Vince Gill on Chattanooga’s latest gem, the Songbirds Guitar Museum

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – This is opening weekend for Chattanooga’s latest attraction.

Songbirds Guitar Museum is the world’s largest private collection of rare, vintage guitars, and it will soon be open to the public.

News 12’s Bree Tankersley got a sneak peak of the museum, and caught up with its ambassador, Vince Gill.

The grand opening for Songbirds guitar museum begins tonight. The planning for this amazing adduition to the scenic city started years ago. Johnny Smith The president of the museum told me how it first began.

Johnny Smith
President, Songbird Museum
“It was just a conversation, It all started with some friends and some guys that had the idea of maybe some annonyomous folks about putting their collections together and letting us put them on display for people to come see and um, you know I just started kind of pursueing the idea and the next thing you know, four years later, you know here we are.”

Recently, Vince Gill was chosen to be the Ambasador for the museum.

Vince Gill
Ambassador for Songbirds
:32-:42
“Just right up my alley, you know I love these old things and, and uh, try to pick up a few of them myself here and there, and love playing them and love uh, what they represent, they, they kind of tell our history, uh, they tell our history musically, um, artistically, all kinds of ways, and, and this was an easy one you know, I got some good friends down in Chattanooga so good chance to come visit some pals. ”

His passion grew for music when at age ten he recieved his very own guitar.

(Gill)
“It was a Gibson ES 335, they got a few of those on the wall here too. (Great first guitar.) Yeah, it was a great first guitar. You know what, it’s interesting because I think that when uh, when you’re a kid oftentimes its hard for a parent to make the sacrifice financially, of a nice instrument to get a kid to, to – to get inspired to play, but if you buy a kid an instrument that’s poorly built, poorly made and is very hard to play, it’s not inspiring to play. And a lot of kids are quick to just say I don’t like this, it’s too hard and – so I was really fortunate. >

When writing his songs, Gill says there is not one particular guitar that he uses.

(Gill)
“The neat thing about instruments is – it’s going to sound silly – but they’ll make you play them the way they like to be played. And, every guitar feels different in your hands, every guitar sounds different. And, something different I think will come out no matter what guitar you pick up. And, it could be an electric guitar it’ll make you play it a totally different way, different things and, and so – no there’s not a, not a steadfast rule of , this is the guitar that writes all the songs I, I spread it around. (laughs)”

Our next stop was to the green room and vault, which can be toured only during certain times throughout the day.

David Davidson
Curator

“There’s a VIP experience that you can purchase up front as opposed to the general admission that will get you access to the vault and the greenroom which is right outside the door here, and uh, it’s, it’s worth it, especially for a real afficianado because you get to see pieces that most people would never get to see in their life.”

And guests should allow an additional hour if you choose to experience the all access tour. Reporting in Chattanooga, Bree Tankersly, News 12 Now.