Bob Marley—
The Washburn 22- Series Hawk guitar owned by reggae king Bob Marley has been ranked among the world’s most expensive. The instrument, valued at US$1.2 million, came in at number five in a top ten ranking by the website wealthygorilla.com. Marley is said to have been given this guitar as a gift by his technician, Gary Clausen.
According to Guitar World magazine, a Yamaha SG1000 electric guitar that was said to have been owned and played by Marley during his first international tour in 1979 was auctioned on November 24, 2008.
At the time, the magazine reported that guitar collectors were expected to bid between US$30,000 and US$40,000 for it at the auction held by Christie’s auction house.
The guitar was presented to Marley by Yamaha during a visit the reggae singer made to the firm’s factory in Hamamatsu, Japan, which was one leg of his world tour. Included with the guitar for auction were photographs of Marley playing concerts in Tokyo and Osaka.
To mark the 30th anniversary of Yamaha’s SG1000 and SG2000 guitars in 2007, the company introduced the SBG1000 and SBG2000, which were exact reproductions of the celebrated predecessors
. These were built by hand, individually, by the master craftsmen at Yamaha’s renown Music Craft at the company’s elite workshop in Hamamatsu, which produces top of the line handcrafted and custom-made instruments.
In addition to Marley, the Yamaha SG models were played by artistes including Carlos Santana, Al Di Meola, Stax/Volt house guitarist Steve Cropper, Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music, Paul Barrere of Little Feat and Al McCay of Earth, Wind & Fire.
The website’s ranking of expensive guitars was topped by the Fender Stratocaster which was owned by Canadian singer and songwriter Bryan Adams and sold for US$2.7 million at an auction in 2015.
This guitar was part of Adams’ ‘Reach Out To Asia’ project which was set up to help the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami which killed an estimated 230,000 people.
The guitar is unique because it has some of the most famous rock stars’ signatures inscribed all over its body.
It was signed by a total of nineteen artistes and features signatures from Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Brian May, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Liam Gallagher, Angus and Malcolm Young, and Bryan Adams.
Other guitars making the cut include John Lennon’s 1962 Gibson J-160 E electric acoustic valued at US$2.4 million; Jimi Hendrix’s 1968 Fender Stratocaster which fetched US$2 million; Keith Richards’ 1959 Les Paul which sold for US$1 million; and Bob Dylan’s ‘Newport Folk Festival’ 1964 Fender Stratocaster which went for US$965,000.
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