Bachmann travels to Japan to pick up the orange 1957 Gretsch guitar and perform a concert at the Canadian Embassy
Guitars aren’t just six strings and a bunch of wood. The connection between a musician and an instrument is very real – which is why Randy Bachman of Bachman-Turner Overdrive and the Guess Who keeps searching after losing one of his most treasured guitars.
Remarkably, the 46-year search came to a happy, Hollywood-style end. The Sydney-based rocker is now back in his hands with the orange 1957 Gretsch guitar that was stolen from Bachmann’s Toronto hotel room in 1976. How it got there is a remarkable journey – and one that includes participants from all over world.
His guitar was returned to the stage on Friday during a Canada Day concert organized by Ian McKay, Canada’s ambassador to Japan, in a theater located inside the Canadian embassy in Tokyo.
“It was absolutely the perfect setting, time and day for it,” Bachmann told the Times Colonist from Tokyo.
“It’s probably the most famous guitar in Canada, other than my 1959 Les Paul that played on American Woman.”
Bachman said he never stopped searching for his “first love,” for which he wrote Shakin’ All Over with the Guess Who and Takin’ Care of Business with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, among other hits.
“It made my whole life. It was my hammer and tool for writing songs and making music and making money,” Bachmann told The Associated Press before Friday’s show.
When it was stolen, “I cried for three days. It was a part of me,” he said. “It was very, very upsetting.” Bachmann ended up buying about 300 guitars in unsuccessful attempts to replace them, he said.
He would watch MuchMusic and MTV religiously, hoping to see a musician with his guitar using it in a music video. At one point, he was sure a member of 1980s hitmakers the Thompson Twins had it, but his music-video muckraking never produced a positive match.
The guitar was eventually found by William Long, an amateur Internet sleuth based in White Rock. Bachmann said the key to the discovery was a distinctive mark in the wood near the volume knob on his guitar, which gave Long something tangible to look for as he scoured the Internet for clues.
Long, who did not know Bachman, used a still image of him playing guitar taken from a 1976 Bachman-Turner Overdrive video on YouTube to aid in his search.
He came across a 2019 video of Japanese artist Takeshi playing a guitar that closely resembled Bachmann’s missing Grech. After emails between Takeshi and Bachmann’s sister-in-law, Koko, who is Japanese, Long’s suspicions are confirmed.
He had found the guitar.
Bachmann said Takeshi had bought the Gretsch years earlier from a dealer in Japan without knowing its history. He may never know the full story of how he was sent overseas. “We did a few Zooms [meetings]I agreed it was mine and he said he would give it back to me if I could find her sister guitar.”
Seeing his guitar during their virtual meeting was an emotional moment for Bachmann.
“I cried,” he told the AP. “The guitar almost spoke to me through the video, like, ‘Hey, I’m coming home.'”
Bachmann, one of the foremost authorities in the guitar world, said he made one phone call to Gary’s Classic Guitars in Loveland, Ohio, and found a 1957 Gretsch, manufactured the same week as his, with serial numbers in same sequence.
“Finding my guitar again was a miracle, finding her twin sister was another miracle,” Bachmann said.
The two guitars were swapped on stage during Friday’s concert, with a documentary crew filming the exchange.
“My girlfriend’s right there,” said Bachmann, 78, as Takeshi handed him the Gretsch.
The exchange was due to take place in May, but travel restrictions and health issues kept Bachmann at home in Sydney. Bachmann had expressed through the media at the time that he wanted to go to Tokyo and be reunited with his guitar, which resonated with McKay.
“I probably knew every word to every Guess Who and BTO hit, and I probably still do,” the ambassador told the Times Colonist from his office in Tokyo.
“I grew up with their music, so I immediately knew it was going to be something we had to do here in Tokyo. It was a lot of moving parts and a huge amount of people were involved.
The story caught the attention of people in Japan, where McKay has been based since 2021. The former Liberal Party of Canada chief executive, who was born and raised in Penticton, said he has been inundated with calls from the media since the news broke. that Bachmann would finally get his guitar back.
“I’ve had great experiences [in my life]but nothing will top that,” McKay said.
Takeshi told the AP that he decided to return the guitar because, as a guitarist, he could imagine how much Bachmann missed it.
“I’ve only owned and played it for eight years and I’m extremely sad to give it back now. But he has been feeling sad for 46 years and it’s time for someone else to be sad,” Takeshi said. “I felt sorry for that legend.”
He said he felt good after returning the guitar to its rightful owner, but it may take time for him to grow to love his new Gretsch as much as this one.
“It’s a guitar and it has a soul,” Takeshi said. “So even if it’s the same shape, I can’t say for sure if I can like a replacement the same way I liked this one. There is no doubt that Randy thought of me and was looking hard for me [for the replacement]so I will gradually develop a fondness for it, but it may take time.”
Bachmann said he and Takeshi are now like brothers who own guitars that are “twin sisters”.
Bachmann intends to lock the guitar in his home, never to lose it again. “I will never take it out of my house again,” he said.
mdevlin@timescolonist.com
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Marie Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo
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