“My hope is that someone with a regular job will be able to afford it. They’re not all tens of thousands”: Johnny Marr on his upcoming Christie’s auction
Johnny Marr has shared his thoughts on the bidding estimates for the guitars he’s selling through Christie’s auction house.
Announced in June, the Marr’s Guitars auction will take place on 17 September and features nearly 100 pieces from his personal collection. Though these items are definitely not cheap, Marr believes his collection will sell for a lot less than that of other pivotal players, and hopes the items will go to fans.
Consisting of almost 80 instruments, as well as amps and other bits of gear, price estimates range from £1,000 to £80,000. However, one of the items could potentially go for up to £150,000 – his 1960 Cherry Red Gibson ES-355, which he used to write The Smiths’ Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.
READ MORE: “Okay, Hans, no need to hurt my feelings!”: Johnny Marr reveals the brutal but helpful expletive-laden advice he once got from Hans Zimmer
Speaking to Guitarist, he explains, “Well, compared with other auctions, the prices don’t look too horrible. The people who follow me might not necessarily be the same people who follow Mark Knopfler or David Gilmour. Two people I’ve got the utmost respect for. My appeal as a guitar player is coming from a different place and a different time. That’s the main reason I put a lot of my Jags in there, precisely because they’re not heritage antiques.
“My hope is that someone who’s got a regular job in Glasgow, who fancies a good guitar but wants one of mine, will be able to afford it. They’re not all tens of thousands,” Marr states.
“In the past, I’ve never regretted selling, like, one of the Playland guitars or something I used on The Messenger. Because I know it’s someone who really cares about [what I’ve done in] my career overall. It’s not just someone who wants to buy the How Soon Is Now guitar and stick it in a glass case. I want a fan to buy these guitars.”
He goes on to add, “It’s not really for me to control if someone wants to hang it up in a collection, but something tells me that isn’t going to be the case. Precisely because I come from a different culture from Jeff Beck and David Gilmour. And not to say that their fans aren’t [guitar fanatics]. But y’know, I’m an indie-rock musician and I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be an indie-rock fan who buys my guitars.”
View this post on Instagram
It’s fair to say that these prices are still very high for the regular player, but Marr raises a fair point regarding the value of Gilmour’s instruments. The Pink Floyd guitarist’s famous Black Strat holds the title of the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction, nearly tripling the previous record by selling for $14,550,000 including fees.
The guitar was sold as part of the Jim Irsay Collection auction, also via Christie’s. It originally had an estimated price of $2-4,000,000.
Marr has promised to donate 100 percent of the profits from 10 lots of his auction to a pair of charities: The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and The National Autistic Society.
Find out more about the Marr’s Guitars auction via Christie’s auction house.
The post “My hope is that someone with a regular job will be able to afford it. They’re not all tens of thousands”: Johnny Marr on his upcoming Christie’s auction appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
