The Chetboard

One of Chet Atkins personal guitars is for sale:

Elizabeth Pearson has asked me to help sell an electric nylon, solid body, Gibson. The guitar was given to Elizabeth by Chet in March of 1986, a letter from Chet dated Sunday, March 16th, 1986 confirms this and is in the case.

How she got this guitar: Elizabeth appeared in the instructional video that Chet did with John Knowles. I believe it is titled "Getting Started on the Guitar" ? Chet arranged with Gibson to give her a guitar for being in the video. The guitar they gave her was sent back because she was unhappy with it being a white bodied guitar. Elizabeth waited but never got a replacement guitar. When she wrote Chet about it he told her to come to his office, that he had a guitar for her. The letter again confirms this.

To further confirm that this is one of Chet's guitars: Mike Voltz at Gibson confirmed with me that the guitar was built on the 344th day of 1981. Elizabeth was given the guitar in March, 1986. It does not have a serial number on the headpiece but there is a number inside. Mike said that it is one of the earliest made and most likely was given to Chet.

This is a collector piece and is priced as so at $10.000 - Only serious inquiries please: Call me at (615) 598-3542 - I do have photos. Thanks, Bill Piburn

I remember many of the details surrounding Elizabeth's acquiring this guitar and would be glad to speak with anyone interested in purchasing the instrument.

I remember seeing Elizabeth in that video. I wonder what happened to her and the boy that was in the video. That is a very fair price for a vintage guitar with such a great history.

IMHO It's a shame someone has to sell personal gift like this guitar given to them by Chet and to ask for 10 grand for it on top of it. Sounds a little bit of greedy to me unless there's some kind of health problems going on with this person and she has medical bills to pay. Just my thought on it. Joe

It may be a shame that someone sells a personal gift, but if they do - then that is their business. What you or I might think or do will not have any bearing on what someone else should think or do...nor should it. I am surprised that anyone would really concern themselves about things like this. Chet gave away many guitars. Many have been sold....many times. This one is really no different. I wish her good luck.

Thats ridicules, Al

Let me see if I understand this. The Gretsch Co. just came out with the George Harrison REISSUE ,REISSUE,REISSUE Duo Jet guitar with a limited run of only 60 with a selling price of $20.000 and someone is selling a personal guitar of what I and many people consider the greatest guitarist of all time for $10.000. "A little bit of greedy"??????

pattie surman wrote:Let me see if I understand this. The Gretsch Co. just came out with the George Harrison REISSUE ,REISSUE,REISSUE Duo Jet guitar with a limited run of only 60 with a selling price of $20.000 and someone is selling a personal guitar of what I and many people consider the greatest guitarist of all time for $10.000. "A little bit of greedy"??????

Not very good logic. So any time someone accuses you of being greedy, dishonest, ect Just point to a case where another party is even worse, to vindicate yourself? As far as it being greedy, I don't think so. An item is valued at whatever another party agrees to pay. Nobody is forcing a buyer to pay that much, it's free will. If it's overpriced then it won't sell. I would say greedy would be a situtation where the buyer has no choice but to purchase. Like a drug company charging a fortune for drugs for people with AIDS. The seller has all the cards and the buyer has none.

Well I don't mean to say its greedy but Chet gave away a lot of guitars over the years. But I see high prices for guitars all the time and nobody buys them. Al

My point is Ithink the guitar is worth every penny if not more.