My dad had two brothers: my wonderful Uncles Bill and Jack. The oldest brother Jack and his family lived in Hewlett, Long Island. My folks moved from NYC to Buffalo when I was 5. I started playing guitar when I was 14.
At some point soon thereafter, we were visiting Jack’s house, and I had my España guitar with me. Jack says, “I have a guitar too!” He brings down from the attic what I now know was an early ‘50s Gibson CF100 guitar. The CF100 is a small bodied acoustic with a cutaway, the same body size as a Gibson LG1 or LG2. At the time I knew nothing, but they are quite scarce and very cool. There is also an electrified version, with the same pickup as the J160e called (oddly enough) the CF100e.
Fast forward to circa 1997, and my cousin Al, Jack’s son, is visiting. We are talking about Jack’s house, which had been sold after Jack died. I asked, “What happened to Jack’s guitar?” Al says, “What guitar?”
I’m guessing that the house buyer or some cleaning company person or a realtor or who knows … got a nice present. Today it’s about a $4,000 guitar!
Ahh… my uncle had a Rickenbacker 360, that he bought in 1965, mint, in the original case. He’d regularly borrow it to me whenever I was recording at some fancy London studio (my band were from glamorous Mexborough) and promised that if he was ever going to sell it, I’d get first pick. To cut a long story short, recently I saw him (after about a decade) at a family funeral, and casually asked if he’d ‘still got her?’
“Oh no, I sold it about five months ago for £600. Hundred more than I was asking for it”. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he could have added a zero. Meanwhile, inside, I died. Wish I could post the pics from when I was using it in Konk. Rickenbackers are generally a nightmare, but this was one of the best guitars I’ve ever played, and I’ve played on some very famous guitars (including the ‘Pet Sounds’ guitar that belonged to Tommy Tedesco).