Yesterday a part of the late Jim Irsay’s music memorabilia collection was auctioned off, bringing in a total of over $84 million. Sold as part of that collection were several of the most expensive guitars ever sold:
David Gilmore’s “Black Strat”, estimated at $2-4 million, sold for $14.5 million
Jerry Garcia’s “Tiger”, estimated at $1-2 million, sold for $11.5 million
Kurt Cobain’s Fender Mustang, sold for $6.9 million
Eric Clapton’s Martin 000-42, sold for $4.1 million
Before yesterday’s auction, the highest price ever paid for a guitar was $6 million. Pretty high prices for a bunch of used guitars, if you ask me. (jk)
That’s insane! Paying that much for a guitar just because a great guitarist played it is like paying millions of dollars for a frame just because the Mona Lisa was once displayed in it.
I think the same argument can be made for baseball cards, comic books or even art itself. The value is very artificial and enough people have far too much money to waste on these things.
If you have the disposable means, I bet it’s pretty sweet to listen to the greatest music ever made (arguably) and holding the guitar that made it / is in it.
It might be safe to assume they were bought by long-term older fans who’d seen these groups play and now that they were obscenely rich could indulge their passion seriously. Good luck to them, but the generation that knew Nirvana, Grateful Dead etc as performers is starting to die out.
Will the magic of these guitars outlive them? Will they become interestingly provenanced but essentially ho-hum musical instruments from forgotten oldies performers - like a George Gershwin piano, or a banjo that George Formby played? Famous as guitars that people paid stupid money for? And how soon will that happen? Nirvana is they youngest band, but I saw them in 1992, 34 years ago, and while they all performed after that, it was after their peak. People younger than me probably have not heard of any of those bands unless their parents made them.
That is it. For someone with billions or hundreds of millions, 5-10 million for a knick knack is chump change.
I can grok the high price for a signature instrument used over time or on a major album, but the ones that get me are the Martins used on Unplugged. Martins are pretty widely available, and neither Cobain nor Clapton are really known as acoustic players. But if you have essentially unlimited cash and the opportunity to own an axe once played by your hero…
Jeff Beck’s entire collection (scroll about halfway down for the virtual tour) sold for a little over $11.5 million last year. Seems like a bargain compared to these single-guitar offerings.
Has there ever been a public auction of an instrument used by a famous classical composer? Like a piano used by Beethoven or Mozart? I would think that such a thing would bring a similarly huge price, even though no one alive had ever heard the composer play on it.
The good Beatles tribute bands play matched instruments. Beatnix is an Aus band. Analogues is a Dutch band. If you want to sound like the Beatles, you use the same instruments.
Obviously, easy way to do that is to just buy the actual instruments used. “Look I can sound like Carcia! (plays Garcia’s guitar)”. Kind of fun if you have unlimited money.
In a sad twist, Doug Irwin, the luthier who created Garcia’s Tiger guitar as well as many other guitars used by Garcia and other musicians, died on March 27, just two weeks after Tiger was sold.
Auction I cannot say, but I went to an event at the Musical Instrument Museum showcasing vintage violins, and they noted that one being played* was “Bach’s** favorite violin.” And we know what Strads or del gesus go for.
*by Rachel Barton Pine
**Might not have been Bach, but I was lost contemplating the history that violin had seen, and the connection through time. And I forgot who they were talking about.
That was pretty cool, including the interview on Stern. I was going to joke that Trucks needed back surgery after hefting that thing, but he talked about how heavy it was. I moved to a lighter bass because two hours of a 10 lb bass was getting to me. How did Jerry do their long shows, day after day, hefting a 13 lb monstrosity?
