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The colourful history of the $20K guitar recently found in Shuswap

Image Credit: Lee's Music

Music store owner Mike Miltimore knew there was going to something special when Renee Lacheur walked into his Kamloops store with a beat-up old guitar case looking for an appraisal.

Lacheur thought the old guitar she'd brought in might be worth anywhere from $100 to $1,000. Instead, the guitar, a 1953 Gretsch Round-up was valued at $20,000.

The guitar had sat in the closet of Salmon Arm resident Sherrie Favell for decades. When Sherrie passed away in March, Lacheur became the executor of her will, which ultimately lead to her taking the guitar into Miltimore's store.

News of the guitar spread and Miltimore said he had inquiries from interested parties from all over North American. The story of the rare guitar made local and national headlines.

READ MORE: Kamloops woman discovers 'once-in-a-lifetime' guitar under late uncle's bed

But behind the story of the unique instrument being found randomly in a closet, is another of the guitar's original owner. The guitar did not belong to Lacheur's late uncle as previously reported, but to Sherrie's father Roy, a Shuswap musician who played in multiple bands in the Salmon Arm area in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Piecing the precise story together is difficult, but Lacheur said she’s learnt that Roy bought the guitar brand new in 1953. She believes he ordered it from a store in Vernon or Kelowna.

Lacheur said Roy played with a band called McKenna’s Gold and she believes he was a fixture in the local music scene playing local Legion clubs and the Salmon Arm Carlin Hall.

In about 1957 Roy got his arm stuck in a plainer while working at a mill in Canoe and lost his thumb. He then had to relearn how to play the guitar without a thumb, which he did successfully.

"He was a really good guitar player, he played it all the time," Lacheur said.

Lacheur said Roy was a "colourful character" and although the details are vague, it appears that on two occasions he resorted to pawning the instrument.

On both occasions, a family member had paid to get the guitar out of the pawnshop and returned it to Roy. 

"He had a colourful life, (but) it stayed with him through all the trials and tribulations of his life," Lacheur said.

Roy passed away in 2005 and the instrument ended up with his daughter Sherrie, sitting in her closet.

Lacheur, who refers to Sherrie as an aunt although they're not biologically related, said she had known about the guitar in the closet for years but hadn't given it much thought.

Sherrie didn't talk about it much and Lacheur is pretty sure she didn't play it.

"I was aware it existed but it wasn't something that was displayed in the house," she said. "It honestly sat in the closet."

Sherrie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 15 years ago and given 18 months to live.

"She's like this miracle," Lacheur said. "It was 10 years before it came back."

Lacheur is sure the woman she loved as an aunt didn't realize the instrument's value but doesn't believe Sherrie would have sold it even if she did.

"She suffered from cancer. She could have used the money and she never sold it," she said.

As the executor of the will, Lacheur said it doesn't appear there are any other hidden gems sitting in closets or many family heirlooms.

The guitar however is different.

"It's always been something in their family... they just kept hanging onto it," Lacheur said. "I love the history behind it. I guess at one point it was Roy's prized possession... that came with him throughout his whole life."

The guitar is currently for sale through Lee's Music for $20,000.

For more information go here.


To contact a reporter for this story, email Ben Bulmer or call (250) 309-5230 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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