Gibson has successfully found an iconic electric guitar from Back to the Future, uncovering its “entire chain of ownership” since it was sold from Norman’s Rare Guitars back in the day, but – and it’s a big but – it is not the one it was looking for.
It’s not the iconic Gibson guitar from the original Back to the Future, the original Cherry Red ES-345 that Michael J Fox as Marty McFly played during the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. That's when he gave the class of 1955 a taste of some 1985 hard-rock flavor in his performance of Johnny B. Goode. It went missing as soon as the movie had wrapped.
In his latest YouTube update, Mark Agnesi, Gibson’s director of brand experience and lead detective on the case, availed us of some of the developments in the search. In short, they found the guitar from the sequel. Get back to work, everybody.
“We’ve had some progression in the case, thanks to all the tips you guys have been sending in,” he says. “We have officially been able to find the guitar from Back to the Future Part 2.”
The find of the sequel’s guitar is nonetheless historically significant, and fills in a big piece of the puzzle in terms of movie lore and Gibson history. This is what happens when you put the investigative journalists who found Paul McCartney’s stolen Höfner 500/1 bass guitar on the case after 50-odd years. You get results.
Agnesi thanked the general public for playing their part, too, and said that finding the sequel’s ES-345, and its ownership history in full, is helping them evaluate new leads.
“Not only have we found the guitar from part two, we now have put together the entire chain of ownership since it left Norman’s Rare Guitars to where it is now – thanks to your tips,” he says.
“So when you send in those tips saying, ‘Hey, we saw it here in the ’90s at this place,’ or, ‘Hey, in the early 2000s I saw it here,’ you guys did, in fact, see the guitar from Back to the Future, however, it was the guitar from part two, not the one we were looking for.”
Not only have we found the guitar from part two, we now have put together the entire chain of ownership since it left Norman’s Rare Guitars to where it is now – thanks to your tips
To recap, what makes the ES-345 that Fox/McFly played in the first movie so unique, is that it had a strange anomaly with its fingerboard inlay at the 12th fret, leaving the Gibson factory with a solid bar instead of the split MOP parallelogram inlay as per the model’s spec. This is its distinguishing feature.
To paraphrase another movie franchise of the era, if there's a split parallelogram inlay at the 12th fret, this is not the guitar you are looking for… You can go about your business. And, please, keep checking basements, garages, outhouses, crawlspaces, treehouses… It has to exist, somewhere. If you have any idea of this ES-345’s whereabouts, send clues and tips to losttothefuture.com.
Agnesi will be grateful. He has likened the McFly moment to his generation’s Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. Gibson is putting considerable efforts into reuniting Fox with the ES-345 he played on the movie.
It’ll make a great story on the 40th anniversary of the movie’s release. It would also be a great marketing move when the brand unveils a signature guitar based on the original ES-345, complete with the “factory defect” inlays.
Last month, Gibson CEO and brand president Cesar Gueikian give us a sneak peak at a lineup of Back to the Future Custom Shop replicas, anachronistically named as a 1955 model (Gibson didn’t release the ES-345 until 1959). Will they find McFly’s guitar before the year is out?
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