Musicians unite to help Mitch Easter find stolen guitars

By Paul Garber, Winston-Salem Journal

KERNERSVILLE, N.C. – Eight mostly vintage guitars — including one used for the first albums by the now world-famous rock band R.E.M. — were stolen from musician Mitch Easter‘s recording studio in Kernersville last week, leaving Easter heartbroken over his missing heartstrings.

The only other thing taken in the theft was some beer from a refrigerator, Easter said.

“For what, an after-crime party?” he said. “It was all kind of mysterious.”

Easter has run a studio since 1980, formerly named the Drive-in Studio, and now known as Fidelitorium Recordings.

In all that time, though many people had known about the studio, no one had bothered it and he never had a problem with crime there.

“It had been protected with some kind of mojo,” Easter said. “People didn’t want to bother this place. The studio is just something people like.”

While Easter was out of town last week, thieves broke into a sunroom and stole a group of guitars that had been stored there while renovations to the studio were being made.

Among the guitars taken was a 12-string Fender that Easter has had since he was 12. Like most of the stolen guitars, it had been used by many artists Easter recorded, including Peter Buck, who played it while recording tracks for the early R.E.M. albums “Murmur” and “Reckoning.”

Easter said he still regularly played the cream-colored guitar with a tortoise-shell pick guard. His father bought him the guitar from Camel Pawn shop downtown when it was a hot spot for guitar sales in the late 1960s, Easter said.

Also taken was a more recent purchase, a pink paisley Stratocaster that Easter had bought to take part in a Big Star tribute concert five months ago in New York.

“The guitar did great,” Easter said.

Easter reported the crime to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, and an incident report of the break-in listed eight stolen guitars worth $13,500. Easter said the guitars are insured but that their value goes beyond their monetary worth.

Easter hadn’t heard much more about the thefts until people in the local music scene started widely spreading the word of the theft this week through email and social media sites such as Facebook.

Kathy Clark, a disc jockey at WQFS in Greensboro who has also worked at The Garage music club in Winston-Salem, was among those who helped spread the word. She passed along descriptions of the guitars and implored friends to check websites and pawn shops to try to find them.

“It really is a matter of people looking out for each other,” Clark said. “The music community in Greensboro and Winston-Salem is incredibly tight. We really, really help each other.”

Easter said he’s been thrilled by the response.

“There’s something about music that brings out this solidarity,” he said. “It gets people excited, and they really want to help. It’s really moving.”

Here is a list of Easter’s stolen guitars as described on the Fidelitorium page on Facebook:

1. G&L L-2000 bass, natural, 1980-1 version (Fender headstock) (USA)
2. Jerry Jones Longhorn Bass, aquaburst, ser. no. 046706 recent (USA)
3. Fender pink paisley Stratocaster, 2004 (Japan)
4. Fender rosewood- body Telecaster, rosewood fretboard, 2003 (Mexico)
5. Fender Electric XII, Olympic White w/tortoise pickguard, 1966 (USA)
6. Kay 6-string acoustic, 1962, rebuilt by Scott Baxendale, red sunburst (USA)
7. Guild S-60, black, 1979 (USA)

The eighth stolen guitar was not Easter’s but owned by a member of a band that was recording there. It is also a Fender Telecaster.

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