The Shark

The guitar that was supposedly Charlie Huhn's ex-guitar, was being sold by Dave Kenney at a midwest guitar shop back in 1990.  It was listed in VG Magazine as being Charlie's, and could be purchased either with a set of original PAFs (that were currently installed at the time) or he'd remove them ad sell the guitar for $995.  I think I still have the old Vintage Guitar stocklist ad for that tucked away somewhere.  I called him and we worked out a deal.  I sent him payment, but when it arrived, "apparently", somebody at the store had already sold the guitar the day before, despite it being marked "SOLD".  He offered me a Standard bass (#0601, I think) at time, which he claimed had belonged to Tom Petersson, but I really didn't need/want that one at the time. Not sure that Tom would have gotten a Standard bass in 1983-84, but hey, who knows...

He ended up working out a deal with Frank Untermyer to have a Standard built for me, which I got the next year.  

I don't recall the specific details about when it turned up again, but the story was (at the time) that it was Charlie's old one.  Not sure where that came from, but the color and description definitely fit the one that Dave Kenney was selling.  As to whether that was dealer hype or what, I don't know!

Caps are looking much better tonight than against the Flyers the other night!

Well, in a weird way, this is starting to make sense.  I've known Dave Kenney since the eighties.  My best friend Chris Lukasik, who passed away five or six years ago, built the famous/infamous Bolt Gibson for Dave.  The neck was a real blank that I watched Mike Korpak sell Chris for $100 in the old factory.  He also sold him the silver logo.  I bought the mahogany slab on the same trip from a guy named Cub Koda.  You might of heard of him.  Dave told everyone all the parts came from Kalamazoo.  That much was true.  You see where I'm going with this?   

Subsequently, Dave K. moved to Orlando.  I bought a killer Selmer Zodiac amp that he told me was owned by Laurie Wisefield of Wishbone Ash fame.  It had the "eye" and was the exact model Peter G. in Fleetwood Mac used.  I was playing a Firebird V that I bought from Duane Roland at the time.  It was glorious.

After the purchase, I mailed a letter to Don Clayton of Route 66 Music in England that I'd been importing amps from for about four years.  I knew that he knew Laurie.  He "rang him up" and Laurie told him he'd never owned a Selmer amp.  I later traded the amp in a larger deal and included no bullshit story.  Dave moved back to Rockford and I've not had occasion to deal with him since.  That was 1993 or 1994. 

So, it's no stretch that Dave Kenney crafted a narrative that wound up giving  him one more chance in history to bite me.  It's a small world, Chris.  And Charlie's not Elvis.  The fact that my story is that I was buying Charlie's guitar, or so I thought, from Bubs when my drummer told me he was moving in two doors down is no less serendipitous. 

Thanks for your candor and your memory.  I'm not going to announce any of this or worry about it much.  It's still a killer 4-digit Standard that I may have paid a grand too much for.  I'll not discuss the fabricated story again and am going to let Shawn know.  He's a friend and I don't ever want him to think I didn't tell him because I was suspicious.  The guitar will never be for sale anyway.

Guess you'll have to revise the "lineage" in the second book!  

Thanks,

DR