Broadcaster- filling in the blanks

Hi- I am new to the Forum and G&L ownership also. First - great resources and vibe...

I just acquired a Broadcaster SN BC00229 from a great store in Seattle which was consigning it for a third party. I asked if they would pass on my contact info to the seller so I could get some background but the store declined. I did learn that the seller had owned it for at least the past 5 years and dealt in guitars and the guitar sat in a case basically during his ownership. I noted the instrument was on the Registry so that was comforting as a G&L novice given the (I think remote) possibility of employee replicas out there. There was a comment on the Registry that the guitar was sold in 1985 to Bill Reed. I Googled Bill Reed (not an uncommon name!) and cross referenced G&L, guitars, Broadcaster, musician, etc. but didn't come up with much. If there is anyone who has a history on the forum who knows the Bill Reed reference or the Registry member "smithbenifit@gmail.com" who registered the guitar (and numerous others) I would love to pick up the thread and maybe figure out who Bill is (was) and see if there is a story there.

Hi- I am new to the Forum and G&L ownership also. First - great resources and vibe...

I just acquired a Broadcaster SN BC00229 from a great store in Seattle which was consigning it for a third party. I asked if they would pass on my contact info to the seller so I could get some background but the store declined. I did learn that the seller had owned it for at least the past 5 years and dealt in guitars and the guitar sat in a case basically during his ownership. I noted the instrument was on the Registry so that was comforting as a G&L novice given the (I think remote) possibility of employee replicas out there. There was a comment on the Registry that the guitar was sold in 1985 to Bill Reed. I Googled Bill Reed (not an uncommon name!) and cross referenced G&L, guitars, Broadcaster, musician, etc. but didn't come up with much. If there is anyone who has a history on the forum who knows the Bill Reed reference or the Registry member "smithbenifit@gmail.com" who registered the guitar (and numerous others) I would love to pick up the thread and maybe figure out who Bill is (was) and see if there is a story there.

Hi there,

I do not know who Bill Reed is. But the smithbenefit email address I believe refers to Milton Smith, a well known G&L dealer who ran Smith Music in Portland, MI for 70(!) years. He and Leo went back years. It is a public secret there are some pristine vintage G&Ls that have come out of his store with original shipping carton and all. He was known to be the "pusher" for what in our circles we fondly all the Michigan Mafia, a group of rabid G&L pre-BBE aficionados. Milt passed away November 8, 2017 but the store is still around.

- Jos

Thanks so much- that is great information and really interesting. Seems that Smith Music may have been the original dealer who took delivery from G&L and Bill was the first owner. But why include the original owner’s name if he were not a celebrity or a person in the music business? I did find a Bill Reed who was a member of the Canadian singing quartet the Diamond in the 50’sand 60’s. They had a big hit covering Lil Darlin and started out in Toronto. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamonds)Toronto is not that close to Portland MI but Reed may have been a regional personality. Other than that, I don’t have any other leads on Reed. The Smith Music connection is so great though. Thanks again,

A quick update. I gave Smith Music a call a few weeks ago to see if they had any records or memories on the Broadcaster they originally sold to Bill Reed and it seems like they have closed. Too bad- it seems like it was a special place.

Hey guys,

Milt Smith was a good guy. A giant hand to shake physically and a kind soul. I visited his shop often and was always amazed. The river is right out the back window and the shop gets to about a hundred degrees in the summer.
I once brought a SC-3 with me that he set up as I watched. That guitar had never played better.
As far as there still being guitars available from his shop or estate, I don't really think so.
There are two I don't know the location of but I am not expecting them to surface any time soon.

Did you look up Bill Reed in Portland Michigan or any of the surrounding towns? Milt was one of the only G&L dealers in that area
back then, he didn't ship stuff and there was no internet. Maybe Bill Reed is local?

Either way you have a great guitar,

y2kc

y2kc

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Mr. Smith and his store of 70+ years! I wish I could have gone there and to a lot of legendary LGS that have disappeared. Regarding Bill Reed, I did a little internet surfing but Reed is a fairly common name so I didn’t get far. It would be interesting to know a little of the 34 year history between the day it was sold at Smith Music and the day I got it but just knowing where it started and that it went through a distribution network that was important for G&L in the “early days” is more than I ever expected to know. All that plus that Milt Smith was such a stand up guy puts it into context for me and gives it great mojo! Absolutely love it!

I seem to remember some references to Bill Reed from a year or more ago but cannot find anything in a search of my email and archives. I was in touch with Yvonne Smith, Miltons daughter, shortly after her dad passed away and the store was closed. Milton left her an impressive collection of pre and post Leo G&L guitars which she sold fairly quickly. I think there are a few left in the family but most are gone to new homes. Unfortunately I was unable to acquire any of the guitars I would have wanted, nor do I know what they sold for. She may have mentioned Bill as a friend of her Dad's, can't recall specifics though. She did send me some good photos of Milton and Leo as well as with Glenn Yunker and others. Some of the people in the photos are listed as unidentified and one may be Bill Reed.

Tom

Thanks Tom- if you ever hear anything else, It would be nice to know.

Oh, and BTW, the Smithbenifit email address actually belongs to Yvonne Smith and or the family in general and was not Milton's email address. That was how I communicated with her.

Tom

I realise this thread has not been replied to for a while... I grew up in Portland, Michigan and I got my first electric guitar from Milt Smith on Christmas, 1976, along with a silverface Fender Vibro Champ. The guitars was a Crestwood Straticaster copy. At the time Milt was still a Fender dealer (and had been for decades) but when new management took over at Fender (late 1970s/early 1980s), the new policy was quota-based dealers and since Milt was a small shop he didn't measure up to Fender's new quota system and they dropped him as a dealer. What a way to do a decades-long dealership... thanks, Fender...

Not long after Milt was one of the first-ever G&L dealers. He was personal friends with Dale Hyatt who goes way back with G&L and Leo Fender to the early (1950s days) of the pre-CBS Fender.

I don't know if this Bill Reed is the same Bill Reed you are looking for, but my father served in the Navy with a Bill Reed in WWII, and that Bill Reed was from Portland, MI as well. I do not recollect this man ever playing guitar, although if he knew Milt and Milt convinced him of the value of the Broadcaster guitar and its limited production, then maybe he had bought it for an investment and never played it.

I was best friends with Bill Reed's son all through high school and I've spent many a night over at the Reed's house on sleep-overs, etc. In the war (WWII) this Bill Reed was a photographer and even after the war had a fascination with photography. To my knowledge he was not a musician at all. Since he was in his teens during WWII my best guess is that he has by now passed on. My father got drafted right out of high school at age 18 in 1944 and dad passed away in 2015 at the age of 88. I think he and Bill (this Bill anyways) were the same age. If he were still living, that would make the Bill Reed I am talking about 93 or so year old.

I bought my first G&L guitar at Milt's store in Portland. It was a Broadcaster. Having sort of an "in" with G&L through Leo Fender and Dale Hyatt, Milt got guitars that maybe some of the other G&L dealers didn't get. Later I also bought a 1995 George Fullerton Signature and a 1988 Leo Fender Signature ASAT from Milt. Now here's the cool part... Milt always kept his best guitars in the case and in the original shipping boxes. He put out a few G&Ls but most of his stock he kept in the boxes. If there was a guitar hanging on the wall at his shop, it would be draped over with a plastic dry cleaning bag to keep the dust off, and it made it so if anyone wanted to play any of the guitars they had to ask him first. He covered all of his guitars no matter the brand or value in that way.

He explained to me one time where he got that idea... he was taking some clothes to the dry cleaners just down the street from his shop in Portland, and took note of the plastic bag they always used to cover the clean clothes. He figured out where to buy those bags and bought them by the rool. He covered his guitars like that as far back as I can remember into the 1970s until he fell, hit his head and the family decided they couldn't let him work at the store alone anymore and the store was shut down.

Milt worked at his store with his wife Doris for many many years. After she passed away he ran the store alone for a long long time. Milt didn't even play guitar, he was a drummer. Years ago he sold drums at his store but later just guitars and basses. Also various bits of sheet music, a really good selection of strings, and over the years different kinds of stomp boxes.

The next year after my first electric guitar Christmas, I was playing guitar with the high school stage (jazz) band and the Vibro Champ wasn't big enough so my parents bought me a Traynor Mark III 100 watt head and a Fender 2x15" cabinet from Milt. Looking back now Milt had some pretty cool stuff in his store.

I grew up in Portland but when I was 19 left Michigan and have since lived all over the country. But anytime I went back to visit my folks, I always took the time to go to Smith Music and talk with Milt. He had so many stories of guitars and gear, I could spend a few hours talking to him and the time would pass so fast. I use a blue nylon pick that I got at Milt's store. I have used this same very thin pick for 40+ years. The only place I have ever seen them for sale was at Milt's store. Back in the day I bought a gross (144) of those picks then years later another gross (144) and I still have most of them, LOL. They don't ever break and they have been the only guitar pick I have ever used pretty much from my first days of playing guitar. The first ones were made by Mel Bay and/or Herco, then a G&G company made them, now I have never seen them at any other store. Dunlop makes a similar but not the same nylon pick. It is the thinnest, lightest pick available. I don't use the pointy end, I curl the round part around my themb and in so doing it can be the stiffest Heavy all the way down to the lightest feather of a light pick. My entire playing style is surrounded by those picks.

My Broadcaster was one of the ones with an ebony fret board. Milt could tell you exactly how many of each FB were made, some that came with a Kahler Tremolo, and of there were any lefties made. Stupidly (very stupidly) I sold mine at a guitar show in Spartanburg, South Carolina in the early 90s. One of the worst decisions I've ever made.

Since those days G&L has become my absolute favorite brand of guitar. I have owned some where around 20 G&L guitars, and Milt is the one who got my addiction started, LOL. When I visited Michigan last September I had business in Detroit but I made a trip over to Portland. My parents have both passed and I bought two long stem roses to place on their headstone in Danby Cemetery south of Portland. I also left one of my signature blue nylon guitar picks. I also bought a third long stem rose and left it in the door at where Milt used to have hisstore on Kent Street in Portland. That might tell you how much I loved Milt Smith. Many other musicians in and around town nicknamed him "Uncle Milty" and he was truly the awesome uncle I never had. He was my dad's age so he could have been my uncle.

More importantly he was the father of my playing electric guitar. I got my first electric there in 1976, then in 2004 he still had the 1995 George Fullerton in the case in the shipping box, so 9 years it had been at his store, it finally found a home, I still have it. In 2011 on the day of my mom's funeral I brought home the Fullerton's brother, a 1988 G&L Leo Fender ASAT (looking like the ASAT Specials of today). That one had sat at Milt's store in the case and in the priginal shipping box for 23 years !!

My mother was my biggest cheerleader when it came to me playing guitar. My first guitar was a $44 dollar Gibson Hummingbird copy my folks bought from a local man named Ivan Burgess. I got that guitar Christmas of 1975 and had my first guitar lessons with Mr. Burgess the very next day. Ivan Burgess was my dad's first or second cousin. He gave guitar lessons out of his house... he also taught only Hawaiian music, LOL. But every week you got a new piece of sheet music and a lessons. The sheet music was 40-sents and the lessons was $1.00. So it was $1.40 per guitar lessons. Burgess had his own method for learning the guitar and was a pretty great foundation on th neck I have kept all these years. He gave me enough info about playing guitar that just a few months later I was able to play with the Portland High School Stage Band (jazz big band).

Maybe a year or so later I started taking lessons in Lansing, MI at a store (no longer there) called "Roger's Music" on Cedar Street. The instructor's name was Keith Axtell and the first song I learned in my "rock guitar lessons" was how to play "Stairway to Heaven" note for note including the lead solo. Every now and again I still break into Stairway and can play all the parts and all the different movements the song goes through. Not long after I started taking lead guitar lessons some of us in the high school band formed a rock and roll group. We played assemblies for the high school and also had a few live concerts where we charged admission. The band fell apart when the drummer went off to college at Michigan State University.

Here is a picture of Milt at his store in 2004 the day I brought home this gorgeous 1995 G&L George Fullerton model. Note all the guitars in boxes behind him against the wall. Those would have been all G&L guitars and basses.

Last edited by candleman on Wed Dec 09, 2020 7:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.

A couple more pictures of my Fullerton...





Gorgeous birdseye neck... and this guitar weighs only 6-1/2lbs...



Also, some of the first Fullertons shipped with this red cover George Fullerton book, I still have mine...

I still have the original shipping box for my Fullerton.....

Here's some pictures of where Smith Music used to be... it was a kinda small store, in other parts of the country they'd call it a "shotgun store" (sometimes small thin and deep houses are called "shotgun houses"...
The first picture shows the store between the 2 lamp posts.
The second picture I cropped it so you can see just the store. For decades above the door in black letters with a white background it just read "SMITH".
The third picture is a panned view of downtown Portland, Michigan and the old architecture of the buildings. The age of the town goes way back and the architecture if similar to many older mid western towns.







(pictures from Google Maps Street View, 2019)

Here are some pictures of the 1988 (3-bolt) G&L Leo Fender Signature ASAT I got from Milt in 2011 (it had been at his store, in the case, in the original shipping box from G&L for 23 years)... The pickguard is metal and this model was some years before another Leo Fender Signature ASAT "Classic" came out. This model has the bigger MFD ASAT Special type pictures. FWIW, it was also made while Leo was still living and at the G$L company. Unfortunately for me this one was lost in a family battle and is no longer in my possession (Owatabich). It had the most gorgeous piece of red-ish rosewood on the FB...

Thanks for the history/ back stories.

I noticed there's a couple of Milt's purchases on Reverb today:

https://reverb.com/item/37620346-g-l-br ... 22-bc00023

Thanks for the history/ back stories.

I noticed there's a couple of Milt's purchases on Reverb today:

https://reverb.com/item/37620346-g-l-br ... 22-bc00023

Note: https links will not open directly on our forums. See: Added new BBCode for opening url link in a new tab ...
Here is the link which will display in a new tab, using the nturl BBcode:
Reverb link.

Hope this helps.

Wow, $50,000 for 2 virgin Broadcasters. That is how Milt saved them. In the case, in the original shipping boxes.

To the OP... check out the last picture on this Reverb ad, it lists "first ones" going to Bill Reed, on 7-19-85.

I don't remember what my serial number was, but a Broadcaster was the first G&L I ever bought, and I bought it at Milt's store.

G&L also posts to Facebook and frequently posts new build pictures, what finish and model they are and where they are going (to what dealer).

By far my favorite guitar manufacturer above and beyond any other brand, production models or hand-builders. If you sat a Gibson, a Fender, a Paul Reed Smith, a Suhr, and a G&L on several guitar stands and gave me the choice of any one of them... I'd go straight to the G&L, hands down.