The northern Ontario family of James Brady is on the lookout for the musician’s Oscar Schmidt-brand acoustic guitar, which he had signed by five members of the classic progressive rock band Yes in 2004.
James is believed to have hocked it at Donovan's Bargain Corner during tough times in his personal life at some point between 2020 and 2022.
He died unexpectedly in September 2023 at the age of 34.
“I wish he’d told me he was going to hock it, because he’d hocked it a few times,” his father, Mike Brady, told Village Media.
“He’s had a couple of guitars since then, but there was no better guitar than this one.”
The family has been on the lookout for the guitar recently, with posters found downtown looking for the musical instrument Mike said is of “greater sentimental value” to the family.
Mike brought his son, then 15 years of age, to a Yes concert at the Air Canada Centre on May 7, 2004, and met with the band at Sam the Record Man, where five members signed the acoustic guitar he’d purchased the year before.
James had purchased the guitar using money he earned working at a South End pizza establishment and doing property maintenance work while he was a student at Sudbury Secondary School.
Signatures on the guitar include those of Rick Wakeman, Chris Squire, Alan White, Jon Anderson and Steve Howe.
With a chuckle, Mike told Village Media that Howe was reluctant to sign the guitar because he had a business agreement with other guitar companies, but Anderson said, “Sign the kid’s guitar already!”
It was James’ first guitar, and Mike said, “he was a natural at it. ... James was quite the man.”
James used the guitar to perform alongside his younger sister, Kate, at Northern Lights Festival Boréal in 2004, and made regular use of it over the years before falling on hard times and hocking it a few years ago.
His sudden death last year makes the guitar even more sentimental to the family he left behind.
“I know it’s like finding a needle in a haystack, but we all want that guitar very badly,” Mike said.
Anyone with information about the cherished musical instrument is asked to phone Mike at 705-561-8420.
