Stolen Guitar of The Cribs’ Ryan Jarman Has Resurfaced 20 Years Later With The 1975 and Beabadoobee

Plenty of musicians have stories about stolen gear. It’s practically a rite of passage for touring musicians. Typically, that gear is never seen again. But Ryan Jarman of UK indie band The Cribs happened to spot his vintage Sunburst Fender Mustang, which had been missing for 20 years, in a photo.

Jarman’s brother, Gary, told the story of the missing guitar in an interview with Guitar World. Ryan had saved up money from one of his birthdays to buy it and spent about £600. Among the features that stood out was a birdseye maple headstock. The guitar was stolen in 2002, after the band played a show at The Cockpit in Leeds, and it hadn’t been seen since.

About 20 years later, while Gary was reading an interview online, he spotted the guitar in a photo, mounted on a wall in the background, and knew it was Ryan’s because of the unique headstock, as well as a missing piece of the pickguard.

“The interview was with the owner of the Dirty Hit [Jamie Oborne], which was The 1975’s label,” Gary told Guitar World. “I knew The 1975’s A&R guy, so I contacted him. I was like, ‘Hey, can you put us in touch with this dude? I think that’s Ryan’s Mustang.’”

To verify it was, in fact, Ryan’s guitar, they matched it with photos and even got the police involved. The company Fender also confirmed it was the same guitar. The brothers learned that for some time, it belonged to Matty Healy, frontman for The 1975. It has since been passed on to another owner, singer-songwriter Beabadoobee.

Despite having some idea of what happened to the guitar after it was stolen, Ryan has not been reunited with it, and its current whereabouts remain unknown. The brothers are still trying to get it back, as it holds some sentimental value. The Cribs used it to write songs in their early days, and it helped to define their sound.

“That is one of the only guitars that’s ever meant anything to me,” Ryan said. “It was the guitar that I used in The Cribs before we became a professional band, and it sounded great.”

(Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)