There are protections against this happening.

1. If you buy a car from car dealer, then if its later shown to not have clear title, you get your money back.

2. There are "security registers" whereby the finance company has to register their "interest" in the vehicle/property. Any registrations will show up on a computer check and you can then (as a buyer) resolve who owns what.
Of course for this to work you have to have a unique and unchangeable serial number - cars have a VIN stamped in the vehicles firewall, and several makes now scatter VIN labels throughout the car in secret places, so if you cut the car up and reassemble it from stolen pieces, you can identify the pieces.
Of course, this is pretty extreme.

I'm not sure that SB would want a stolen Empeg back - unless its wanted for a criminal trial say (as evidence), that SB wouldn't bother with someone who purchased it.

They might however want to know who you bought it from in order not to press charges for receiving stolen goods, in order to trace the original thieves down.