Bob's Vintage Guitars

Gibson Guitar Ignites Feud Between Rockers Montrose, Moore

Marin Independent Journal - Staff Report
Posted: 05/29/2009 01:01:00 AM PDT

Nearly 37 years ago, a 25-year-old Sausalito guitarist named Ronnie Montrose was in the midst of a musical coming-out party, wielding his guitar on tour with the Edgar Winter Group and tearing through soon-to-be hits like "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride."
As Montrose saw it, he had an ace in the hole: a 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar he'd just bought from J. Geils for $800, an instrument he believed emitted an exquisite tone.
On Oct. 10, 1972, the guitar was stolen when the Edgar Winter Group performed at Nichols College in Dudley, Mass.
Montrose's guitar has been valued at as much as $500,000, according to Tiburon vintage guitar collector Michael Indelicato.
But now, after recognizing his Les Paul in a British guitar magazine, Montrose filed a lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against Gary Moore, himself a famed guitarist from Belfast in Northern Ireland. In the complaint, Montrose claims that Moore has his stolen guitar and refuses to give it back.