Grizzly Bear & Bright Eyes donate guitars to Haiti auction

Grizzly Bear´s Ed Droste and Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes-fame) have donated guitars to a charity auction, Crafts For A Cause, which aims to raise money for the Haitian earthquake appeal.

Droste has taken the difficult step of donating his first ever guitar, a Taylor acoustic that was originally given to the Grizzly Bear songwriter by his parents for his 15th birthday.

Droste used the guitar to record the band´s first two albums (‘Horn Of Plenty´ and ‘Yellow House´), as well as the 2006 EP ‘Sorry For The Delay´ and during countless early live performances.

Considering that the guitar was worth $1,000 new, and that - at the time of writing - the highest bid was $1,075, it´s looking like someone´s going to pick up a piece of American indie history at a bargain price. Check out Ed Droste´s guitar auction here.

In addition, singer/songwriter Conor Oberst - best known for his Bright Eyes moniker - has hand-painted and donated his Squire Stratocaster to the same auction.

Again, the guitar has a significant emotional attachment, as it was the instrument that Oberst used to play in his first high school band.

Oberst has written the auction description, telling bidders, “The paint job is new. The stickers are old. It is a little beat up and was cheap to begin with but has a lot of great memories attached to it. Take care of it for me.”

Check out Conor Oberst´s guitar auction here.

Matthew Parker

Matt is a freelance journalist who has spent the last decade interviewing musicians for the likes of Total Guitar, Guitarist, Guitar World, MusicRadar, NME.com, DJ Mag and Electronic Sound. In 2020, he launched CreativeMoney.co.uk, which aims to share the ideas that make creative lifestyles more sustainable. He plays guitar, but should not be allowed near your delay pedals.