (Get it? Finland - thin ice? Get it?) You better find him his guitar and put it in his hands, or I'm never going to Finland or drinking another Absolut again! Oh wait, Absolut is Swedish. Um, what do you guys make again? I need to boycott something.

Nokia! That's it. I'll boycott Nokia. No more of those little electronicky doohicky things until Peter Buck gets his guitar back!

[infopimpster]

They should throw the culprit in a Finnish sauna... about 160 degrees... for a couple days.

And broadcast it on the internet.

[dbbubba]

I know people that tour and have been on tour with all kinds of people who own guitars worth WAYYYYY more than an '81 Rickenbaker.
I am not trying to down-play the personal attachment he might have felt either.

I know guys that carry their '53, '54 Teles on stage.
I know guys that carry their '57 LP Jr. TV on stage.
I was in a band and I carried my '68 LP Custom and the other GTR player carried his '58 LP BURST everywhere.
They really never left our sight as we even carried them to restuarants.... and that was all stupid.

I have seen VERY expensive GTRs stolen off of stages, too.

If you value a GTR you don't carry it on tour.

[dbbubba]

Originally Posted by aiff

McCartney had his original left handed Hohner bass stolen during the Let It Be sessions. It STILL hasn't turned up.

I don't think this is true.

I have seen pictures of that bass as it was being worked on by a luthier in NYC and it still had the set list from the last Beatles tour taped on the upper side bout.
I can't believe that bass would have been taken to a big name NYC luthier and featured in Vintage Guitar Magazine if it was a stolen instrument.

[big country]

someone should make a guitar low-jack.

monkey people suck....

[Jim Williams]

Originally Posted by baikonour

Big news: frets can be replaced.

So can that guitar. It's a production model, plenty out there. It's not like it's a custom one-off guitar. Rick would probably offer to make him one to his likeing if he asked. He could get another mud flap sticker at the next truck stop.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[dbbubba]

Truck stop?

Don't they fly to all gigs?

no

[A440]

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

So can that guitar. It's a production model, plenty out there. It's not like it's a custom one-off guitar. Rick would probably offer to make him one to his likeing if he asked. He could get another mud flap sticker at the next truck stop.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

Respectfully...that's not the point. If you play the same instrument year in, year out, you bond with it. You get to know all it's quirks, good points and bad. A replacement just won't be the same.

Stealing a musical instrument is seriously bad mojo...I pity the fool who did it.

[travisbrown]

Randy Bachman had his beloved 50s Chet Atkins Gretsch stolen from his hotel room in 1976. This is the guitar that was used on most of the Guess Who and BTO hits.

This guitar was unique because the top had a large natural blemish in the top that made it identifiable. Probably bearclaw or something.

While spending years searching for his stolen Gretsch Randy managed to amass the world's largest collection of vintage Gretsches from pawn shops and guitar dealers. I think there were about 375 instruments in his collection. Gretsch eventually bought back the collection for the Gretsch museum, and had previously often borrowed guitars from him to make reissue templates after the Gretsch factory burned down. I think they paid several million for the collection which is now in Savannah, GA.

Randy later saw the stolen guitar in a Thompson Twins video. When he talked to the TT guitarist, I think the dude pretty much said f*uck off, but TT never toured in North America with that guitar again lest it be seized as stolen property.

Chet Atkins sent Randy an autographed model after hearing about his stolen guitar. Paul Macartney has the only other signed CA model besides Chet's personal guitar.

Loosing that Gretsch ended up being a much better story than if it had never been stolen.

[Jim Williams]

Originally Posted by A440

Respectfully...that's not the point. If you play the same instrument year in, year out, you bond with it. You get to know all it's quirks, good points and bad. A replacement just won't be the same.

Yes, it could be even better. Seriously, if the guy can't play a replacement, maybe he should retire. Don't they take spares on the road like everyone else? Or are they going to cancel the tour cause his fav axe is gone? I doubt anyone listening will notice any difference if he uses another Ricky.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[Yoda117]

Originally Posted by sonicdefault

Thieves are such opportunists- they always wait till no one's looking. They are the lowest of low. Few things dishearten a person as strikingly as a thief.

I often hear that most theives are liars too.

In other late breaking news, water was discovered to be wet to the touch.

/sorry dude, not discouraging what you said... which is dead on. The statement just struck me as funny.

[travisbrown]

Originally Posted by Yoda117

I often hear that most theives are liars too.

They also have no honour, even among themselves!

[JPeters86]

Originally Posted by dbbubba

Why would he be carrying a "vintage" guitar on tour?

Why not a modern version or re-issue?

I would want to bring such a guitar to the stage, no doubt about it. REM hires security/crew to prevent things like this to happen. You shouldn't let the thought of the possible presence of thieves keep you from bringing your instruments. I can understand this in local pubbing circuits, but not in this case.

It's all about security. There are numerous bands that bring priceless instruments to the stage, like very old Strats or LPs.

[travisbrown]

Originally Posted by A440

Respectfully...that's not the point. If you play the same instrument year in, year out, you bond with it. You get to know all it's quirks, good points and bad. A replacement just won't be the same.

Meh, you are just projecting an emotional attachment to the instrument, nothing more. There's nothing special about that guitar. Sure he's sad it's gone, but the only things irreplaceable about it are memories. There's little about a production model instrument that can't be met with a replacement, especially with electrics.

Ordinary guitars are like ordinary girlfriends - you get used to replacement models pretty quickly.

Now that it's been stolen from someone semi-famous it's a much more interesting guitar. An ordinary object with provenance is worth something more than just an ordinary object.