“[We want] to recover the guitars and sell them to people who actually want to play them”: $80,000 worth of vintage guitars have been stolen from Guitar House of Tulsa. Now the owner – and Joe Bonamassa – are appealing for your help

Over $80,000 worth of vintage guitars have been stolen from a Tulsa, Oklahoma guitar store, and now the owner, Drew Winn, is appealing for help in retrieving the missing instruments.

The store in question, Guitar House of Tulsa, was raided around 10:50 p.m. on Saturday night (January 6) and thieves made off with a haul of 15 vintage and high-end instruments, including several valuable Gibson acoustic guitars and an array of rare electric guitars.

Winn has since taken to social media to share the full list and serial numbers of the missing guitars, among them a 1954 Gibson J-200, 1969 J-160E, a 1996 left-handed Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, 2012 PRS Private Stock McCarty, and a 1979 Hamer Standard Flame Top Sunburst. 

You can view the full list below, but suffice to say many of the stolen guitars are very distinctive – for instance, the lefty Goldtop reissue and Gibson Les Paul Custom in an unusual orange (aged ‘Kumquat’ Yellow) finish. 

Guitars stolen from Guitar House of Tulsa, Oklahoma2022 Gibson Dave Mustaine #DMV302012 Paul Reed Smith Private Stock Gray Semi Hollow #3584Paul Reed Smith McCarty Private Stock #3712Collings OM-2H #27853Bourgeois AT D Dreadnaught Sunburst #6899EVH ’78 Eruption White with Black Stripes #0210Gibson Les Paul Custom “Kumquat” Yellow [aged to orange-ish] #CS20000141996 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop R6 P-90’s Reissue [left-handed] #663961979 Hamer Standard Flame Top Sunburst [Explorer Shape] #02841987 Goodall KGC 299 #1961 Rickenbacker 365 Capri Fireglo #AC2961977 Gibson J-200 Natural #061427292008 Gibson Hummingbird [left-handed] #005880301969 Gibson J-160E #892341954 Gibson J-200 Sunburst #A23297“I received a call from the alarm company to say that they were dispatching officers because the the alarm was going,” explained Winn to local news station, KOTV. 

“By the time I arrived it was too late. I was hoping that the guys were maybe still in the vicinity so we could have a chat [laughs] and I could get my stuff back…”

While Winn describes the situation as “disheartening”, he says he’s hoping that with the help of the guitar playing community, he can recover some of his lost stock. 

Joe Bonamassa is one of Winn’s customers and has also shared the list, encouraging his followers to help and, in the process, describing Drew as “one of the nicest most honest guys on the scene.”

We’d make the same appeal, and encourage you to keep a look out for the instruments on the list when browsing online resale platforms and, if you’re based in Oklahoma, the physical stores in the area.

“Of course it’s a crappy thing to have happened,” Winn tells KOTV, “But everybody really cares… [Ultimately we want] to recover the guitars and sell them to people who want to play them – and not steal them and sell them!” 

Guitar thefts are unfortunately very common, but it feels in some ways like they’re getting more egregious, particularly as rising prices (both in the cost of living and high-end guitar market) make the prospect more tempting to would-be thieves. 

Recently, over in Nashville, there was another particularly brazen – if lower value – theft in the form of a $3K Gretsch that was swapped out for a ‘dumpster’ acoustic in broad daylight. 

For more information and updates, check out Guitar House of Tulsa on Instagram.

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