Songbirds Guitar Museum is telling the story of instruments and their place in our culture

Guitars are displayed on the opening day of the Songbirds Guitar Museum on Station Street on Saturday, March 11, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The museum, which houses an extensive collection of classic guitars, held a block party on Station Street to celebrate its opening.
Guitars are displayed on the opening day of the Songbirds Guitar Museum on Station Street on Saturday, March 11, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The museum, which houses an extensive collection of classic guitars, held a block party on Station Street to celebrate its opening.
photo Fender guitars are on display on the opening day of the Songbirds Guitar Museum on Station Street on Saturday, March 11, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The museum, which houses an extensive collection of classic guitars, held a block party on Station Street to celebrate its opening.

When legendary Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour decided earlier this year to put some of his guitars up for auction to raise money to battle climate change, it drew plenty of attention. In fact, bidders from 66 countries got involved in the Christie's auction, and the sale brought in more than $21 million.

As you might expect, one of the people who paid attention was Johnny Smith, executive director of Songbirds Guitar Museum. But maybe not for the reason you might think.

A Fender black Stratocaster in the Gilmour sale set a worldwide auction record when it went for $3.97 million. It was estimated to sell for $150,000.

What caught Smith's interest, besides the price, was that the guitar, which had been used on such classic Floyd albums as "Dark Side of the Moon," "Wish You Were Here," "Animals" and "The Wall," had been modified several times over the years. In other words, it was far from original, though its provenance and importance in the music world are unquestioned.

If you go

› What: Songbirds Guitar Museum, 35 Station St.› Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Wednesday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; noon-6 p.m. Sunday; all-access tours at 11 a.m., 1, 3 and 5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday.› Admission: $12 general; $45 family four-pack; $28.95 all-access tour; $99.95 all-access tour family four-pack.› Phone: 423-531-2473.

For Smith, the value of the guitars in the Songbirds collection goes beyond who played them to include their role in the shaping of our culture. That's the story that he and the staff at Songbirds have been telling since it opened in 2017.

"Some of the guitars here were owned or played by well-known people, but we don't focus on that at all," he says.

"I think it's great that [the Gilmour] auction raised $21 million for charity, but, for us, the value of these guitars is their role in the history of this country, music in general really, and culture. We have guitars that changed history."

The value of the guitars in the Songbird collection, which is valued in the hundreds of millions, is that they are not only all original parts, but they represent key moments in the evolution of not only the history of the instrument but how the electric guitar helped shape our culture.

David Davidson, one-time owner of We Buy Guitars in New York and now co-owner of Well Strung Guitars there, is the man largely responsible for putting the collection together over the last two decades. He says he was given a mission to put together the collection, and the means to do so, in order to save the instruments and to tell the story of the importance of the guitar. The person behind the idea wishes to remain anonymous.

"It's all vintage - no reissues," Davidson says. "We don't have refinished guitars or guitars that have been modified or damaged and put back together [in the museum].

photo Vintage guitars hang on the wall behind people as they listen to AOL founder Steve Case at the Songbirds Guitar Museum during the Rise of the Rest seed fund tour's stop in Chattanooga, Tenn. on Thursday, May 10, 2018.

He says they do have a few instruments that have been slightly modified but that are so rare, they were purchased.

"If a part has been changed, we tell people, but we don't put those in the museum," he says.

Both Smith and Davidson admit that explaining to people that Songbirds isn't just a static collection of guitars once owned by someone famous or that it was used on a particular song or album is not always easy.

"We have this unbelievable place, and so many people don't know it exists," Davidson says, "and we also try to make people aware what incredible treasures we have. Our guitars are famous because other people played a like model."

Or they represent each of the colors that were offered when new, or they are one-offs or prototypes.

More than 30 sunburst Gibson Les Pauls from the legendary 1958-60 period are in the collection, for example. There are also several pre-war acoustic Martins from the 1930s and '40s, as well as a Gibson F-5 mandolin, an H-5 mandola and an L-5 archtop guitar, all with inside labels signed by legendary luthier Lloyd Loar from 1924.

Visitors don't just stare at the the cases full of instruments. They hear how the dawns of the television and space ages gave names to the Telecaster and the Stratocaster and how a legal challenge led to the Nocaster.

They hear how auto-body paint from Detroit came to be used on the early models to help them stand up to aggressive playing. And they hear how amplifying the instruments moved the guitar player from the back of the stage to the front.

"The guitar was a rhythm instrument that sat in the back, a giant instrument, non-amplified," Davidson says.

He says Leo Fender began working with Western swing acts like Bob Wills and Little Billy Carson on ways to make the lap steel guitar or Hawaiian guitars more appealing. Amplifying it was the gamechanger.

"Now it's electrified, and now you could be a frontman," Davidson says. "Think Buddy Holly, and stand him in the front and have him sing the vocal and play a guitar through an amplified sound. It was the shot heard around the world.

"Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry and Little Richard may have created it, but back in England, guys were listening to it. Guys like John Lennon and Keith Richards, they were paying attention."

Located in 7,500 square feet of space in three upstairs rooms at the Chattanooga Choo Choo on Station Street, the space is home to about 500 of the more than 1,700 guitars in the total collection. Most of the guitars are owned by one person, but some are on loan and some are owned by the Songbirds Foundation, a nonprofit that provides guitars and lessons for underprivileged youth.

Many of the instruments in the collection, which includes bass, mandolin, banjo and acoustic guitar examples as well, are kept in glass cases on wheels that can be moved to the outer walls, opening the middle area for concerts and events such as wedding rehearsal dinners.

In fact, the events and concerts have been a somewhat unexpected side business for the venue. Smith says 61,240 people paid to see the museum in the last 12 months, with more than 50% of those coming from out of town. The venue also hosted 267 individual events.

Such well-known guitarists as Dick Dale, Doyle Dykes and Vince Gill have played in the space, but so have dozens of local performers, including almost two dozen young performers who competed in a talent contest there.

Museum Hop

Songbirds Guitar Museum is one of seven Chattanooga attractions participating in the Museum Hop Aug. 15-16. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. that Thursday and Friday, visitors can tour all seven locations for $25 per person or $50 for a family of four. Also on the Hop are International Towing & Recovery Hall of Fame & Museum, Coker Car Museum, Charles H. Coolidge Medal of Honor Heritage Center, Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, 6th Cavalry Museum and Houston Museum of Decorative Arts. Tickets are available at www.eventbrite.com.

Smith says the word is slowly getting out among the musicians of the world that visiting the museum is worth the trip to Chattanooga. G.E. Smith of "Saturday Night Live" fame toured the museum recently and found one of his old guitars in the collection.

It's a surprisingly user-friendly space for a museum, a word that can connote quiet and stuffiness and one that Smith has been reluctant to tag it with from the beginning.

"I wanted it to be rock 'n' roll," he says. "Loud, flashy and exciting."

Visitors, famous and not so famous, are often surprised when one of the tour guides takes a guitar out of the case and hands it to them.

"I think I got to play four or five," says legendary guitarist Richard Lloyd, known for his time in the iconic band Television and later for his solo work. Now a Chattanooga resident, he visited the museum recently and found the whole experience a pleasant surprise.

"It's magnificent," he says. "It's a special collection. I never realized or would have imagined that somebody in Chattanooga could have put together such a collection. It's a really special thing."

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.

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