What Happened To Chuck Gillette?

[Don Crowl]

Does anyone know anything of Chuck Gillette? Attached is a picture of him in a college band circa '65 or '66. I cropped this shot out of a two page spread in a college annual. The band had about 20 pieces. I was not acquainted with him but I saw him play in Squaw Valley. I was really impressed with his talent especially when he was singled out to play bits & pieces of music from several nations. Don

[Steve English]

I think Chuck Gillette passed away in the mid or late 90's.

Unfortunately for me, I didn't know the man, but Ron Sodos and Neil Harry are two that I'm sure knew him, and most likely got some instruction from him. The last thing I remember hearing of him was his playing on some of the original Dusty Chaps recordings in the mid 70's.

Maybe Ron will see this and jump in. Glen and Troy Porter might have known him also.

I know he was very highly thought of.

[Jim Cohen]

Don't know anything about Mr. Gillette, but did all the players of that era place their volume pedals outside the guitar like that? Never noticed it before...

[Bobby Boggs]

Buddy Emmons did in the mid to late 50's. The Bigsby volume pedals are very tall. And this guitar looks shorter than most Bigsbys with pedals. Which were apparently a little on the short side anyway.
bb

[Tom Mortensen]

I took lessons from Chuck in the early 70's. He was living in Tucson and playing some gigs with his wife. His religion prevented him from playing on weekends, so it was hard for him to work with bands. Chuck had one heck of a Travis picking style on the C neck and he loved playing instrumentals while standing on his seat.
Chuck was a very, very nice man and a great player.

[Don Crowl]

Thnx gentlemen. I hope some others who knew how Chuck's life played out will respond. From a light perspective my steeler friend Mike De Mello observed that Chuck's picture looked like a young Ronald Reagan.

[Ian Miller]

Our own Russ Blake owns that guitar. I see it and hear it quite often!

[Frank Freniere]

Nice pic, Don.

And the clarinetist in the upper right corner looks like Richard Nixon!

[Andy DePaule]

Mike De Mello observed that Chuck's picture looked like a young Ronald Reagan.

I thought the exact same thing when I came across this older thread.
I was looking him up because that Bigsby steel they talked about just was up for sale in Portland. As usual, priced too high for my budget.