Randy Bachman says it's come time to sell of a large portion of his encyclopedic guitar collection.

And while many of the guitars up for sale in Julien's Music Icons Auction are historic in their own right, before their ties to the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive guitarist, Randy tells Q104.3 New York's Ken Dashow that there's one guitar he's not parting with: his "Takin' Care of Business" Gretsch 6120.

Randy was only just reunited with the guitar after more than 45 years.

"It was stolen in 1976 after a recording session with BTO," Randy explains. "The last thing I played on it was 'Lookin' Out for #1.' It's in the video on YouTube. Gone, stolen, lost. Searched, searched, searched, bought every Gretsch I could buy [for years]. ... This guy has done a viral search with facial recognition [technology], frozen [an image my] guitar from 'Lookin' Out for #1' and then Googled every orange Gretsch sold on the Internet in the last 15 years. And up pops this guy in Japan, Takeshi, who's the Tokyo Brian Setzer doing rockabilly, singing phonetically, playing my Gretsch."

Randy says the guitar was identified thanks to a finish flaw in the top caused by a knot in the wood. Through his daughter-in-law, who speak Japanese, and the Canadian consulate in Japan, Randy and Takeshi were able to broker a trade: Randy's original Gretsch for it's "sister," another vintage one from Randy's collection "two serial numbers off."

Randy's contribution to the Julien's Music Icons Auction includes about 200 guitars, among them his coveted 1959 Gibson Les Paul — the guitar he used to record the Guess Who's iconic 1970 hit "American Woman" — and several white Fender Stratocasters he used with BTO.

But Randy says the Gretsch is staying put.

"That guitar I learned to play on," he says. "It's the only guitar on 'Takin' Care of Business,' I'm playing [The Guess Who's] 'These Eyes' on it, everything now. All the Guess Who was written and recorded — and BTO — on that guitar."

Get more details on the Music Icon's guitar auction here.