A 1962 Fender Stratocaster, owned and played by Bob Dylan, joins Rory Gallagher's modded Gibson L6S under the hammer next week. The electric guitars are the star lots in a mammoth auction that includes over 70 items from Bernie Marsden's amplifier collection, and much more.
Dylan's Strat is a 1962 slab board L series Strat was was refinished in 1991 at the Fender Custom Shop by master builder J.W. Black. It was played on Dylan's Never Ending Tour before being gifted to his tech and guitar player, the late Cesar Diaz.
The Strat ships with the original brown Tolex case with paperwork from previous purchases and its Custom Shop makeover. Listed with pre-sale estimate of £40,000 – 80,000, this Strat was sold four years ago on Reverb for £116,071, so we'd expect a little more movement on that – though it will do well to fetch a higher price than Dylan's ‘Newport Festival’ Strat.
Responsible for one of the most iconoclastic performances in pop-culture history, that Stratocaster went for $965,000 in 2013.
Rory Gallagher's Gibson L6S is offered at a starting bid of £7,500, and is estimated to fetch between £8,000 and 12,000. A solidbody singlecut with 24 frets, maple body and maple neck, the L6S is a strange one in the Gibson lineup, a 70s creation that offered more of a blue-collar workhorse appeal than the its more aspirational siblings.
Perhaps the most famous L6S was the one that was heavily modified and used by Malcolm Young to record High Voltage. Despite Carlos Santana and a number of other high-profile players endorsing them, the L6S never captured the guitar-buying public's imagination.
This Gallagher L6S bears the serial number 962423, was played by Gallagher, and comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by the great man's nephew, Daniel Gallagher.
Other items of note include Richie Sambora's 2017 PRS Private Stock Doubleneck. A veritable feast of maple and flame maple, it as custom built for the former Bon Jovi guitarist at the request of Orianthi, who was then Sambora's partner.
Indeed, Orianthi's signature is on the certificate of authenticity, with the doubleneck expected to fetch between £10,000 and £15,000, which when you think about this design as a two-for-one sort of deal, is cheap at half the price.
Elsewhere, a David Ellefson bass, a Prince Cloud guitar, built by Andy Beech, and two acoustic guitars owned by John Renbourn are up for auction. There is a lot on offer, but if handed a blank cheque, we'd be tempted to bid on this Mark J Strickland T-002 Aluminium T-Style, which looks very cool, and at 4.56kg, is very heavy too. Check it and Sambora's PRS out below.
The auction is being held on on 9-10 December from 10am. Check it out at Gardiner Houlgate.
