THE GENTLEMEN COLLECTORS

THEY POSSESS A KEEN APPRECIATION OF THE FINER THINGS IN LIFE AND HAVE ACCUMULATED EXTENSIVE ARRAYS OF RARE AND EXQUISITE ITEMS RANGING FROM ART AND TEA TO BOOKS AND GUITARS. HELLO! HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF VISITING THE HOMES OF THREE PASSIONATE COLLECTORS WHO GRACIOUSLY SHARED THEIR COLLECTIONS WITH US, SHOWCASING THEIR PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE AND UNWAVERING PASSION FOR THEIR CHOSEN PURSUITS

- NOOR ANAND CHAWLA

GUITAR HERO

AKSHAT BHATT

As the Principal Architect at the firm Architecture Discipline, a New Delhibased multi-disciplinary architecture practice he founded in 2007, Akshat Bhatt’s biggest passion isn’t evident at first go. However, upon speaking to him, his love for guitars becomes evident. “I’ve been playing and studying the guitar since I was 13 years old. It started with a casual exploration of rock music because I thought it was cool and then it turned into an obsession!”

The obsession began when he saw a Guns N’ Roses video on MTV, and he began practicing 18-20 hours every day. He spent hours learning songs, music theory and scouting for new music. His first instrument was an acoustic archtop, made in a small workshop in Kolkata. He later found an old Les Paul, which he still owns and plays to this day.

His sizeable collection includes modern instruments that are progressive and technical, mainly built for performance. There are Vigiers, Wolfgangs, EVHs, Musicmans, Godins, Parkers and even a handcut Caparison. There are also pedals, processors and valve amps, mostly made for stage performance. “Most of these guitars are played as they were meant to be played, they are set up for progressive metal performance and often modified to suit my style of playing,” he explains.

PURSUING HIS PASSION

Akshat firmly believes that the instruments find him instead of the other way round.

He recalls the story of an instrument he sold in 1997 to a friend who shifted cities and couldn’t be traced. Many years later, he spotted it in a YouTube video, found the person who bought it on Facebook and hounded him for three months until he agreed to sell it back to Akshat in 2017.