The Jeff Beck guitar collection was sold in London yesterday, with two instruments going for over £1 million.
Beck’s collection was sold at Christie’s in London, with an online and phone audience that came from around the globe.
The most valuable lot was a 1954 Gibson Les Paul in Oxblood.
The “infamous” Oxblood guitar played at Ziggy’s final bow. Image courtesy of Christie’s.
It sold for £1,068,500 with fees (£850,000 before them) after a long bidding battle.
A Fender Stratocaster built for Beck in the 1990s and named Anoushka by him realised £800,000, going over £1 million with buyer’s premium.
The Les Paul was a originally a gold top, and is shown being played by Beck on the cover of his debut solo album, Blow by Blow from 1975.
Beck also played it on stage alongside David Bowie, as the singer retired his Ziggy Stardust alter ego.
The guitar was bought by an unnamed telephone bidder.
The Strat, a white instrument, showing extensive signs of use, was also bought on the telephone.
Beck’s beloved Strat has obviously been played hard. Image courtesy of Christie’s.
Beck died in 2023, aged 78. His long career first flowered with the Yardbirds. It was as a solo player that he became known as one of the finest players of his generation across a number of styles and genres.
The sale included more than 130 guitars, amps, pedals, fragments and instrument parts.
In all 17 guitars and one pedalboard sold for more than £100,000 apiece.
A neck from a Fender made over £15,000. A 1996 body from the maker’s custom shop made over £20,000.
Les Pauls and Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters dominated the sale, but there were also guitars by Jackson (a strat for £441,000), Gretsch (£115,920 for the top-valued Duo Jet), and other makers.
A Stratocaster signed by performers at the A Tribute To Jeff Beck concert in 2023 made £94,500 for Beck’s favourite charity. The names of Eric Clapton, Ronnie Wood, Sir Rod Stewart, Johnny Depp, Kirk Hammett, Billy Gibbons, Joss Stone and many more helped the Folly Wildlife Rescue in Tunbridge Wells enjoy a major funding boost.
Elsewhere, in Los Angeles, a guitar played by Scotty Moore, Elvis’s long-time guitarist realised $76,700 in a Bonham’s sale built largely around the collection of Welsh 60s beat musician Spencer Davies.
The guitar was a 2002 Scotty Moore Gibson Custom Chet Atkins Country Gentleman.
Made for and inscribed to Scotty Moore, the 2002 Gibson is a direct link to Elvis. Image courtesy of Bonhams.
In that sale, a double-necked guitar made by Paul Reed Smith for Carlos Santana failed to sell.
The star-owned electric guitar market has seen explosive growth in recent years.
The top 5 most valuable guitars have been sold in the US. A John Lennon/George Harrison-played acoustic realised $2,857,500 last year. In 2023 Eddie Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher” Kramer guitar made $3,932,000. A Black Stratocaster played by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd was sold for $3,975,000 thanks to its use on the Comfortably Numb solo.
The top two guitars are both Kurt Cobain models. A Fender Mustang sold for $4,550,000 in 2022 had been played in the Smells Like Teen Spirit video. The guitar Cobain played on Nirvana Unplugged sold for $6,010,000 in 2020.
Beck’s guitar, at around $1.3 million would be outside the top 10 of the most expensive guitars at the moment.
