May 1, 2010, Nashville was hit with a devastating series of storms. As a result, Nashville experienced its worst flood in history. Many homes and businesses were lost, even more tragic, lives were lost.

Unlike most cities, when tragedy struck, the people of Nashville banned together and helped their friends, neighbors and even total strangers. Instead of looting, rioting and exploiting those in need, this great city truly demonstrated why this is called the volunteer state.

One the hardest hit area is the riverfront by the Cumberland River. This is where Soundcheck is located, one of the largest rehearsal/storage/stage facilities in the US. The flood completely engulfed it, ruining thousands of guitars, amps and touring equipment. Many of the local as well as national acts use Soundcheck.

After the waters subsided, I got a call from Joe Glasser from Glaser Guitars, asking if I could help dig out some of the guitars and setup a Guitar Triage Center to try to salvage what we could. As a professional Luthier and an obvious guitar lover, I thought "What can one man do?" I didn't see how I could be much help, but I was willing to do what I could.

I called three local guitar repair technicians that I had trained years ago and asked them if they could help. I was pleasantly surprised that all of them said yes. Then I spoke with a couple of recording/mastering engineers that work in on my block, again, the answer was yes! At this point I was starting to look forward to setting up the Guitar Triage center. While I was at lunch, at where else - OTTER"S!, I told the manager Steve what I was doing, he immediately posted an add for volunteers on twitter. The response was phenomenal!

By the time we had the work benches setup, we had a 14 person crew, willing to help people they didn't know, without any expectations. This is what makes Nashville such a great city!

I want to thank every person in my crew for sacrificing their time and expertise to help us salvage hundreds of guitars.

My crew:

Tommy Dailey

John Miller

Norm Urmy

Don Cobb

Eric Conn

Jill Costello

Elyse McMeen

Pete Finney

Dawn Kramer

Elizabeth Marlowe

Jackson Oglesby

Curtis Cameron

Noah Oahyull

Steve Logan – Otter’s Chicken Tenders (Music Row)

Bill Taylor

Judy Hall

Dave Dorton from the Sub Stop on Broadway (The BEST SUBS in town) thank you for donating the awesome subs for the Triage!

You make Nashville the great city it is!

If any of you are in need of cases, bags, strings or humidity control products, please contact me. THIS IS NOT A SALES CALL!

I have arranged for Martin, Taylor, TKL & D'addario to donate product for those affected by the flood. These companies really stepped up and have donated thousands of dollars of equiptment. Pleas contact me, or Ed Beavers at Soundcheck on Ambrose street. If you have anything in need of repair or just an evaluation, please call me.

John M. LeVan
LeVan's Guitar Services

615-251-8884
guitarservices.com
guitarservices@aol.com