Nova Scotia musician J.P. Cormier searches for late brother's pawned guitar
'It would mean a great deal if I could find it,' says Cormier
A Nova Scotia musician is trying to find a cherished guitar that his late brother sold at a pawn shop in Dartmouth, N.S., 20 years ago.
In a post Tuesday on Facebook, J.P. Cormier said his older brother David had fallen on hard times and sold his prized possession, a Yamaha FG 1500, around the year 2000.
Cormier said David, who was 20 years his senior, was also a talented musician and the two frequently played together.
"It was just a spectacular guitar, and I remember playing it as a kid," Cormier said in an interview Wednesday.
Cormier said the family didn't realize David had pawned his guitar until years later.
"It was a very secretive thing," said Cormier, who lives in Cooks Brook, N.S. "He would never ask for help."
His brother, who had been in failing health, died about three years ago at 67, Cormier said.
Cormier said he found out the instrument had been sold just a couple of years before his brother's death, when David was living in Thunder Bay, Ont., and playing a "really bad" guitar.
"I said, 'What happened to your guitar?' And he said, 'Well, I had to pawn it.'"
Cormier said the Yamaha FG 1500 was not a popular guitar in North America, and he believes there may only be a few dozen around.
He will know his brother's right away, because the guitar has "a few marks on it that I put on there," Cormier chuckled.
Since Cormier posted his plea Tuesday on Facebook, it's been shared thousands of times. And he's received a promising lead.
A woman messaged him to say that her late husband bought a "strange Yamaha" guitar at a pawn shop in Dartmouth at about that time.
Cormier said there's a "good possibility" it's his brother's guitar.
The woman told him her husband remembered that the person who sold the guitar really didn't want to part with it.
The guitar is currently in storage, and Cormier is waiting to see it in person.
"It would mean a great deal if I could find it," he said. "That guitar, it was the most treasured thing he had."