In 2009, we launched this site with some big plans for our business. Our first step was to develop our social network, and build relevant information to attract visitors. We have been working on our mission of returning musical instruments to their rightful owners, bringing awareness to the counterfeit issue, and helping retail businesses avoid operating loss in our scam warnings and reference materials. We’ve heard from a number of you about instruments you’ve lost years ago and still miss, and we’ve seen a couple of recoveries. For what we’ve done, we feel very successful. But it is time to make this work even better.

In 2010, it is time to take the next step, and develop a larger network of professional followers and develop our web application. This we application will do much more than what the site currently can, including:

• Creating user accounts for individuals and businesses
• Automatic notification to local businesses surrounding a theft via email
• Improved and confidential scam alerts for the retail industry
• Automatic uploading of listings for individuals and businesses
• secure off-site data storage for businesses and individuals
• Used gear pricing guide based on on-line auctions
• Law enforcement access
• iPhone and Android apps

And many more features we shouldn’t get into just yet. We need your support to help develop this application. We are looking for seed money to help get this going, coming to the very manageable amount of $5,000. Now, we have almost 2,000 followers on twitter. If half of those gave $5 apiece, we’d be there. But we also have followers on Facebook and more people find is every day. The button below will go to our paypal address. If you feel this is a worthy cause, and if you can spare $5, please consider helping us out.

Also, we’d like to get as much concrete and specific information to help authentication efforts. More and more, the public is asked to distinguish between the genuine article and a copy. I even saw counterfeit iPhones this week, so we know electronics are not immune to counterfeiting.

If you have any knowledge to contribute, please help make this as large a reference site as possible.

Stolen gear most often goes to a retail store or pawn shop, or on-line in a classified or auction site. Listing with us is a good first step. We spread the word to many people who are buying instruments and may just see it on-line. This search engine is a good second step in your search. It will search from a targeted group of sites in which a stolen item may turn up. Often these sites will not give you a serial number, and there may be many to look through. This is just one more tool for you to use.

To get the best results, be as specific as possible. Say “Les Paul Silverburst Supreme” Instead of “Les Paul”. Adding in a location may help narrow your search, but it may make it too narrow as well. We suggest you try both ways. Most of these services will not display the serial number, but you can contact the buyer to verify that information. Be smart, tell them you want to know what year it was made, not that you think it could be your stolen gear. Once you have entered your search, you will be directed to a google results page, and away from the GearSecure site.

While you’re there you might want to click some ads. It will help us make a little money around here.

We will be working to expand and refine this search. If you would like to recommend another site to search, feel free to drop a line to bryan@gearsecure.net

By including these sites in this search engine, we do not wish to imply that any of these sites are complicit in trafficking in stolen goods in any way.

This search engine will look at results from:

eBay
Craigslist
Kijiji.com
used.guitarcenter.com
axebay.com
gear-vault.com
Netinstruments.com
usedflutes.com
stringnet.com
Musicbrokers.com
usedmusicgear.com
Casiotom.com/ads/
musicgoround.com

Well, one of those guitars has been found, ten years later.

I actually sold a couple pedals to Jim O’Rourke who was made a member of the group just before this incident, an MXR Blue Box and a DOD Gonkulator. Let’s hope that this leads to more for them.

There is a link to a full list and discussion of the gear. I don’t know if any of the numbers work still, but I’d be remiss if I don’t post it.

Subject: URGENT/SY GEAR STOLEN!
From: krakkak@aol.com (Krak kak)
Date: Sun, 04 July 1999 03:46 PM EDT

URGENT/SY GEAR STOLEN!
july 4 1999
LA/Orange County

Hello all, this is Lee from Sonic Youth here, we have had a fucked up situation come down on us over this last night–a brand new Ryder truck parked at a Ramada Inn in Orange County with ALL OF OUR GEAR IN IT was STOLEN! All of our guitars, tools, amplifiers, drums, synth — EVERYTHING. We are fucked, both for the show tonight at the “This Ain’t No Picnic” here in Orange Co., and for shows upcoming this week in Austin and Santa Fe. Our guitars are all mostly older and either very modified and/or fucked up/beat up. They are unmistakably ours, as are some of the amps, including my own 60s Fender Concert with the red/blue/yellow “Jasper Johns-style” target on it.

We are asking ANYONE with ANY INFORMATION about this to get in touch with us as soon as possible by calling our man Aaron Blitzstein in New York City at 212.343.2314, or via email to “Mascaras66@aol.com”. Call collect if you want to. Please no pranks, all, this is really serious–all the gear we’ve used to write our last few LPs worth of stuff, instruments used for songs old and new which if truly lost will mean those songs will be lost forever.

Help us out if you can, there will be a reward for any info, I’m sure. All our road cases, etc, are fully marked up with our name on them, the gtrs are so unusual that they won’t really be too hard to mistake. ANY info at all will be appreciated.

If the thieves themselves read this, I’m sure we’d rather buy the stuff back from you than lose it forever (you fukkerz).

here are some descriptions of gear:\

drums: green satin flame 60s Gretch kit
(w “paisley” glow in dark kik head)

Fender ToneMaster head and 4×12 cabinet

Fender blackface Concert (4×10)
w “Target design” spraypainted on front

PeeVey RoadMaster Head

Marshal 4×12 cab

Mesa Boogie 400+ bass head/4×10 cab/18″ cab

Fender Bassman head (two!)/ 2×12 fender cab

Fender presicion Bass

Gibson Les Paul Jr w snoopy sticker

Fender Jazzmasters and Jaguars–lots of ‘em,
mostly modified to hell
(orig electronix pulled, diff p/u’s etc)
and usually way beat up.

Travis Beans–1 koa wood, one red beat to shit

White roadcase/briefcase full of gtr tools

we will post more equip info later…
thanks in advance for any help…

PLEASE PASS THIS LIST ON TO ANYONE
WHO MIGHT BE OF HELP!

—Lee/Sonic Youth

SY Gear Theft Saga, part 2
austin tx 7.8.99

the truck was found in downtown LA, crowbar’d open, nothing left inside at all…

we’ve cobbled together new stuff and the two shows here went pretty well. one more in Santa Fe…

at some point a complete list of what was stolen will be posted — it’s gonna be awful hard to replace some of that stuff…

thanks to all the votes of sympathy and all the help…

—Lee/SY

7.12.99
SONIC YOUTH GEAR STOLEN!

Hi, if you are reading this you have been identified as a sympathetic party by us or by someone who knows you and us. Sometime between 1 a.m. and 7:15 a.m on July 4th our Ryder truck was stolen from the parking lot of the Ramada Inn, 101 State College Dr. in Orange, CA. This truck contained all of our touring equipment; the list of missing items follows and we would appreciate any help or ideas leading to the recovery of any of it. Some general information: All of the guitars have been adapted specifically for use by Sonic Youth. Most of them will have strange pick ups, none have the original electronics. All have extensive notes about tunings either written on the paint, headstock, or pieces of tape on the body. Drum stands all have tape or hose clamps to mark adjustment heights. The Kick drum has a glow in the dark head with a custom swirl design. This was touring gear, it was all in road cases, and those cases were stencilled Sonic Youth. Should you hear anything about any of thses things or areapproached by someone offering to sell them to you please contacteither or both of the following:

Aaron Blitzstein (GAS Co. East)
212-343-2314
Mascaras66@aol.com

Shauna O’Brien (GAS Entertainment Co.)
310-526-1950
sobrien@den.net

Thank you very much in advance for whatever help you can provide.

Yours, Nic and Luc with SONIC YOUTH

7/12/99
Further Answers

hi Matt, no news since they found the empty truck… still looking and hoping… here’s some answers to yr questions:

1. What made your instruments so unique?

they were unique in that they were customized to our needs in terms of the electronix, and we had ‘hand-chosen’ the various gtrs over the last 15 years or so, and had come up with a group of them that worked really well for our uses–all of which are now gone. same thing for the amplifiers, we have amassed a group of them that worked for our ‘sound’, and now we will start looking (and listening) again.

2. How much does a band like Sonic Youth depend on this gear and can’t you replace it?

we will start again and collect anew. we have already played 4 shows on hastily cobbled together gtrs and the shows went off well–it’s just more of a struggle to use unfamiliar instruments.

3. How will you continue and what will you do if you don’t get your stuff back?

we will go on, buy new gtrs and proceed from there. some gtrs are left behind in our studio which we will take a new look at, and we will replace others, and the amps, pedals, etc which we rely on. in other cases we will find new things, and that might lead to new directions, so that is a promising result of all this badnews. as we are starting out to make new music these days, we will adapt and use new gear…

—Lee Ranaldo

From: James Bochenek
Subject: stolen back line

Hi: Sorry to hear about your band gear. I can relate. Picture this summer 1978, Holiday Inn, Houston Loop. Park truck, go in sleep, come out truck gone with New Riders of the Purple Sage complete back line including lots of custom guitars. Dave Nelsons’ Telecaster with the Clarence White string bender on it. Buddy Cages’ custom pedal steel hand built by Edmonds or Emmons. (pedal steel guru) The old Grateful dead tie dye amps and speaker cabs. My suitcase with almost all my stuff in it. All of it gone and never seen again. We had to go do a show that night at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin. The band played on the opening acts gear. Next day off to music row in Manhattan to purchase an entire new round of stuff on credit also a new ryder truck from the big lot over in jersey. Back on the road two days later. Never heard so much whining as from the band boys on that one. It was all our fault. (the “crew” me and my friend dave) Hope you see your stuff again but don’t hold your breath. You would most likely need to go to Mexico to find it.

Rock On!

7/14/99

Michael:

Hello!
Just back from brief–tho very eventful!–tour of W coast and SW w SY. did you hear? all our gear stolen in truck fr hotel parking lot in orange county s of LA. EVERYTHING. it’s been all over the net so i assume you may have heard by now. everyone’s generosity and interest has been most wonderful. we have insurance which will pick up a good part of the bill, we hope, but it’s the unique quality of some of our stuff which will be a tedious thing to rebuild/replace. the loss of the actual instruments themselves, which have been lovingly worked over and modified over years, not to mention the selection process by which we arrived at them in the first place. ah well, no-one hurt…

probably most identifiable would be the fact that these gtrs are WELL PLAYED (as in mighty beat up) and usually with great electronic modifications–we tend to rip out all the fancy electric knobs and switches, leaving just a volume control and pickup selector switch. Usually 60s Fender Jazzmasters, often with the stock p/u’s replaced with other ones (which no collector would ever do to a 60s Fender, ruins the value immediately…)

The bright side, as I see it, is that a line has been drawn for us in the sand (and thankfully at the beginning of a new round of recording; we are dragged into the future kicking and screaming. we’ll have to find new instruments and look forwards instead of back…

our subsequent 4 shows went very well anyway, on borrowed and hastily purchased replacement gear (mostly not likely to be long term posessions), so there is hope.

regards, and thanks in advance for any help which might come our way,

Lee

Check it out in itunes

Searching for followers on Twitter.com is turning out to be our best marketing tool for the moment, but you can also find us at myspace and facebook. If you belong to any social networks you’d like to see us on, leave us a comment, and we’ll investigate it.

As far as personal contacts go, I also do some podcasts in my alternate life as a writer, and every time I post a new one, I use the music of a follower. So far I’ve used Martin Fletcher, his other band The Girl with the Replaceable Head, Derrick McKee, and Brian Casel. I have enjoyed all of the music, and have a few others in the queue, Chris Huff, and a couple of other contacts. I also helped Telling on Trixie find a backline for a show in Chicago, which I hope to be able to attend. As we build our network, we hope to become more of a source for this kind of information as a service to our musician customers and business owners. I’m also happy to promo our musician followers as much as I can in my podcasts. It is the least I can do in exchange for the early support. Michael and I have a lot of creative projects that we are pursuing in our free time (like we have any of that), and we would like to support our followers in all of these endeavors. If you’d like to participate, pay close attention to our twitter feed, as that is the most likely place for us to drop a line at this point.

There are two things you can do that would help us out quite a bit. First, tell all of your musician friends about us. The strength of our site is in how many people we can reach, and even in this early form, we can really help some people out. We would also like to be in the network of stores and studios that you may frequent.

Second, we need a small amount of money to help us get going. This would help pay for some business costs, and marketing to help expand our reach in the real world. Money is tight everywhere in these times, and so we can break it down this way: 1,000 people x $20 =$20,000. Math doesn’t get any easier than that.$20 is a fairly small price to pay to build a network intent on helping musicians and businesses. We have a donate button on the side of the page here, and this handy comic book to help illustrate the point.

The financial crisis has made times much harder for many people, and with this desperation, there is a definite upturn in theft as people try to steal their way to making rent, but this has the effect of depriving a professional or a business of a living. Let’s keep instruments in the hands of the right people.

Thanks,

Bryan at gearsecure.net

I hope to have facebook, and a few other similar things going soon.