Guitars touched by the rich and famous

I was in Gruhn's one day talking to George and he showed me a black Les Paul that Neil Young had purchased before a show and then had it returned the next day with the message that he just didn't like it. George was pleased because he could now sell the guitar for more than before because Neil had played it onstage for a few songs.
Now, if I was going to buy that guitar anyway I would think it was cool that NY had played it, but it would never induce me to buy the guitar for that reason alone, and I would pay a little but not much for those bragging rights.

Drummer i used to work with said his kit used to belong to Dewey Martin, Buffalo Springfield. Gold sparkle Ludwig, as I recall.

Now ^^^THAT^^^ is crazy!

I'm going to guess comedian George Gobel. He was a nut!

I used to watch Pawn Stars. People were forever bringing in instruments and clothing "personally used" by some celebrity or other. In most cases the person bringing in a guitar or something would have nothing more than a verbal assurance that the instrument was owned or used by (fill in famous name).
This was also the case in many instances, when the customer would bring in some movie prop, insisting that it was used in a film. An expert brought in for the evaluation would point out that the gun replica (for instance) may have been made for the movie, but never made it into a scene. Which is why it was so easily snagged, and wound up in the hands of the customer, who "knew a guy" from the film shoot.

+1,000,000,000

Apparently, I don't view things the same as most people. IMO, a guitar is a tool used to make music. Just because a "Star" owned a certain guitar doesn't make it worth thousands more than the exact same model owned by Joe Schmo. Now, I do think it's reasonable to pay a little more if you're a fan of that artist. Oh, but that guitar was used to record these Classic hits, you say? So what! The priceless, everlasting treasure is the song itself; not the tool used to make it. When I visited the Louvre in Paris, the paintbrush used wasn't on display next to the Mona Lisa. 

Speaking of "Fine Art", paying almost 7 figures for something like Clapton's "Blackie" turns it from just a guitar into a piece of collectible artwork. And, like the Mona Lisa, art is subjective. Billions of people couldn't care less about Clapton's guitar, and not everyone is a fan of Fine Art. These things are only valuable to those who fancy them and are willing to pay ridiculous prices to own them. To me, Clapton's Strat is basically no different than my Strat, and the Mona Lisa is no different than the drawings my daughter made in grade school.        

^yes

I'd have called Peavey to complain!

The best example of this for me has been the Van Halen Frankenstein. I haven't played the original but have played countless replicas and heard plenty of rants about the original. Talk about a guitar with zero magic on its own and is a total piece of crap!

That said, as a music industry professional, I'm 110% for archaeology and understanding what made old sounds so good. There definitely was a way of making great instruments and then suddenly we couldn't get out of our own ways to make them nearly as good again after that. The paint brush doesn't belong in the Louvre, but it needs to be considered deeply by art historians and students everywhere. Even if we decide that the brush was a piece of crap and inferior to virtually any other brush out there. In fact, keeping the brush around might be important for that reason alone, lest crappy painters in the 21st century keep saying to themselves "sure, I could paint like that if I had brushes like they had then! You can't get 'em anymore."

I completely understand the historical aspect of these things, and what we can learn from them. However, I view them as having educational value, not monetary value.  

I'm happy to say that most...all of my guitars have been handled and played by Joe Schmo.

I had Chuck Rainey, Victor, Roy and Holly Wooten, Anthony Wellington, Steve Bailey along with a couple other iconic musicians sign my home made bass when I was up at the Bass and Nature week at Victors and Holly’s wilderness property.

It made the bass more valuable to me because of the memories. I have to say that the bass sounds much better now, but that has more to do with what I learned from these guys.



flic.kr/p/KtxQWh

My 65 Super Reverb (I'm the original owner) has been played thru by Taj Mahal and Michael Bolton.