Description
The G. E. Smith Vintage Guitar/Amp Collection
If you have ever watched the Saturday Night Live band back some of the greatest names in music, then you probably saw G.E. Smith on guitar. G.E. has been THE rock-steady guitar sound behind SNL, Hall & Oates, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, MoonAlice and many more.
Recently, G.E. had been thinking about selling some of the gear he'd collected during his long career. While looking for an established, knowledgeable and trusted buyer, he ran across our shop and liked what he saw. After checking out the store's bona fides, he decided to touch base with John Majdalani, Cream City Music store co-owner and head vintage buyer.
Fortunately, John and G.E. hit it off immediately, and G.E. asked John to come out east to see, in person, the portion of his collection he was no longer using. When John arrived at G.E.'s, he was invited down to the basement, and they spent the next 8 hours deep-diving through the whole thing: amps then guitars--all the while jibber-jabbering about gear, life, food and rock'n'roll war stories.
The collection turned out to be a total of 60 pieces--roughly 30 guitars and 30 amps...an astonishing wealth of great vintage gear. At the end of the long day, as John was packing everything into the truck, G.E. sat on the tailgate and played a goodbye tune on his old, trustworthy 1960 Black Beauty Les Paul.
Most of the collection is currently at Cream City Music and consists of some of the most extraordinary vintage pieces we have seen in many years. If you're in the area, it's truly worth a visit to the store to see this gear. If you can't make here though, take a look at our website and social media over the next few weeks to see these items as they are posted for sale.
What makes this guitar special: Another very cool piece from G.E.’s collection, a rare reissue of the Rickenbacker’s classic solid body mandolin, in great shape with terrific playability and a great sound. The classic Rickenbacker Toaster Top lends itself beautifully to the chimey sound of an 8-string mando, with fantastic clarity and note definition. This piece is very cool in that it was used by G.E. on a Roger Waters tour a few years back, and there is video of him displaying it in a Premier Guitar rig rundown video. Professionally setup and inspected by our expert in-house luthiers, ready to play right out of the case.
Cosmetic condition: Used but not abused, with some standard wear throughout. There are various scratches, dents, dings, and nicks present, along with some visible pickwear and minor oxidation on the hardware.
Body: Solid body in jetglo finish with single ply gold pickguard. Top loading bridge with 4 individually adjustable saddles.
Weight: 3 lb, 10 oz
Neck: Nicely rounded set neck with white side dots and pearl dot inlays. Rosewood fingerboard is in awesome shape, and frets show no wear. Gold truss rod cover with black Rickebacker logo. Ric Deluxe tuners work great. 1 1/4” nut width, 13.875” scale length. Neck is straight and plays beautifully up and down the length of the instrument.
Electronics: Toaster Top single coil pickup (7.15k ohms) with adjustable volume & tone.
Case: Original hard shell case included.
