Maybelle Carter's L-5, FOR SALE???

[jerry_picker]

George Gruhn has it listed at his website:

 

"AR3719 Gibson L-5, 1928, VG+, formerly owned by Maybelle Carter, her primary guitar from 1928 until her death, HC. I consider this to be the most important single guitar in the entire history of country music.......$575000"

 

Shouldn't it be in the Smithsonian or Country Music Hall of Fame?

 

http://gruhn.com/

[guitarcapo]

Some family member is selling her out. And she wasn't even dead that long. Sad.

[jerry_picker]

Originally posted by guitarcapo Some family member is selling her out...

 

 

For real???

 

(BTW, Maybelle Addington Carter died October 23, 1978.)

[guitarcapo]

Yep. The family member is "undisclosed". June Carter and Johnny Cash died so close together that a son or close relative inherited it.

[Cortfan]

That guitar should be on display in the Country Music Hall of Fame. My first guitar was vaguely similar to that one. It was a Silvertone archtop with the burst finish. I think it was around $40.00 in 1964.

[Prozak]

So those of you saying this guitar shouldn't be sold, honestly wouldn't sell a guitar to make half a million dollars?

[guitarcapo]

First of all, my guess is that George Gruhn is asking a 15% commission on that guitar so the price that the family member is getting is 500,000 (if it sells at that price, I mean she wasn't exactly Jimi Hendrix)

Now would I sell it? Probably not, but I'm pretty comfortable financially. I probably would change my tune if I was strapped for cash I suppose. But it is a family heirloom and museum piece and it's sad it will just end up in some Japanese businessman's vault.
Country music always seems to be about family and hanging on to tradition and all that so I guess that's part of the rub. Maybelle gave it to her daughter and the daughter refused to sell it so you kind of know the feelings they had for it.

[jerry_picker]

Maybe it's a tax rouse:

Consider that one of the Carter-Cash family indeed intends to donate this guitar, but they want a big write-off. Garden variety 1928 L-5s may be expensive, but NOT half-million expensive. So, they consign it with Gruhn (the most respected guitar appraiser in the world) and accumulate their evidence for the (anticipated) audit that this guitar is worth $500K, Then, after a reasonable time, they pull it off the market and make their donation with great hoopla and fanfare AND get their fat deduction.

[chollyred]

Not too long before June Carter Cash's death, there was a special on tv where many members of her family were playing with her. One of her grand-daughters was playing Mother Maybelle's guitar. I have heard that Johnny's fortune was all split evenly with the kids, but don't remember hearing anything about the grand-kids. Make me wonder if one of the grand-kids is using it as a windfall. Like someone said, this belongs in the Country Music Hall of Fame. It's be a real shame for this to end up in a private collection.

[PFB]

Originally posted by guitarcapo First of all, my guess is that George Gruhn is asking a 15% commission on that guitar so the price that the family member is getting is 500,000 (if it sells at that price, I mean she wasn't exactly Jimi Hendrix)

 

 

Not exactly Hendrix perhaps, but as Gruhn points out it's probably the single most important guitar in the history of Country Music. Which covers many, many guitars from players like Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, etc. That is a huge statement of the value of an instrument.

[riffdaddy]

Originally posted by guitarcapo First of all, my guess is that George Gruhn is asking a 15% commission on that guitar so the price that the family member is getting is 500,000 (if it sells at that price, I mean she wasn't exactly Jimi Hendrix) Now would I sell it? Probably not, but I'm pretty comfortable financially. I probably would change my tune if I was strapped for cash I suppose. But it is a family heirloom and museum piece and it's sad it will just end up in some Japanese businessman's vault. Country music always seems to be about family and hanging on to tradition and all that so I guess that's part of the rub. Maybelle gave it to her daughter and the daughter refused to sell it so you kind of know the feelings they had for it.

 

 

It would be difficult for me to think that anybody in the Carter or Cash families would really be strapped for cash. I'll bet the royalties and publication rights to seventy years of popular music probably provides a comfortable kickback. Still, I don't think this is a tax dodge. That guitar has been on the Gruhn site for three or four months now. I have a feeling that the guitar somehow ended up in the hands of an ungrateful relative---y'know, like Frank Herbert Martin?

[69lespaul]

All I know is Johnny and June would be kickin some ass right now.

[jerry_picker]

Update...

Maybelle's L-5 Guitar