Randy Bachman has recovered a guitar he lost 45 years ago in a hotel near Toronto.
On the final night of recording a Bachman-Turner Overdrive album in 1976, the musician gave his beloved orange 1957 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins – the first one he ever bought – to his road manager.
“I said, ‘Don’t let it out of your sight.’ He goes to the Holiday Inn, puts it in the room, goes to check out at the desk and four minutes later, or five minutes later, after checking out, it’s gone,” Bachman recalled, to CTV News.
Police investigated but the instrument was seemingly gone forever.
Randy Bachman and his prized guitar in 1975. YouTube
Fast forward to the COVID-19 pandemic and Bachman learned that his former neighbour had conducted an online search using facial recognition software to locate his guitar – in Tokyo. A YouTube video showed a musician named Takeshi playing the instrument on Christmas Eve 2019 in a restaurant.
Bachman’s soon-to-be daughter-in-law KoKo, who speaks Japanese, facilitated a video call with Takeshi, who explained that he purchased the instrument at a vintage guitar store in Japan. He agreed to give the Gretsch to the former Guess Who musician in exchange for an identical model – which Bachman managed to track down in Ohio.
The exchange will take place in Tokyo. “We have it all set to go,” Bachman, 78, said. “We’re just waiting for travel restrictions to ease up so we can go.”
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