Grateful Dead frontman Gerry Garcia has held the world record price and as his guitars sell again at auction, they invariably sell into the top tier, with his intricate Doug Irwin custom guitars most famously having sold for $1.9 million (his famous “Wolf” in May, 2017), $957,500 (a 1979 Doug Irwin "Tiger" Custom that held the world record in 2002) and $524,075 (a 1955 Fender Stratocaster Garcia named "Alligator”).Ĭobain’s new world record is appropriate in many ways.
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The two guitars sold privately for more than two million are a 1968 White Fender Stratocaster used by Jimi Hendrix to play The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock, and the 1959 Les Paul Standard that has spent its whole life in the hands of musical geniuses: first Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, then Gary Moore of Thin Lizzy, and it is still with Kirk Hammett of Metallica.
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The “Reach Out to Asia" Fender Stratocaster held the world record price for a full decade from 2005-2015 before the recent spate of extreme sales. This guitar was the first to sell for seven figures and dethroned Eric Clapton's "Blackie" Fender Stratocaster Hybrid sold for $959,500 by Christie’s in 2004. The white Fender Stratocaster was signed by almost all of the living guitar greats at the time, including Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Brian May, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Pete Townsend, Mark Knopfler, Ray Davies, Liam Gallagher, Ronnie Wood, Tony Iommi, Angus & Malcolm Young, Paul McCartney, Sting, Ritchie Blackmore and Bryan Adams. The one that can be verified was sold at the “Reach Out to Asia" charity auction organized by Canadian rocker Bryan Adams in 2005.
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Only three other guitars are ever believed to have been sold for more than $2 million, with two of the three being whispered rumors about private sales. Hence it was logical that when John Lennon's Gibson J-160E guitar went to auction on November 7, 2015, it claimed its place among the most valuable guitars in the world by selling for $2.41 million. Similarly, previous guitar price record holders have enjoyed the sort of blanket media exposure that will only be tolerated of music. The "Black Strat" has been heard by billions of people for half a century and that’s why it claimed the world record. Two of the albums on which it featured are also prominent in the record books – The Dark Side of the Moon is the third highest-selling album of all-time and The Wall is the second highest-selling double album in history. The "Black Strat" was made up of two guitars, being a 1969 Fender Stratocaster and a 1983 Fender Stratocaster. It was the primary guitar used on The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979) and was the guitar used in Gilmour’s immortal guitar solos in Shine on You Crazy Diamond and Comfortably Numb.
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The "Black Strat" was Gilmour's primary performance and recording guitar on every Pink Floyd album from 1970 to 1983 plus all four of his solo albums. It seems that the standing of the guitar god that played the guitar and the prominence of its most famous performance are the key variables in determining the price at the elite end of the collectible guitar market. Most of the top 100 most valuable guitars are associated with having played the original version of the most prominent artists’ most famous recordings or stage performances. Today’s record is yet another indication that media prominence of any object greatly increases its value. In doing so, he sold three guitars in one day that each topped the million dollar mark, which was quite some feat as only four had ever sold for more than $1 million previously at auction. David Gilmour auctioned his entire 125-guitar collection last year, donating the money towards fighting global warming.