Hector wiped out as guitarist but assembled noteworthy collection
Snapshots
Hector wiped out as guitarist but assembled noteworthy collection
By CROCKER STEPHENSON of the Journal Sentinel staff
Tuesday, June 11, 2002
Joe Gallenberger told me that Barney Hector told him that he -- Hector -- played guitar for the one-hit wonder, The Safaris, whose one-word song, "Wipeout," neared the top of the charts in the early 1960s and, for better or worse, has become an enduring, if not jarring, contribution to the modern American Zeitgeist.
Hector told Gallenberger that he, unfortunately, was off taking a vacation with his dad when the song was recorded and that it's someone else's riff, not his, that now is as immortalized as a Shakespearean sonnet.
Over the next several decades, Hector bounced around, playing guitar for a variety of bands, most of them regional groups of limited fame. For reasons that Hector didn't tell Gallenberger, or that Gallenberger forgot, Hector settled down in Fort Smith, Ark., where he opened up a sign-painting business.
Hector had collected a couple hundred guitars over the years, and eventually he opened a guitar museum on the floor above his shop. After he retired from sign painting, the museum remained open for a while, but then Hector decided to sell it off. He put most of the collection -- about 250 pieces -- on eBay. Asking price: $70,000.
That's when he met Gallenberger.
Gallenberger owns Warpdrive Music on Kinnickinnic. Warpdrive sells new and vintage guitars, as well as new and vintage amplifiers. You can buy an OK guitar at Warpdrive for about a hundred bucks, but what Gallenberger excels at is finding vintage guitars for collectors. He once sold someone a very rare Gibson guitar for $40,000. He recently hand-delivered a 1954 museum-quality Fender Stratocaster, $16,000, to a client in Cincinnati.
Right now, in a storage room in the back of the shop, Gallenberger has a 1919 Gibson archtop guitar. Original case. Original hardware. Original everything. Even the tortoise-shell trapeze tailpiece -- made from real tortoise shell -- is like new. It's $2,000.
Gallenberger was touring a guitar factory near Chicago when a guy at Warpdrive got wind of Hector's offer. He reached Gallenberger on his cell phone. Gallenberger climbed into his van and drove 16 hours to Hector's century-old building in Fort Smith.
That was a Wednesday. By Saturday, Hector's entire museum -- not just the pieces offered on eBay, but 400 instruments and related goods -- was packed into the Warpdrive van and a rented Ryder truck.
Gallenberger won't say how much he paid for the collection: first- generation electrics, handmade acoustics, more than 100 amplifiers and a Hammond B3 organ autographed by Greg Allman.
Gallenberger already has sold some of Hector's collection. Some of it is in the shop being restored, some of it is hanging in the retail section of the store, and some of it still hasn't been unpacked.
"We still have 30 or 40 guitars to go through," said Gallenberger, who was sitting on a stool, strumming a 1958 Fender Telecaster. Gallenberger hadn't plugged the instrument in; the thing is worth nearly $6,000 but, hey, it's just rock 'n' roll.
Contact Crocker Stephenson at (414) 224-2539 or by e-mail at cstephenson@onwis.com.
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