AthFest Educates, a local nonprofit organization that provides funding to the local school system and community music and arts education programs for young people, has launched an online auction of a one of a kind Gretsch electric guitar, signed by the members of Drive-By Truckers.
The fundraising effort aids the organization in giving grants to local educators to advance their music- and art-related initiatives for Athens-area young people. The bidding is already underway at BiddingOwl.com and will go until June 25, the last day of this year’s AthFest Music & Arts Festival. The winner will be announced at noon on that day, unless a “Buy it Now” buyer snags the guitar before the deadline.
The online auction can be found at http://bit.ly/2pPPTQv. A link to the auction is also available online at athfest.com.
This Gretsch 6118 two-tone green Anniversary electric guitar is signed by Drive-By Truckers members Mike Cooley, Jay Gonzalez, Patterson Hood, Brad Morgan and Matt Patton. The guitar was donated by the Gretsch Foundation, from their extensive collection of Gretsch guitars and drums.
The guitar being auctioned as a fundraiser for AthFest Educates was built in 1999 and was never sold, so is considered “new old stock.” It has been part of the collection and was exhibited at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon. It has been photographed extensively and admired by musicians and the public alike. It has a hollow maple body, f-holes, a rosewood fret board and chrome-plated hardware.
The guitar can be shipped to the winner, should he or she not be present to win.
In a news release announcing the auction, AthFest Educates Executive Director Jill Helme said AthFest Educates is “honored to be associated with the tradition of the Gretsch Foundation and excited to give people an opportunity to own such a beautiful and unique item, while also raising money to help support music and art programming for young people in our community. Drive-By Truckers are such generous members of our music community, and such great supporters of AthFest, and we’re really grateful to them for being a part of this donation as well.”
Since 2008, Gretsch has annually donated guitars signed by various bands, from R.E.M. to Widespread Panic, to AthFest to auction to raise money for the nonprofit music and arts education organization. In total, AthFest Educates has raised over $31,000 from the guitar auctions.
