Russ,

Love hearing those ol' stories. I think it's cool you know him that well. I heard he never smoked or drank, and was a pretty straight and narrow guy. Did he have anything to do with the Ventures?


And speaking of old Strats, when my father was active in the music store, someone wanted to trade in a Fender Stat for $100 on a new guitar. Neither buyer or seller knew the value, but the guy really wanted a new guitar, so the deal was made. As it turned out it was a 1960 Strat worth at that time about 10G. I'm not sure what he actually received for the guitar, but a collector eventually bought it for... who knows how much.(probably a lot) Anyway, my Pop notified the original owner and he gave him a percentage of the sale, so he must have made a bundle in that deal.

PS: Is the '59 Strat part of your sale? I heard DonM always wanted one, and has an extra $25,000 to spare