Rich Engler, longtime Pittsburgh concert promoter, is looking to sell his collection of guitars, memorabilia
Courtesy of Rich Engler
As they proceed through their 70s, it’s not uncommon for baby boomers who are looking to both downsize and reduce strain on their aging spinal columns to put their boxes of records and CDs up for sale.
Rich Engler is putting his collection up for sale, but what he has accumulated over the decades is a little more special than what your average graying music enthusiast might have accumulated during those long-ago trips to National Record Mart.
A veteran concert promoter who brought just about every rock A-lister to Pittsburgh from the 1960s to the early 2000s, Engler is looking for a buyer for a collection of autographed guitars he has accumulated over the years. The axes have signatures from some of the most deified figures in popular music from the last 60 years or so, including Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Elton John, B.B. King and Jeff Beck, along with many more.
And Engler, now 79, isn’t looking to sell his collection piecemeal – he wants someone to buy the whole kit and kaboodle.
“I have perhaps one of the largest, one-of-a-kind autographed collections of guitars in the world,” Engler explained. There are 240 signed guitars, he pointed out, and “it’s really something to see. … You can’t even go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and see anything like it.”
The estimated value of the guitar collection is in excess of $1 million. In a separate lot, Engler is also looking to part with 1,000 other unique pieces of memorabilia he accumulated, including stage passes, tour jackets, and gold records. The estimated value of all those items combined is in the neighborhood of $400,000.
“I’m going to be 80 years-old, and it’s just time for somebody else to enjoy it,” Engler said last month over the phone from his home in Sewickley.
Engler believes that the guitars and the memorabilia could be the basis for something like a themed bar or restaurant, or a touring exhibit. He said he wouldn’t mind a scenario where a philanthropist or entrepreneur purchases the collection, then gives it to a venue like Pittsburgh’s Senator John Heinz History Center.
“That would be the greatest,” he said.
Like some of the luminaries who have recently sold the rights to their publishing or recording catalogs for massive paydays, Engler concedes that selling off his collection is a bit of estate planning. While admitting that “I’ve made decent money in the music business,” it’s not as much as some people might believe.
“I wish I made a tenth of what the artists make,” Engler said.
A native of New Kensington who grew up in Creighton, Engler first dipped his toe in concert promotion in 1969. By the mid-1970s, he had joined forces with another Pittsburgh concert promoter, Pat DiCesare, to form DiCesare-Engler Productions. It was a concert promotion powerhouse in the region until it was purchased by SFX Entertainment in the late 1990s. In the years since, Engler has worked in the energy industry and has made his way back into the concert industry on a smaller scale, promoting shows by artists like Ringo Starr, Kansas and Steve Miller.
Fans have expressed plenty of frustration about the concert industry in recent years, mostly centering on ticket prices and the tooth-and-nail fight to get them when they go on sale. Engler is right there with them.
“I hate what’s going on,” he said. “I think it ruined the business that I and about 15 other (promoters) across the United States built and grew into a wonderful thing.”