Richie Sambora reveals he hired a private detective to track down his stolen Gibson Explorer
Guitar thievery is sadly all too common. In the last few months alone, session guitarist Mason Stoops had a Fender Jazzmaster and Gretsch Corvette stolen from his van, and Chris Buck was the victim of thieves who smashed the back window of his car to make off with some of his music gear.
Most aren’t so lucky to be reunited with their equipment, but every now and again, the story has a happy ending.
In one such heartwarming tale, former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora became whole again in March following the return of his long-lost 1976 Gibson Explorer, which had been missing for 40 years.
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And in a new interview with People [via Guitar World], Sambora reveals the lengths he went to to recover his beloved instrument. Apparently, the guitarist even ended up hiring a private detective to help track it down.
As the story goes, Sambora went into debt as a teenager to front the $250 it cost to buy the Explorer.
“The record company had to lend us money to buy new equipment and we just went and did it,” he says. But the guitar was stolen from a warehouse in 1985 while Bon Jovi were touring overseas, and the case was shrouded in mystery for decades.
“About 10 years ago, I get a call from Guitar Center in New Jersey,” he continues. “I’m staying at my mom’s, and they go, ‘Your Explorer was in here. We just sold it to some guy.’”
Sambora then phoned the buyer to offer him double what he paid for the guitar, but never got a response, so ended up hiring a private investigator to get to the bottom of it.
But it was Matthieu Lucas of Matt’s Guitar Shop who ultimately tracked the Explorer down. He bought the guitar there and then, and sent Sambora a photo to verify the guitar was legit.
“He sent me a picture and I go, ‘Get the fuck out of here. You got it.’ He goes, ‘I knew it was yours. I bought it immediately for you.’ So that was really, really cool of him.”
“I said to myself, ‘This is the guitar that I can make talk.’ When I wanted to be a badass, that’s what I took out. It easily was the best guitar I owned, and the specs were mine. So basically it was the first Richie Sambora custom model.”
On the moment he was reunited with the guitar, he explains: “It was fucking trippy as shit. I put it on, I started to play it. It seemed like it was untouched. It’s almost in perfect shape.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
