We're almost at the first anniversary of the devastating flood that ravaged Nashville last year. I was invited to go down there the day after the storm with Vince Cunetto to triage guitars for one of his "Country Superstar" friends. I disassembled irreplaceable guitars for three days, and it was an experience that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Since this is the guitar forum, I'm posting a link to my photos of some guitars I worked on. There will be a link in the amp section to the photos of some amplifiers. The epiphany I had was that we are stewards of the guitars and amplifiers we love, and our possession is temporary. Temporary in that we all gotta go someday, but our gear "lives on". All you can do is have a good Will in place, and pass them on to another good steward. http://photobucket.com/ashtone54NFguitars

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"There's an arse for every chair"

5 guitars
7 amps
4 dogs

They were certainly eye opening and heartbreaking pix to see all the devastation caused to these beautiful instruments.It almost made me cry to see some of them like the Silverflake Tele autographed by Buck Owens and 50s Fenders and Gibsons rendered unfixable plus the beautiful acoustics-never to be heard again.What a huge catastrophe.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Thanks for posting this...I live in the Nashville area and have for most of my 57 years...that's sad about the instruments lost....but I can bear to see it without getting emotional because I saw many people who watched everything they had in this world wash away,most are still trying to rebuild...some died with the floodwater.
And now we're being hammered again with some areas expecting as much as 8" of rain on saturated ground,and high winds and tornados.
And you can't stop any of it...just hope for the best.

I had the same awareness of the human tragedy taking place in that flood, and my prayers go out to you and all your fellow residents and neighbors today. As Human Beings we control so much of our environment, it is easy to be complacent about how powerless we are in the face of the natural forces that rule our world. I will never forget the image of the Cumberland all the way up to 2nd Street and Broadway...and the thousands of people who lost everything, especially those who lost loved ones.

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"There's an arse for every chair"

5 guitars
7 amps
4 dogs

Thank you ashtone,it's starting to look bad here,floodwaters are rolling,I hope and pray it doesn't get that bad again.
I've always loved history and have talked to many old folks when growing up and one subject was floods and how high the rivers rose,so I knew from those old timer's stories that last year's flood was history making as the highest we have had on record.
Your pictures of the guitars and amps show how many fine instruments were lost...I think I saw a story of Todd Sharpe and Nashville Amp Service and a restoration of a Fender Deluxe Reverb...and also I remember seeing a story of a Les Paul Goldtop that was saved somewhere.
Thanks again.

Is it cool with you if I use the text from your post and link to the pictures on our guitar blog?

Sure, I'm fine with it, as long as it is not for profit. If it is for profit, you can still use it.

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"There's an arse for every chair"

5 guitars
7 amps
4 dogs

Thanks man. I just wanted to get more some eyeballs on it. Great sentiment. http://tinyurl.com/3jzwry6

Are some of the guitars utterly unrepairable or can things be done to bring a water damaged guitar back to playing condition? Re-gluing, replacing ruined electronics, things like that?



We could sure use some of that rain down here. It's hardly rained at all for a really long time, which is very unusual. Plus all the fires, there's just some really bizarre weather going on right now.

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It all depends on how long the stuff was underwater. And we're not talking about bathwater; there was silt, mud, filth, snakes and everything smelled like mildew. Most of the acoustic guitars just came apart, and the thin wood split. Solid body guitars and basses fared better, but a waterlogged piece of wood will never sound the same as it did. The paint on one old Goldtop literally fell off as I disassembled it. Maple fingerboards had dirt and mineral staining running up from the end grain in the fret slots and the tuner ferrules. When wood gets wet, it expands. So necks and neck pockets swelled tight, some cracking. Laminated pieces like fingerboards came apart, and the list goes on and on. Wherever end grain came in contact with the water, it sucked it up like a straw.
Electronics are made of metal and plastic, and present a different issue. The water and the mud and sludge that came with it was into every nook and cranny. So when you think about something like a P.A.F. with a cover on it, the water and dirt get in there and saturate some of the coil windings, magnets start to rust and even if you dis-assemble the whole thing, stick it in a bag of dessicant for a month and get all the moisture out, corrosion will continue to slowly happen. What will that do? I don't know, but I doubt if it's good. Fender pickups, with bobbins essentially made of phenolic cardboard, warped and buckled.
Some things were underwater for 5 days, some much less. I saw lots of components that could be fixed up and re-used, like all the plastic, most of the hardware and some necks and bodies. So I'm sure that some of these things will be saved in some way, either restored or parted out. But I really don't know how many.
My understanding is that the insurance companies, faced with trying to sell off or dispose of so many salvaged instruments, paid out and told the people to keep their stuff. It looked like there was going to be a huge amount of restoration work that would come to luthiers, but that hasn't happened. Not on the scale we thought it would.
There is a point where damage overcomes the potential of restoration. Not that you can't make it presentable again, but that it will never be the same instrument it once was. It won't look the same, and it will never sound the same. Not to mention the cost. It's just like if you went through some devastating injury, and the doctors put you all back together again. It will be obvious that something profound happened.

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"There's an arse for every chair"

5 guitars
7 amps
4 dogs

Good post ashtone...and if the smell was mostly mildew...well,that's good,because you nicely left out one major ingredient in the water,which I will leave unamed also.