The path from the discovery of a vintage, 100-year-old guitar in the local Value Village to organizing a live music concert to celebrate its “rescue” may not be an obvious one – but that is what is unfolding for lovers of live music and some Comox Valley musicians because of the lucky discovery of Courtenay resident Jean Sarrazin and the patience and expertise of Merville guitar whiz Tim Rooney.
Sarrazin, who confesses to being a bit of a thrifter, says he first spotted the unusual-looking acoustic guitar early last fall at the Courtenay Value Village. It had a $599 price tag and was on display behind the counter – where they keep higher-valued items.
“The instrument was on a guitar floor stand,” says Sarrazin. “It looked so unusual that, in spite of the hefty price tag, I asked one of the staff to come over and put the ancient guitar on the counter for me to take a closer look.”
Not being a guitar player, Sarrazin wasn’t sure what he was looking at. The label, visible through the guitar’s sound hole, said it was a Hilo Hawaiian Steel Guitar and showed a model and style number. He says he could tell the guitar was old and that it was in pretty rough shape; with many splits and cracks, especially around the neck and the back. But he could also tell that it was very unusual; the instrument was made of a very light wood and had a hollow neck - which he had never seen before.
So he took a few photos and decided to see what he could find out about the old guitar online.
What he discovered, based on the guitar’s label (Hilo Hawaiian Steel Guitar style 695 serial # 3032), is that it was a Weissenborn-style Hawaiian lap steel acoustic – probably made by Oscar Schmidt, c. 1923.
Based on that information and on the guitar tech’s willingness to take on the project, Sarrazin bought the instrument and dropped it off at Tim Rooney’s guitar workshop in Merville a few weeks before Christmas and Rooney set to work restoring the vintage guitar to its former glory – and more importantly, to its playability.
The story continues at this point with posts from Tim Rooney’s Facebook page – complete with photos of the inside and outside of the guitar.
“So a Hilo Hawaiian steel guitar from the ’20s walks into a body shop…” Rooney jokes.
“A particularly beautiful Hawaiian, made not as one might expect in California, like most, but in Jersey City. I’ll be fixing a bunch of bad cracks all over it - including some broken bracing on the inside,” Rooney posted after his initial inspection of the old instrument.
“With a natural finish, koa-wood body and fingerboard, you wouldn’t believe the sound that comes out of this thing as I tried it out before dismantling it. My lord! I can’t wait to get it up and running again…” Rooney added in a later post.
After some weeks of applying some painstaking TLC to the instrument, Rooney posted, “Someone in the last 100 years decided to replace the typical bridge and saddle style with a floating bridge and tailpiece to hold the strings.”
So Rooney went ahead and restored the bridge and saddle to their original configuration – and replaced the wooden nut riser and saddle with bison bone, “for ultimate resonating and sustain.”
When Sarrazin collected the restored guitar from Rooney early in the new year, they discussed the next steps for the instrument. Sarrazin said since he didn’t play guitar, he would probably put it up for sale, but both agreed that it would be a shame to let the instrument leave the Comox Valley. Rooney said he thought it would be great if it landed in the hands of an active musician who performed regularly in some of the local venues, “So that live music lovers could go out and hear and see it being played.”
Sarrazin agreed, and that’s how the idea of the July 27 concert at the Little Red Church in Comox was born.
Several more brainstorming sessions also produced a contract of sorts – stipulating that the Hilo Hawaiian would be “loaned” out to an active Comox Valley musician, with the understanding that they would play the instrument at a public venue in the Valley at least four times per year; one of those four performances would be a fundraiser to cover the costs of maintaining the old instrument.
The first local musician to become the official custodian of the CV Hawaiian steel guitar is Anela Kahiamoe. Anela has been a professional musician since the age of 17, and with his Island Band, was the opening act for concerts in Hawaii featuring the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Earth, Wind and Fire and Huey Lewis and the News. He has also appeared as a soloist at Musicfest and is in demand as a backup musician for acts such as the Comox Valley’s Juno-Award-winning Sue Medley. Anela has already taken possession of the vintage guitar in preparation for his upcoming LRC performance.
This brings us to that July 27 concert at Comox’s Little Red Church. Co-headlining the 7:30 event with Anela will be well-loved choir director, jazz performer and gifted singer Jenn Forsland who is back home here on the Island for a short visit with family and friends before she returns to her adventures in Thailand later this summer.
Joining Jenn and Anela on the stage will be local musicians Britt Bowman and Oscar Robles. The set lists are still being finalized but Anela says the evening promises to be a “night of international music - from Hawaiian to Spanish via some jazz stylings with hints of country, polka and reggae tossed in for good measure.”
Tickets for the event are $20 and are available at Blue Heron Books, 1775 Comox Ave., in Comox and Courtenay House of Colour, 240 Fifth St., in Courtenay.
