A Bad Story with a Good Ending

So you think one person can’t make a difference? Well, this story proves that even three thousand miles apart, we possess the ability to have positive influence on others lives.

I was looking at my MySpace page in early May 2007 and came across a bulletin sent out by Plaster. They are a rock band from Seattle fronted by guitarist Pete Litwin (ex Coffin Break, Softy). The bulletin said that Pete’s guitar had been stolen and asked if anyone knew the whereabouts of his distinctive green axe. In normal circumstances, what this meant was that unless he was extremely lucky the guitar was gone forever. The police never make much effort to recover the item, so rarely does anyone ever get their guitar back (at least not in one piece).

To make the situation worse Pete’s guitar wasn’t some off-the-shelf Fend-Gibby clone. It was a rare sweetheart custom ordered from visionary luthier Stephen Davies of Stephen’s Stringed Instruments (SSI) in Seattle. The SSI team hand constructed perhaps 800 guitars total before they went out of business in 1998. Therefore there was no chance of ever getting an exact replacement for this unique guitar.

Time passed until late August when I messaged Pete again concerning his missing axe. I hadn’t heard anything from him since May, but had noticed in recent Plaster pictures he was now playing a Black Les Paul Custom. His response to my message was what I expected: no new information and nothing new from the Seattle Police. Any hope of recovering his green guitar was gone. It sounded like the loss Pete felt was starting to fade with time, but it still hurt like hell.

I continued my daily search of guitar websites, as I’m always looking for a deal or something unusual to buy. On Friday October 26 I was searching on Ebay and received a listing for a Stephen’s guitar. SSI had licensed their patented Extended Cutaway to Washburn Guitars, so these types of listings happened frequently. When I clicked on the link though, I was shocked to see a guitar that resembled Pete Litwin’s green monster. The unusual shade of green Pete’s guitar was painted might have been copied, but what’s the chance that? It had to be just a coincidence that the guitars were eerily similar.

As I continued to look at the auction pictures, the guitar’s details surprised me. The pickup was an exact match; the bridge & tailpiece was an exact match; the fretboard was ebony, again an exact match (now I’m starting to get REALLY excited!); Holy shit...the knobs are an exact match!

My mind at this point was becoming clogged with lots of conflicting thoughts: Why would someone put a guitar they stole on Ebay? Maybe SSI had made another of these crazy green guitars? Perhaps Pete had got his guitar back, and traded it in for the black Les Paul he’d been playing? Finally, why hasn’t someone alerted Pete if this really WAS his guitar?

Then the real clincher: The guitar was up for auction from a boutique guitar shop located in Seattle. There were too many parallel facts for me to ignore now, I had to know definitively, was THIS Pete’s guitar? I searched my computer hard drive for live photos of Plaster, and the guitar in question. I found a couple of high resolution shots that showed Pete and his axe. A little photoshopping of the pics, and I had some guitar mug shots.

I went back to Ebay and anxiously started to scrutinize the photos. It took a little while to come to a decision because there were only four pictures in the Ebay listing to compare to. Finally, there it was...standing out like a zit in your high school yearbook picture; the proverbial needle in the haystack... There was a small ding on the guitar’s front edge down by the output jack, and both the auction pics and my mug shots had the same blemish! It was definitely Pete’s guitar!

For a moment I was stunned; what should I do? Pete still could have sold this guitar to the dealer after getting it back from the police. I decided to error on the good side. I went to MySpace and messaged both the Plaster page and Pete’s personal page about my find. Meanwhile I searched the online Big Book for Pete’s phone number in Seattle. Only one listing showed up, but should I call that number, it could be the wrong person? I felt like a stalker. What if I were making too much of the guitar showing up on Ebay...then I’d look like an idiot stalker! My wife volunteered to phone, saving me the embarrassment of a cold call. She dialed the number and got an answering machine...DAMN...no way could I leave such a bizarre message to possibility the WRONG person. We ended up just leaving silence at the beep. I’d have to give the MySpace messages I left time to be responded to.

A very long Saturday came and went, but on Sunday I finally got a message from Plaster’s MySpace account. Dana their drummer had read my note and said he told Pete about my find. That’s it, no other information was offered except to say thanks a lot. It didn’t say a thing about the green guitar, who owned it now, or how it ended up on Ebay. The time had come to use that potential phone number I had, and see if it WAS the right Pete Litwin.

I dialed the number and was greeted by a pleasant female voice. The first words out of my mouth were “does Pete Litwin live here”? I’m now thinking DUH...of course he does...that’s what the listing said from the Big Book page...lets try again. “Does this Pete Litwin play in a band called Plaster?” I was ready for the nervous silence, and the “no” response. Much to my surprise the voice said “yes, who may I say is calling?” I told her “a guy from Pittsburgh that found Pete’s green guitar on Ebay.” She said “Oh, I heard about that, I’ll put him on.” At last I was going to get some answers to a weekend of waiting and anticipation.
 

Pete and I talked for about twenty five minutes concerning his guitar and my deliberations on the matter. He remembered my MySpace messages months earlier regarding the guitar, but never thought we’d actually talk. I did find out he had not recovered the green guitar, and was unaware it was up for sale on Ebay. We both marveled at the happenstance of an ex-Seattleite, now living in Pittsburgh, knowing his band AND his guitar, and then somehow finding it on the worlds largest internet auction site. He said he would call the Seattle police Monday about the situation and keep me informed on progress.

A week later, on November 4^th, I received a follow-up call from Pete. It seems the SPD was unimpressed with Pete’s new information and all but asked what did he expect THEM to do about it. Fortunately Pete had better results when he called the guitar shop that had his “hot” guitar up for sale. They immediately cancelled the Ebay auction of the guitar while waiting on the SPD and some positive proof of ownership from Pete.

Next week Pete wrote me and said progress had ground to a halt. He had found the fifteen year old receipt for the guitar and turned it over to the police. Only to be told because of police procedures a new detective had to be assigned to the case. With a new detective came repeat investigations, more interviews, and more wasted time. It seemed as though red tape had taken over the legal process. The case just wasn’t moving forward. To make matters worse Plaster was going in the studio to record in a week and Pete was without his signature guitar.

On November 29^th I received a message from Pete saying he and his Gumby Green guitar had been reunited. Just as it seemed he would not see his beloved guitar returned in the near future, he got the call to come pick it up. Almost six and a half months had gone by since it was stolen out of his car’s trunk parked in his driveway.

Time to fast forward to the last week of January 2008. I wrote Pete to ask him a few questions so I could finish this story. Unbelievable as it seems the thief who stole Pete’s guitar has yet to be identified. Even though he walked into a highly regarded music store and sold a reasonably rare guitar for cash. Pete says when he got the guitar back it had been cleaned, detailed and set up nicer than before it was stolen. Go figure. I asked Pete if there was anything he wanted to go on the record about this whole episode...he wrote: “After not playing that guitar for 5-6 months and instead playing my Gibson Les Paul's I realized how much I missed the Stephen’s and what a great guitar it is. Les Paul's are also awesome guitars so to say I like the Stephen’s more is saying a lot.” 

This past week I received a package in the mail from Pete. It was a box of swag from all of Pete’s bands since the mid 1980’s. A true treasure chest of goodies from Seattle’s music scene. I wrote Pete to thank him and wish his band good luck. In his reply he said he did in fact get the green guitar back in time to use it on Plaster’s new CD...I bet it rocks.

It is indeed a small world.

www.plastertheband.com