Nashville floods cost millions in guitar losses

[Tig]

In addition to the deaths and many flooded homes, the recent floods have destroyed potentially millions of dollars worth of musician's gear, including vintage amps, basses, and guitars.
One warehouse, Soundcheck Nashville, stores over 1000 different musician's gear, was flooded fairly heavily.

http://www.bnd.com/2010/05/05/1244451/musicians-lose-millions-in-gear.html

Most businesses have been damaged as well. I saw BB King's club was shown on the news, damaged and closed, for instance. They've called the flood a once in 500 years type of event.

[Jimi75]

I've heard Gibson lost about 14thousand guitars through the flood in their Nashville plant.

[hubberjub]

Gibson will just try to sell them as a limited run of water reliced guitars.

[t_ross33]

Victoria Banks is a Canadian Singer/Songwriter living and working in Nashville. She wrote this on a flight home to Nashville the other day...

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[kiteman]

Man, what a mess. :thwap

[duhvoodooman]

Truly a low-down, dirty shame.... :thwap :nope :cry:

[mrmudcat]

sad day for music

[street music]

I have been working with one of our consultants from Nashville all week, his wife has kept the pictures coming all week to us. Her office is in downtown Nashville and she has access to lots of the areas that were flooded. It is very bad with all the damage , the Opry Mills Mall, Opry Land Motel and the GRand Ole Opry but you know most of the folks there aren't screaming bloody murder like NEW ORLEANS did, they are taking care of the problems and moving on with the recovery efforts. I commend them for working hard to get back on run to try and make the CMA FEST happen right on cue, the instrument damage is bad, building damages will be huge in dollar value but remember these are people are strong and can band together and make it work.

[tjcurtin1]

I've heard Gibson lost about 14thousand guitars through the flood in their Nashville plant.
Yikes! You think they might have shipped them to higher ground as the threat level rose - I guess it just happened too fast...

[Duffy]

I live by a big river, the Susquehanna River, West Branch, about a hundred yards from the levee. It has a documented history of flooding plus a geological history of flooding.

People are compelled to build on the floodplain for reasons, including industries.

If there was a major flood headed my way I would almost always have significant forewarning, because it is a large river, capable of holding and removing a tremendous amount of water without flooding.

If threatened I would move my musical gear and other destroyable valuables, as much as reasonably possible, to higher ground.

I bet these big warehousers didn't let their guitars get flooded out, they moved them; but they just left the stored guitars, in some instances, evidently many instances, to get ruined. It would have cost a lot to hire tractor trailer trucks to move these stored guitars and equipment to higher ground. Just letting the insurance companies handle the claims I think is negligent.

I would guess that there will be a lot of negligence lawsuits and contributory negligence lawsuits because these people who were paid to store safely the equipment of a lot of bands failed to protect them and did nothing or little to remedy the problem.

I bet the prime guitars and collectors items were evacuated from the danger zone without hesitation. It would be foolish to let really special guitars get messed up without at least trying to save them and the really special ones were definitely snatched up and moved by those who knew what was going down.

Gibson has no excuse for not relocating the contents of their warehouses to a safe area. This is yet another instance of mismanagement from a company that has been making some questionable management decisions lately.

Imagine the multitude of special guitars located in Nashville, in the studios, at residences, etc. Some of the best guitars in the world are located there. I hope most of them were saved.

[tjcurtin1]

Hmmm... will there be a flood (oops, sorry!) of 'Nashville flood guitars' hitting the market - beware! Like the threat of flooded cars from Katrina. Hard to hide with a guitar, tho, I guess...

[Tig]

Imagine the multitude of special guitars located in Nashville, in the studios, at residences, etc. Some of the best guitars in the world are located there. I hope most of them were saved.

My thoughts exactly. I'm sure there are hundreds of historic guitars worth upper 5 and 6 digits in the area.

[msteeln]

Two rays of sunshine to mention, the Ryman Aud., 50+ year home of the original Grand Ole Opry, and The Country Music HoF escaped damage for the most part. The HoF got some flooding from a low point corner but was confined away from the historic displays, and has their priceless stored items 70' above ground level. Now that's some preventitive thinking.

The comparisons to New Orleans doesn't work for me, due to many differing factors.

[guitarhack]

This story paints a bleak picture of damage suffered by some famous and unique instruments:

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100511/SCENE04/5110323/Nashville+s+Musicians+Hall+of+Fame+future+uncertai n++priceless+instruments+damaged+in+flood

[Tig]

This story paints a bleak picture of damage suffered by some famous and unique instruments:

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100511/SCENE04/5110323/Nashville+s+Musicians+Hall+of+Fame+future+uncertai n++priceless+instruments+damaged+in+flood

Wow, guitars from Townshend, Frampton, SRV, Hendrix, Cash, etc...
Check out the video:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid82774044001?bclid=82800979001&bctid=84638713001

[Eric]

Two rays of sunshine to mention, the Ryman Aud., 50+ year home of the original Grand Ole Opry, and The Country Music HoF escaped damage for the most part. The HoF got some flooding from a low point corner but was confined away from the historic displays, and has their priceless stored items 70' above ground level. Now that's some preventitive thinking.
This made me think of a song. I'm not sure if this sort of link will work, but I'll try it (since I can't find it anywhere else online):

http://new.music.yahoo.com/bobby-bare-jr/tracks/visit-me-in-music-city--174984995

[tjcurtin1]

Wow - for a collection of historic instruments like that to be wiped out all at once....

[tremoloman]

Wow, guitars from Townshend, Frampton, SRV, Hendrix, Cash, etc...
Check out the video:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid82774044001?bclid=82800979001&bctid=84638713001

Thanks for that video link... so sad... it made me want to cry.:cry:

[tjcurtin1]

NPR radio story here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=126776761&m=126782884

[Tig]

Premere Guitar has a really good article on the Nashville Flood.
http://digital.premierguitar.com/premierguitar/201007_1#pg161

[DrumBob]

I've heard Gibson lost about 14thousand guitars through the flood in their Nashville plant.

The number is closer to 1800 guitars lost. They're still not back up and running yet. The custom shop is open and was not flooded.

[kiteman]

Man, that is some staggering numbers. What becomes of the guitars? Totally ruined or will they push them off like they did with flooded cars?

[DeanEVO_Dude]

Premere Guitar has a really good article on the Nashville Flood.
http://digital.premierguitar.com/premierguitar/201007_1#pg161

Yes, a must read, if you are interested in crying... Especially the part with the guy that had his shop bought out from under him via eminent domain by the city of Nashville (all you Hendrix fans, take note!). Too bad all the money in the world can't bring back the historical instruments that were damaged/destroyed.

Truly sad.