Published: May 23, 2008 10:39 pm      

Historic guitar to return home

SOUTH SHORE — A missing chapter in the history of the evolution of the electric guitar will soon be returned to the Gretsch guitar company’s museum in Georgia after a one-of-a-kind guitar, which had been missing for a dozen years, was recovered from a South Shore man, according to the Greenup County Sheriff’s Department.

The instrument, an unfinished Gretsch “Silver Jet,” was reported stolen in Nashville. The prototype instrument was given to guitar innovator Ray Butts, who is now deceased, to enable him to carry out experimental work on the guitar’s magnetic pickups and circuitry.

Butts was recognized as a technical master of the emerging electric guitar technology who helped the Gretsch company develop stereo sound technology and is recognized by many as the inventor of the “humbucker” style pickup which eliminated much of the noise inherent in early amplified instruments.

Gretsch guitars have been associated with many famous players including Chet Atkins and Scotty Moore, who performed and recorded with Elvis Presley. The company’s hollowbody guitars are still the standard for many jazz musicians as well as guitarists specializing in ”Rockabilly” styles.

Greenup County deputies Darrell McCarty and Larry Pancake began investigating the guitar’s whereabouts after receiving a call from Butts’ daughter. The Butts family has been searching for the guitar since it was stolen and immediately recognized the instrument by description after Butts’ son, Randy Butts, received a call from a South Shore man who was seeking components to get the guitar back in working order.

The man who had the unique guitar said he bought it from a friend two years ago and had no idea it had been stolen.

“After being in contact with (Randy) Butts, and his sister Katha House, deputies went to the house in question and recovered the guitar,” according to a statement released by the Greenup County Sheriff’s Department. “House contacted Nashville Metro Police to gain a copy of the theft report from 1996. House also overnighted books and documents to prove the identity of the stolen guitar. The guitar was in fact the guitar and is being held at the Greenup County Sheriff’s Department by Sheriff Cooper until the family can come and transport it to the Gretsch museum in Ga., where it will be restored to its original condition.”

In a letter to the local law enforcement officers who recovered the historic instrument, House wrote, “The family wished that dad was alive to see that it was found and recovered. Somehow we think he knows.”

Because of the instrument’s historic significance and one-of-a-kind status, Butts family members advised the guitar is considered priceless in the music world’s historic community.

The deputies who found the instrument continue to investigate the situation in an attempt to solve the case and hopefully prosecute the thieves.

TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2651.