Guitar auction Wheeling WV 9/30 10:00 am

[cephus]

This guy was a hero of mine. He played up till he died at 82. I don't know if there is reason why they need the money, but I thought maybe someone in pittsburgh would see something worth the drive.

The last time I saw Howard, he was playing at the Moose or Legion or something on Jefferson avenue in Moundsville. He was playing the trini lopez. He asked me to sit in and let me strap on that groovy thing. He played that chet atkins/les paul kinda country jazz stuff - very clean, tone on zero with lots of reverb. I was a young man recently introduced to SRV. I was gonna play Johnny B Goode. Howard said "This is the volume pedal and it's set pretty good. Step on that blue one if you want to make it ornery." I played the 2 verses and was ready to burn down the moose with a blistering lead. Seeking "ornery" I stepped on the blue one thinking it was a fuzztone or compressor or some kind of oomph. It was a phase shifter.

Howard Hatcher was a great player. He had some cool guitars:

http://www.frioauctions.com/cgi-bin/mnvthumb.cgi?frio

 

[chrisharris]

Nice tribute and story.

I wish I could clip a couple of those Gibsons...Estate sales are sad, though. I have a billion tools and guns from my grandfathers and my dad, most of which I have no use for whatsoever. One of my grandfathers worked on very large heavy equipment, so I have socket wrenches that are 2 feet long, lol. REALLY useful stuff for a lawyer, lol.

And then there are the guns... I have one handgun that's useful, that I've loaned to a good friend. The rest have been in storage for years, but I just can't get rid of them. There's no way I could sell those guitars to the public at large, but I'm weird. Seems kinda' sad, though. The good news is that HOPEFULLY they'll end up in the hands of real musicians and not in some 12 year old's closet collecting dust.

 

[notCardio]

Sad, but in a way, just the opposite

How many people get to spend their entire lives doing what they love to do, and knowing that other people think they're good at it too?

And even fewer get to do that thing they love without having to stop doing it because they're too old.

Sounds to me like he was a very lucky man.

Sorry you lost a hero, but be happy for him that he didn't live so long that he had to give it up. That's when it's really sad.

My ex-girfriend's father just died in April. He was a dixieland trumpeter (cornet, technically, as he would have immediately pointed out) his whole life. He played right up until a couple of days before he died, at 88.

There's some nice looking guitars there. Wish I could afford one, or lived close enough to go to the auction even. If I were a rich man, I'd buy you one Cephus. You seem like someone who would truly appreciate it because it was his, not because it's a good investment.

 

[Anfontan]

Reminds me of a local guy that lives about 50 miles from me here in Illinois. He was a Nashville session guy from the 50's & 60's named Billy Grammer-he plays the cool country Jazz swing style of guitar like Chet Atkins that sounds like magic. One of the last times I saw him at the local music store he had a set of Heritage guitars they had custom built for him, incredibly beautiful instruments. He actually had his own guitar company & made the Grammer guitar, I think I saw one at George Gruhn's store in Nashville a few years back.
Anyway, he's a very nice guy, always complimentary to everyone and when he picks up a guitar everyone's amazed, he's getting old and his eyesight is getting bad, but he's such a gentleman its a pleasure to know him.

 

[cephus]

If I'd have had some notice, I'd love to have at least gone back to see if I could have gotten one of the ones worth having. My mother said they talked about it on the radio alot, so they might get some good prices for stuff. I hope they do.

This isn't the first time something like this happened back in the valley. Alot of these career musicians that have been playing their whole lives die with little more than an unknown small fortune in well-played vintage instruments in the spare bedroom.

That one big hollow body gibson with the pointy cutaway is something that I would love to provide a home for. The gretsch is nice, too. I never saw Howard play anything but the trini lopez out. I don't knwo whether it was his favorite or he considered it expendible. I bet that Guild is pretty cool.