Glen Yunker

[FZTNT]

Who is Glen Yunker? And did I really end up with one of his guitars?
As I have posted before, I recently acquired ASAT Commemorative #132 that is purported to be the one having belonged to Mr. Yunker and on the cover of the 1990's book Leo's Legacy. I can find no info on the man by a simple Google search and figured you all might know who he was and what his link to G&L is/was.

Tom

[yowhatsshakin]

Who is Glen Yunker? And did I really end up with one of his guitars?
As I have posted before, I recently acquired ASAT Commemorative #132 that is purported to be the one having belonged to Mr. Yunker and on the cover of the 1990's book Leo's Legacy. I can find no info on the man by a simple Google search and figured you all might know who he was and what his link to G&L is/was.

Tom

Glenn Yunker is a real person. He bought a lot of great pre-BBE G&Ls from a dealer in Portland, MI, by the name of Milton (Milt) Smith who was one of Dale Hyatt's most successful dealers before G&L was sold to BBE. Due to his great relationship with Dale, he was able to get all sorts of oddities not available to other dealers. Glenn divested a lot of his collection, if not all, to Bill Scott who lives in FL now but AZ in the past.

Hope this helps you tracing back some of the history of your beautiful guitar.

- Jos

[verybestal]

I will add that I've dealt with Bill Scott and one of the guitars I acquired from Bill came in a box with Glenn Yunker's name. The Glenn Yunker/Bill Scott collection was quite amazing. Has to be one of the foremost collectors in G&L history - your Commemorative guitar comes from a good place.

[candleman]

Hello,

I was doing some Internetting about Milt Smith and came across this older post. Sorry for ressurecting a long dead post, LOL...

But I grew up in Portland, Michigan and Milt Smith sold me my very first electric guitar in 1976. A Crestwood Strat copy along with a silverface 1976 Fender Virbo CHamp amp. (And has since then sold me several G&L guitars).

I was writing an email to a friend about a G&L order I am planning to make, and the topic of Milt Smith came up. I did a quick Google search on Milt's name and discovered he passed away on November 8th of 2017.

If anyone is interested, his obituary is here:
https://obittree.com/obituary/us/michig ... h/3295346/

For a small shop in a very small town, Milt did have some of the best G&Ls on the planet. I think his order availability did have something to do with his personal freindship with Dale Hyatt. The first G&L I bought in my life I bought from Milt Smith. It was a brand new (at the time) G&L Braodcaster. (No, I don't still have it, I sold it like a dummy at a guitar show somewhere along about 1994-95-ish...)

JUst one of the dozens of guitars I have bought and regretted selling over my four decades+ of guitaring.

I no longer live in Michigan but I may be able to help track down the people you are looking for. I know there was one very big buyer from Ionia, Michigan who frequented Milt's store. Ionia is another small town about 16 miles west of Portland on Interstate 96. I know there was a person who had literally bought dozens (or more) G&Ls from Milt. Milt used to talk about him. It might be this is the same person you are looking for???

If you message me here (if you are still wanting to do some "detective" work on this person) and I'll send you my email addy and we can talk.

Today is a very sad day for me. It is the day I learned that the person who sold me my very first guitar (Milt Smith) has passed away almost a year ago... at the young old age of 94...

He worked in the store with his wife Doris for years and years and she passed away quite some time ago. Whenever I came back to town, I always made it a point to stop in and shop at Smith's Music, or maybe just spend some time and chit-chat with tis man who had literally decades of stories to tell about his store and the business in Portland. Howbeit it was a hub for national brands, and a welcome place in that small city of 3,000 people. Rest in Peace, Milt. You were my electric guitar father.



Candleman

[y2kc]

There is a picture of Glen Yunker and Milt Smith in the G&L book. In it they are trading guitars or something. G&L enthusiasts for sure.

y2kc

[FZTNT]

Thanks for the info Candleman. I ran across some posts on this forum, I believe, from Milt's daughter Yvonne shortly after Milton passed away last year. She contacted me privately as she had some questions about the almost 100 guitars that were left to her and I believe her brother. We became small email friends and shared some info and stories etc. So from her, I got a better understanding of who Glen was and how he fit into the G&L picture. I guess he bought many guitars from Milton and that kind of got him into the inner circle if you will of George, Leo and Dale. I had not directly heard of Milton prior to my acquaintance with his daughter. I can't remember off the top of my head if he was mentioned in Paul B's book but I think he was, perhaps in a photo credit if nothing else. In fact, yes, he is mentioned in some photo credits and I will post the one below. Yvonne also sent me some other related photos which, with her permission, I will post as well.

I will also say that I am sorry for your loss and the sorrow of losing an old friend, I wish I had known a lot of these folks from the G&L family but I have only come to collect G&L guitars in the last several years. Leo era models mostly.

Have a look at these pics and I hope you can enjoy them some, looking back at Milton from when you knew him.

The top photo is young Glen Yunker and the bottom one is the one you mentioned from Paul B's book with Glen and Milton. This is Glen and his wife on top and Glen with Eric Johnson on the bottom.


Milton and unknown person.


Milton and Leo


Some of Glen Yunker's guitars, unknown time period, showing the Commemorative #132 that I now own close to center..


Tom

[y2kc]

That Asat Glen is holding is a beauty!

[FZTNT]

That Asat Glen is holding is a beauty!

Looks like it's the third one from the left next to the Interceptors in the bottom picture.

Tom

[y2kc]

Yes -Red,sparkly and Leo era. A very cool Asat for sure.

y2kc