[Editor’s Note: In a photo essay in The Fretboard Journal #25, Rick Turner wrote about the theft (and recovery) of Crosby’s Alembicized 12-string electric guitar. Billy Stapleton, co-owner of Banana’s at Large, decided to elaborate a bit on Rick’s recount. Here’s how he remembers the incident from 1971…]

Glad to know I’m remembered fondly by Rick Turner, and hopefully Mr. Crosby.

Alembic was burglarized one night, and the thieves weren’t all that savvy, most likely after money, at any rate among the missing items was David Crosby’s Alembic twelve string, quite the beast – LED fret markers, sculpted tailpiece, inlays, and custom electronics.

I got a call from a guitar player I knew, “Paul” from the Mission district, first thing in the morning, asking if I’d be interested in buying an Alembic 12-string. I said I’d have to see it. This was at my music store, Bananas at Large, on Monterey Blvd. in San Francisco. I’m most likely 21 years old then. We were pretty established by that time and bought and sold tons of used gear.

Anyway, the infamous Donny Ruiz was helping me at the store that morning, when “Paul” came in the store with 2 others guys I’d never met and showed me the instrument. I must admit I knew it was an Alembic but had no idea it was Crosby’s. Ruiz, on the other hand, used to hang out at Alembic and knew Rick Turner and George Monday (the electronics guy) and had his own Alembic equipped bass: He knew immediately what it was and ran into the back room and CALLED THE COPS without telling me, while I was talking to the Alembic sellers about how much it might be worth.

So maybe five minutes of haggling passes and suddenly the place is being surrounded by lit-up black and white cop cars, sirens, lights… the works. Our negotiations are clearly at an end. The police come charging in WITH AN ALEMBIC EMPLOYEE who had ridden over in the squad car!! Not much chance of that happening these days.

They come busting in my little hippie store and ask for the owner. I am cool – cops, sticky situations, it’s all in a day’s work to me. A giant police officer tries to conduct police business but between Rick Turner yelling, “There it is! There it is!” and Don Ruiz springing out of the back like a jack-in-the-box to join in the fray, not much formal police business takes place. The next question is, “Who brought this instrument in here, Mr. Stapleton?”

This is my favorite part: Don Ruiz is starting to open his mouth and finger the two Latin Americans and one Greek boy (“Paul”). I step in front of him with a quick “Lemmie handle this…

So I sez to the giant police man: “I told those boys, this guitar was hotter than a homemade hash pipe [my attempt at humor] and I wasn’t giving it back to them, I offered them the choice of explaining themselves to the police, or getting the heck out of my store. They took off, officer.”

The three conspirators cowering in the corner looked up wide eyed at me with silent awe and admiration.

Don Ruiz’s furrowed brow became unknitted as it dawned on him what I was doing. “Paul” was a dear friend and he clearly had been sought out by the other two as a “guitar guy.” Rick Turner was dying to prosecute somebody. “Paul” would have done time for Grand Theft, as the 12-string was worth thousands of dollars. I couldn’t turn him in.

I gave the police a sketchy description of my made-up men that had fled. It was a giant pile of baloney to be sure, but real enough that after 15 minutes or so, some scribbling in his police note book and a “thanks” from law enforcement they left the store. There might have been as many as five officers at one time inside the store.

After the police left the three guys confessed that they had been given the guitar to sell by the real robbers. They had smelled money and were going to try and get as much as possible for it and keep some for themselves.

With a giant “thank you” they took off into the foggy San Fran morning.

There was a reward, but I insisted that Donny Ruiz take it, he had spotted David’s 12 string after all.

And that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.   –Billy “Banana” Stapleton

Photo: Billy Stapleton and Fred Waxler, owners of Bananas at Large, in their store. Photograph taken by Ian Bonner.

More to Explore: 

• David Crosby performs “For Free” (exclusive FJ video)
• Fretboard Journal #25, guest edited by David Crosby