“It was found in the trunk of a car. They had sanded it to make it look like it wasn’t mine”: Tyler Bryant's stolen Pinky One Strat was played by Jeff Beck, inscribed by Steven Tyler – and, miraculously, returned to him five years after it was taken
Blues-rocker Tyler Bryant is known for his love of the Fender Stratocaster – indeed, there’s a reason, he was chosen by the Big F as one of the faces of its rip-roaring 70th Anniversary Voodoo Child Strat video. Now he’s discussed the miraculous story of his “most sentimental” Strat: a shell pink Custom Shop model dubbed ‘Pinky One’.
“Pinky One was stolen from me in Spokane, Washington, and missing for five-and-a-half years,” says Bryant in the new issue of Total Guitar.
The instrument had been given to Bryant when he was 16 and was used through some of his most treasured playing experiences – including live shows with Aerosmith and Jeff Beck.
“We inducted Steve Cropper into the Songwriting Hall of Fame [with it],” recalls Bryant.
“I’d written some of the lyrics for In The Midnight Hour [Wilson Pickett’s 1965 hit, co-written by Cropper] on the back because I didn’t want to mess up the lyrics in front of him. [Then Aerosmith singer] Steven Tyler had written ‘Pink, it’s like red, but not quite’ on the back.”
Tyler’s quote was a reference to Aerosmith’s tune, Pink. However, in addition to the graffitied mementos, it was the link to Beck that arguably meant the most to Bryant.
“This is the one I’m most sentimental about,” he explains. “I took this on tour with Jeff Beck, got to play it on stage with him, and Jeff played it. [So] when it was stolen, it was devastating.”
Touchingly, after the theft, Bryant’s family and friends pitched in to buy him another pink Custom Shop model, with matching specs. “That’s the one – Pinky Two,” notes Bryant. “That I play most of the time, and that’s what my signature model is based on.”
That model saw action with Guns N’ Roses and AC/DC and it seems Bryant had started to move on. Then, more than half a decade later, he heard Pinky One had been located – thanks to a call from River City Guitars in Spokane, WA.
“It was found in the trunk of a car,” explains Bryant. “[The thieves] had sanded a bunch of stuff off it... [The Cropper and Tyler lyrics] they sanded that off, too. They went to all this trouble to make it look like it wasn’t mine, but they never changed the serial number plate.”
We’re not sure whether that’s a quirk of fortune, or stupidity on behalf of the thieves, but either way, Bryant was once again reunited with his most significant Strat – and can now make a claim to having two right-hand Pinkys...
While five-and-a-half years might seem like a long time, some players have waited much longer. Randy Bachman spent 45 years tracking down his lost 1957 Gretsch 6120, while Jimmy Page was reunited with his triple-humbucker Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty after a wait of nearly 50 years…
For more from Bryant, plus a review of the Strat’s 70-year history, its contemporary champions and a buying guide to modern-day Strat models, pick up Total Guitar issue 383 over at Magazines Direct.
