Kim’s Lost Guitar Project
Paul McCartney’s final gig of 2024 at the O2 Arena in London saw him reunited with his original Höfner bass that was stolen in 1972. A sizeable search and rescue operation was conducted to find it, which has inspired this search for Kim Mitchell’s cherished orange Gretsch guitar that was stolen from him after a Max Webster gig at Duffy’s Rockpile in Hamilton, Ontario in January 1975.
It’s a Gretsch Nashville 6120 — the 1963 model, identified by the double cutaways, red felt around the mute switch, painted F-holes, and the horseshoe on the headstock (thanks to Gretsch experts Niko Berardo and Mark Ruiz for helping nail in the exact year). Kim says:
“Identifiable markings: a scratch on the back of the body and a cigarette burn on the headstock by the low E tuning peg. Some photos are missing the pickguard as I broke a couple and would be waiting on a new one.”
Kim adored this guitar, not least because his dad bought it for him when he was a teenager when money was very tight. There are scant few photos of the guitar, and just one short super 8 film of Kim playing it.
Kim’s father spent $700 on this guitar when a new car was $3000 — a massive expense in the mid-’60s.
Kim: “His house was eleven grand at the time. The guitar seven hundred. Do the math today and know that he really spent huge bucks for me.”
Terry Watkinson: “It was a beautiful guitar. Mitchell was heartbroken.”
All the best known photos of the guitar are here to help us identify it. Expect more information to be added to this page in the future, as we learn more about this iconic and cherished instrument.
This Gretsch was Kim’s primary guitar throughout the late ’60s into the early ’70s, with Big Al’s Band, ZOOOM, and the early years of Max Webster.
Kim has been quoted saying this Gretsch plugged into a Marshall was probably the best guitar sound he ever had.
It was last seen on January 11, 1975.
Seeing as McCartney, Jimmy Page, Peter Frampton and Randy Bachman have also had instruments that went missing for ~50 years returned to them, maybe we can do the same for Kim !
