James isn’t a guitarist, but when she saw the guitar at a yard sale in Detroit, she thought it would make for a fun conversation piece. The guitar had fallen into the position of Beth James. He’d seen replicas and heard false rumors before, so he was a bit incredulous when he was informed that his ’74 Strat had turned up in Flushing, Michigan, some 80 miles from Detroit. Murmurs and close calls followed him through the years. Years later, he’d up the bounty to $20,000. When the guitar was first stolen back in ’92, Corgan filed a police report and offered $10,000 - no questions asked - for the instrument’s return. Of course, not being an artist, he didn’t think to sand it down first, so the paint didn’t adhere entirely and became “kind of blotchy,” a look Corgan liked. He’d decided the body’s creamy yellow was too close to Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore’s instruments, so he repainted it himself. On that Strat, it was like you suddenly could hear every little thing I was doing.”Īs for the psychedelic paint job, Corgan did that himself. That sort of bending, pulling and riffing really comes from that. I’m way over aggressive on the left hand and less obviously aggressive in the right hand, and that’s the style that people associate with the band. According to him, it was only once he began playing the Fender model that his music “came to life.” A southpaw who plays righty, Corgan said the instrument made it so “everything I was doing suddenly was amplified. It was the first Strat Corgan had ever owned, having grown up playing Gibson Flying Vs like his father.
(Read: Ranking: Every Smashing Pumpkins Album from Worst to Best) If Jimmy sold it to you and you used it, that makes me happy,'” recounted Corgan. He’d borrowed it from a friend, but said his pal was fine with Corgan taking ownership of it. Pumpkins’ drummer Jimmy Chamberlain had sold it to Corgan for $275 sometime around 1989 or 1990, but it wasn’t really Chamberlin’s to sell. It turns out the Fender Strat was sort of stolen before it first came into Corgan’s possession. The story of the guitar is a long and fascinating one. I always felt the guitar would come back when it was time.” “And I know that sounds strange, but today didn’t surprise me. “I always felt the guitar would come back,” Corgan told Rolling Stone. Now, nearly three decades later, the frontman has finally been reunited with the long lost instrument he credits with defining the Pumpkins’ early sound. Unfortunately, that night took a turn when, just minutes after they left the stage, Billy Corgan’s beloved ’70s Fender Stratocaster was stolen. It was June 1992, and the band was enjoying their first taste of success outside of their Chicago home.
GISH GUITAR FULL
There’s that sound that I’ve been looking for all these years.’ It’s hard to put into words, other than it’s the sound of my youth and a few other people’s.”Ĭheck out Corgan’s full round-up of the Gish guitar’s history down below.27 years ago, Smashing Pumpkins were performing at Detroit’s Saint Andrew’s Hall behind their 1991 debut, Gish. “When I strung it up the other day and plugged in, it was like, ‘There it is. “I was never able to find a guitar that had this exact sound,” Corgan said. It was at that point that Corgan knew he had been given his prized and elusive number one guitar yet again. But Corgan needed complete confirmation, so he plugged it in and busted out the riff for the Gish-era single ‘Siva’. The paint job I put on it, the weird markings that only I would know about, and 27 years later, it’s back,” Cargan proclaimed. But when he opened the case, he knew right away that he had been reunited with the Gish guitar. When they set up a meeting, Corgan had already been through a number of fakes and dead ends. The guitar was part of an estate sale and had been hanging in a family’s basement for about a decade when they caught wind of Corgan’s search. It was always the feeling that it was in somebody’s house, in somebody’s closet, and if I could just go to the right house and the right closet I would get it back.”Įventually, that house wound up being near the Sunset Marquee in Los Angeles, California. “I can’t say why I felt that way, so I never really stressed about it too hard. “I always felt the guitar would come back to me,” Corgan explained. Corgan continued to use other guitars and felt that the Gish guitar would return at the right time. But for 27 years, the guitar remained elusive. Corgan initially offered a $10,000 reward for the instruments return, and later bumped up the offer to $20,000 without the involvement of the police.
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