Recovered guitar tale is unlikely but true

Pick your cliché: The story is too good to be true. Truth is stranger than fiction. If it hadn't really happened, no one would believe it.

Brad Nelson and Jim Simmons understand the sentiments. They wouldn't believe their story either, if it hadn't actually happened to them.

Twenty-two years ago, Nelson's prize guitar, a 1968 Fender Telecaster, was stolen, along with other instruments, from his Circle Pines home. This year, after Nelson opened a music store in Blaine, Simmons walked in and discovered that he had Nelson's old guitar.

"I replaced the other instruments with the insurance money, but that guitar was one of a kind," said Nelson, who now lives in Ham Lake. "I thought: It's gone, end of the story."

Only it wasn't the end, because here's another cliché: A man walks into a room.

The room was GuitarZone, the music store that Nelson and a business partner opened in March. The man was Simmons, of Blaine.

"We got to talking guitars -- what do you play, what do you have -- guitar talk," Nelson said.

Simmons said: "I told him I had two Telecasters and a couple other things, and I saw his eyes light up as soon as I told him I had a '68 Telecaster."

Nelson said: "I asked him what color it was. He said that he'd painted it but that originally it had been sunburst, just like mine had been."

Bing. Lightbulb above Nelson's head.

"I asked him if it had a tremolo bar, a Bixby," Nelson said. "He told me it did and said that somebody along the way had done some bodywork on it, gouged out a hole for a bigger sized pickup, just like I had done."

Bing. The lightbulb got brighter. For both men.

Simmons: "I had this feeling right there, like, 'Well, I guess this is finally it.' "

Nelson: "I said, 'That sounds an awful lot like a guitar that was stolen from me 22 years ago.' He asked me where it was stolen from. I said, 'Circle Pines.' He kind of looked at the floor for a minute."

Simmons: "I kind of wasn't really sure what I should say because, you

know, I got it hot. I said, 'I think I have your guitar.' "Nelson: "I kind of figured. He got kind of defensive. He was like, 'I got it in a trade and I love it and I'm never going to let go of it.' "

Simmons: "He asked me if I'd be willing to give it up. I might have made a comment like, 'Out of my cold dead fingers, maybe.' "

Nelson: "I said, 'I understand, it's been 20 years.' I went on to tell him how my dad had bought it for me. I asked him to bring it by sometime because I thought it would be fun just to see it again."

Simmons left the store but didn't provide Nelson with his name or phone number.

"I thought, I may never see this guy again," Nelson said. "A half-hour later he comes back with the guitar."

Still, Simmons had returned to the store just to show Nelson the guitar. When he left the store, he still intended to keep it.

Nelson: "The next day he calls me and says, 'You know, I really feel bad about this. I think you should have it back.' "

Simmons: "It was my dad who taught me to play. When he told me the story about how his dad had given it to him, it kind of hit home."

The two worked out a deal. Nelson got the '68 Telecaster back. Simmons got a new guitar.

When Nelson is told that his story is unbelievable -- that none of it can be proven and it all has to be taken on faith -- he laughs.

"I know. It's sort of a confirmation to me that this music store thing was supposed to happen, even though there are many days when I think, 'Why did I do this?' "

When Simmons drove home after giving the guitar back to Nelson, he emptied the change from his pockets and a penny fell on the floor. It was from 1968, the same year as the guitar.

"I put it in my guitar case," he said.

Oh, and by the way, Simmons said, "Somewhere out there is a Kramer Focus 1000 with a groove worn in it from the whammy bar that was ripped off about 10 years ago, if anybody wants to give that back to me."

Eric Hanson is at ehanson@startribune.com