Guitar find leads to TV spot for Lynchburg music store

When Tim Echols first got the call this summer, he thought it was a joke.

A man claiming to be Frank Fritz, one of the stars of The History Channel series “American Pickers,” was on the other end, requesting Echols’ services appraising a guitar.

“I was actually on vacation,” Echols said. “When I answered the phone, I thought it was one of my employees playing a trick on me. But it turned out it was (him).”

Fritz wanted Echols, longtime manager of the Lynchburg Music Center, to appraise a Martin guitar his co-stars Mike Wolfe and Danielle Colby Cushman had found in Vinton.

The episode featuring their visit to the Lynchburg Music Center airs at 9 p.m. tonight on The History Channel.

“The story that I heard from Frank and Mike is they (got) the guitar from a fellow in Vinton,” Echols said. “It was one the fellow had found in a field. An old Martin archtop that was lying in a field. He was young, and he kept it and stored his junk and stuff in a tractor-trailer container.

“Mike knew (that) Martin guitar (was) a great name. They’re usually expensive instruments. He went ahead and bought it for $100. He didn’t know what it was and wanted to get it appraised.”

It’s not uncommon for the pickers to seek professional advice in this manner. The series, which debuted in 2010, follows them as they travel around the country buying antiques and collectibles.

Their main focus is on hidden gems and items other people might consider junk — kind of like the guitar they brought to Echols, which had been sitting in storage for years and wasn’t in very good shape, he said.

“The back is normally wood, and somebody had taken the back off and put a piece of linoleum on it,” said Echols. “The strings were missing. It had gouges (in it). It looked like Sasquatch had played the guitar.”

Echols said filming took about three hours on a Sunday afternoon.

“They shot them driving in and coming into the store, and the interactions in the store,” he said. “It was all pretty spontaneous. It wasn’t scripted, other than (marking) where to stand. The interactions were all genuine.

“They were great,” he added. “Mike and Danielle were both here. They were just awesome. Great to work with, and funny.”

You’ll have to watch the episode to find out what Echols’ final verdict was on the guitar. For now, he’s excited to be getting his 15 minutes of fame.

“I’ve been doing retail music for 31 years now, and I’ve been familiar with Martin guitars in all that time,” he said. “It was really neat that they called us.”