Rick Beato was recently reunited with his late uncle’s long-lost vintage bass guitar, resolving a 50-year-old family mystery that was solved with the help of Joe Bonamassa.
We’ve seen our fair share of lost-and-found guitar stories, from the triumphant discovery of Paul McCartney’s Höfner violin bass to Mary Ford’s Gibson Les Paul SG Custom turning up on Facebook Marketplace and the return of Mark Tremonti’s ‘My Own Prison’ Les Paul.
But this particular tale might just be the most intriguing one yet.
Why? Well, after quietly disappearing in the mid-'70s, the bass somehow got tucked away on the top shelf of a local music store, House of Guitars, before it was spotted by a family member and later purchased by Bonamassa.
Then, years later, it was unknowingly showcased the blues hero's recent Welcome Back to Nerdville Reverb mini-documentary.
A close friend of Beato's – who was familiar with the tale – miraculously recognized the bass while watching the video, and quickly reached out to Rick with the news.
From there, the ball got rolling on a reunion, and before long Beato was reunited with the long-lost family instrument five decades after it first went missing.
As Beato tells it, his Uncle Al DiMino was a professional bassist who retired from music in 1953 when he started a family. He tragically passed away in 1969 at the age of 38, and one of the few remaining pictures of him showed him playing his go-to '50s Fender Precision Bass.
“About 15 years ago, my cousin Jeneane (Al’s daughter) sent some pictures around to myself and my brother Jon of a bass that was in the House of Guitars. The picture was of a bass that was from the early ‘50s, and she said in the email, ‘This might be my dad’s bass.’
“I remember seeing that bass when I went to the House of Guitars in the 1970s. It was always in this case above the door.”
A couple of months back, Rick and his brother took a trip to the store to see if that bass was still there. It wasn’t – it had been sold some time before – so he moved on without much of a thought.
However, Beato’s interests were once again piqued two weeks ago, when Keith Williams of Five Watt World informed him of Bonamassa’s Reverb documentary. In it, the famed guitar collector showcased a vintage P-Bass that he had bought from – yes – House of Guitars.
Judging by Bonamassa’s recollection of the purchase, and the state of the guitar itself, it looked to be the same model that Jeneane had once spotted. As such, it looked likely to be Uncle Al’s old missing bass.
“I remembered Rick telling me the story of his uncle’s Fender Precision that had disappeared from the family home in the 1970s,” Williams says. “I stopped the video, and texted Rick.”
After consulting with Jon and Jeneane, Rick then got in contact with Bonamassa, who was sent the photograph of Uncle Al playing his Fender P-Bass. He was also informed the guitar had gone missing from Jeneane’s home, which was only two minutes from House of Guitars.
“As soon as Joe saw that she lived two blocks away, he said, ‘I have your uncle’s bass!’” continues Beato, who ultimately ended up buying the bass back from Bonamassa and reuniting it with his family.
What are the odds that JoBo would be the one to buy the bass originally, only to then show it to the world (and the Beato family) to set the wheels in motion for a reunion? That bass could have been picked up by anyone. Fortunately, it's now on its way back to where it belongs.
Visit Rick Beato's YouTube channel to hear the full story.
