One of the best parts of collecting instruments is sharing the stories behind them. From the iconic stories of Paul McCartney’s recently recovered Hofner to the bar gigs your dad played with that guitar he handed down to you, these stories are an essential part of our love of collecting. 

The idea for this project came from a conversation about my 1967 Gibson EB-2. Somewhere along the line, one of its owners removed the black headstock veneer and Gibson logo to reshape the headstock. They also lacquered the back of the neck and the fretboard. The neck doesn’t appear to have ever had any breaks at the headstock or the heel, so it was not a product of some poorly done repair. We’ll never know the true motivation of the owner because that story was not passed on with the bass over the years. 

Not long before that, I had been searching for a Gibson Triumph Recording bass. A super rare white one popped up on a nationwide guitar retailer’s website, which is notorious for giving almost no information on their used gear and pictures that look like they were taken with a flip phone. The price was great, but the headstock was broken and repaired. There was no information on when the repair was done or who performed it. Without knowing whether the repair was done by a competent technician or botched by a home tinkerer, I ultimately passed on it. But, had the listing had detailed photos and information about the headstock break and who repaired it, I probably would have purchased it. 

That got us thinking, “What if we had some way to track the history of an instrument, similar to what we have for cars?” How many owners has it had? Has it been owned by anyone notable? Was it used on any recordings or notable gigs? What mods or repairs have been done? Who performed them? What maintenance has it received? How did it get any unique wear patterns or battle scars?

Convinced that there was no way that someone hadn’t already created something like this, we scoured the internet. We found a handful of disconnected databases dedicated to specific niches of the collector market, primarily focused on just cataloging the serial numbers. There was nothing that celebrated the individuality of each instrument and the journey it took to get to your hands.

Thus, The Guitar Archive was born. It is a place where you can share the history of your instrument, including stories, specs, photos, audio and video clips, and more.

We hope you’ll have fun immortalizing your instruments and browsing the community submissions. Who knows, you may find your next dream guitar!