Also in my garage: classic guitars

By Martin Buckley

| 26 Mar 2026

Classic & Sports Car – Also in my garage: classic guitars

Gary and Joan Gand moved to Palm Springs 20 years ago, not only to get away from the cold Midwest winters, but also because of a love for the mid-century Modernist architecture that is a defining feature of this glamorous desert town, two hours from LA.

Gary grew up playing folk music with his family, and in ’71 he founded a company selling professional lighting and sound equipment.

“I started after a music store defaulted on the warranty on a Marshall amp,” he says.

“They deliberately took so long to repair it that by the time I picked it up, the warranty had expired.”

Just some of Gary Gand’s extensive guitar collection

Gary has been in bands since the early 1970s.

For fun, and often for charity, he fronts the area’s premier covers group, The Gand Band, with wife Joan on the Hammond organ.

He has also recently moved into film production with a documentary about his friend, Trini Lopez, the ’60s singer and guitar player who also sang in The Gand Band before his passing in 2020.

Since moving to Palm Springs, the Gands have restored three mid-century houses.

Their current home is Villa Vadera, built in 1973 and brought back to life with close attention to period detail.

The Studebaker Avanti blends in seamlessly in Palm Springs

Strictly speaking, his 1963 Studebaker Avanti, photographed outside Villa Vadera for a recent Classic & Sports Car story (which you can read here), is a decade out of period, but it still looks the part.

One room of the house is devoted to a spectacular collection of electric guitars from the ’50s and ’60s.

All are regularly played, either for fun or when performing, and while many are worth as much – or more – than the Avanti, Gary isn’t precious about letting others handle or play them.

Gary Gand with his 1963 Studebaker Avanti

There are parallels with some car and guitar names, too.

“I was given the ’64 Firebird by my dad,” says Gary, “but it didn’t become cool until I went to a Cream concert and saw Eric Clapton playing one.”

The largely original red ’59 Les Paul Custom weighs in at 10.2lb and is one of only a dozen made in this colour.

“I bought it via an advert in the local paper when I was aged 14,” Gary says. “I couldn’t drive, so I had to get the seller to bring it round to our house.

“It cost me $250, and I had to pay for it in two instalments.”

The Studebaker Avanti is stylish inside and out

The 1964 SG Custom came as part of a deal when joining a band in the 1980s, while one of the older but most used models in the collection is a ’54 Fender Stratocaster, number 0163. Gary says: “I bought it in the ’90s. It still has its original pick-guard.

“Originality is probably more important in the guitar world than it is with classic cars, although I love my restored 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard.”

The Guild Thunderbird has the same name as a certain car, plus a kick-stand like that of a motorcycle to store it upright.

Gary poses with his Gretsch six-string inside his stunning mid-century Modernist home

There’s a 1959 Gibson Flying V of distinctive design and a ’67 Gibson Trini Lopez Standard.

Totally original in Cherry Red, it was bought as a birthday gift by Joan and is paired with one of Trini’s old amps.

One of the rarest, most valuable and technically excellent guitars in the collection is a Wandre Brigitte Bardot, which had long been on Gary’s wish-list when a dealer found one for him in a French music shop.

“If you don’t want it,” said the dealer, “I’m giving Johnny Depp a call.”