Guitar gift, no strings attached

A guitar once owned by Mother Maybelle Carter, a member of one of country music’s most influential families, has been acquired by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Gibson L-5 acoustic guitar had been on loan to the Nashville museum since 1998 but was reclaimed by the owner in May and listed for sale at $575,000.

Philanthropist Bob McLean donated $1 million to the Hall of Fame to purchase the guitar, saying historic instruments such as Carter’s guitar belong in the museum.

“Not because they’re fancy, expensive instruments but because the world was changed by the music created with them,” he said. “They belong here because people need to connect with their past.”

Carter bought the guitar, then a top-of-the-line model, for $275 in 1928 and played it until her death in 1978. She used it on most of her recordings and to pioneer a playing style in which she picked the melody on the lower strings while strumming the chords on the higher ones. The technique, called the “Carter Scratch,” has been widely imitated.