Does an instrument hold more value if it's been owned...

[jkokura]

By someone only slightly famous? Like a touring pro, who nobody knows, but has played behind people we do?

I see ads for musical instruments regularly on online community environments (eg. Facebook). Sometimes these ads include things like, "this guitar was owned and played by guitarist X, whom you've never heard of, but has played with sting, rush, led zeppelin, jefferson airfield, beck, kanye, and many others!" (fictional ad, no such musician exists I expect). You get the drift.

Does this instrument become worth more somehow? Inevitably, the person selling is asking top or above the top dollar for their instrument.

Jacob

[jimilee]

The question is, do you value it? Do you care enough to own a guitar owned by jimmy hendrix's uncle? It's really subjective imho. :-) great question for a debate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[selfdestroyer]

Thought about this on the drive home from work... here is my insane ramblings.

I have never been a fan of "this was owned by" equipment. I really think this is in the "eye of the beholder" category. There are tons of super fans out there that feel like they need to own a piece of the band they love. Here in the California, I watched people fight over a guitar that was supposedly owned by a dude in Korn... the kicker was it was a very low quality squire. Was it really owned/signed by the band? or was it a dude that lives in his moms basement that made the story up? who knows..

I know antiques only hold more value if something can be proved/authenticated. Like a picture of the guitar (with identifying marks) being played/held but the artist as an example.

That LP that was sold recently that was owned by Les Paul im sure had supporting documentation and helped it reach that crazy price tag.. I know using a legend like Les Paul is not the same as a backup band for Beck.

Some may see this as a guitar that was toured with and say "its got to be a pretty solid guitar if so and so toured with it".

so may also say "I don't even know who that guy is let alone want to pay more for his guitar"

Just some thoughts.

Cody

[pickdropper]

If the player is slightly famous, I wouldn't add any value to it personally.  The issue that often seems to crop up is that it may have some level of extra value (usually sentimental) to the seller but the buyer doesn't have the same attachment.

Now, some celebrity owned guitars have a ton of value added.  If Page ever sells his #1, it'll command many times more than the intrinsic value of the guitar.  Same if Gibbons ever sells Pearly Gates.  Guitars that were played at famous concerts or on famous albums often have increased value, but those are sort of unique.

Guitars owned by semi-famous players might be kind of fun to own (depending on the player) but I wouldn't pay extra for one.

That LP that was sold recently that was owned by Les Paul im sure had supporting documentation and helped it reach that crazy price tag.. I know using a legend like Les Paul is not the same as a backup band for Beck.

There is a ton of controversy about that particular Les Paul.  It definitely wasn't one of Les Paul's more played instruments.  It was hyped beyond all reality (the holy grail of Les Pauls, really?).  Since it sold, the controversy has grown further as photos have surfaced of a completely stripped down Les Paul this is supposedly that instrument.  And by stripped down, I mean down to the ground: fretboard removed, all paint removed; basically a husk.  There's no doubt it's Les Paul's old guitar, but he had a lot of guitars and he didn't play that one all that much.  His old Les Paul Recording guitar is really the instrument that is associated with him.  That is a guitar that has very little intrinsic value; almost all the value is due to Les owning it.

Oh, and speaking of less famous player owned guitars, I have a 90's Charvel that was owned by the then guitar player in Stabbing Westward (I bet not many remember them).  I'm thinking of selling it.  Only $10k.  You know, cause somebody in a band owned it.

[selfdestroyer]

IOh, and speaking of less famous player owned guitars, I have a 90's Charvel that was owned by the then guitar player in Stabbing Westward (I bet not many remember them).  I'm thinking of selling it.  Only $10k.  You know, cause somebody in a band owned it.

If you can prove it was used on the Ungod album then ill give you 10k.. lol

I do love that album, bringing back the memories.

Cody

[pickdropper]

IOh, and speaking of less famous player owned guitars, I have a 90's Charvel that was owned by the then guitar player in Stabbing Westward (I bet not many remember them).  I'm thinking of selling it.  Only $10k.  You know, cause somebody in a band owned it.

If you can prove it was used on the Ungod album then ill give you 10k.. lol

I do love that album, bringing back the memories.

Cody

To be honest, I think the guy was out of the band before they got huge.

It was actually the fiance of the lead singer of my band at the time.  I could tell you some stories about those Stabbing Westward guys.  Hehe.

I am actually probably going to sell that guitar (I have a nearly identical Jackson) but I'm pretty sure it'll be significantly less than $10k hehe.

[culturejam]

Stabbing Westward is awesome!

But no, a "slightly famous" person's guitar is worth just as much as any random guitar of the same model, year, and condition. To me.

Unless it was owned by Chad Urmston of Dispatch. Actually, if I could buy it from Chad directly, it would be worth more to me. Otherwise probably not.

[pickdropper]

Unless it was owned by Chad Urmston of Dispatch. Actually, if I could buy it from Chad directly, it would be worth more to me. Otherwise probably not.

That's sort of the point.  It might be worth more to you because it's his, but it likely wouldn't add much if you decided you were over Chad and wanted to sell it.

[add4]

A lot of people are into the 'this was owned by ....' logic. just look at the crow reaction when some guy throws a pick in the crowd at a concert.

To me, it holds a potential value, because, maybe, it validates that particular piece of equipement as 'good' or 'producing a sound that i know i like from recordings or live situations where it was used to perform'.
nothing more.

i have bought a gypsy jazz guitar from 'les doigts de l'homme' a french gypsy jazz band playing all around the world.
it was used to record 2 of my favourite albums at the time, and was used on a lot of concerts i saw. So i was quite confident that that guitar was a good one, with a good sound for that type of music, and certainly playable.
The price was slightly more (1-200 euros more than the same model from a regular guy, out of 2500 euros) than the same model, bought from someone unknown, but not extremely more expensive. the avantage was that it was there (not a lot of good second hand options in gypsy jazz guitars around here), and i knew that it had 'that sound' (gypsy jazz guitars have a very particular sound, not the one you'd want from a good acoustic guitar usually). so a particular sound, but validated by professional players who used this guitar for years on tour and albums .. and i liked the results.

in that case, i thought it was worth it.

[flanagan0718]

Personally, I couldn't care less if someone "famous" owned the instrument. I don't Idolize celebrities, at least i try not to. There are truly talented people out there and I feel they need their kudos. However I don't think charging an outrageous amount of money just because some dude from a "metal blimp" band or that guy from the "bug" band played it. I can understand that it is a piece of musical history and is a "one of a kind" thing but...IDK it just seems a bit ridiculous to me.
That being said I have a napkin that billy joel blew his nose into. its for sale for $1,000,000 if anyone is interested   

[GermanCdn]

I've got one of Chris Henderson's (3 Doors Down) PRS SC250s from their 2009 (?) tour.  Paid less for it than my other SC250, so there's that (granted, the top on Red is far better, and it's in mint condition while CH's has some serious buckle rash).  Probably couldn't get any more than I paid for it.  I thought it was cool because it was a transition instrument in his signature line - his original sig was a three pickup, he then used this one for a while (two pickup) and eventually PRS revised his sig guitar to a two pickup in the same colour as the guitar I've got.

I've got an Albert Lee EBMM that was autographed and donated to a charity auction by Albert.  Also paid less than market for that one.  Don't think he actually ever used it cause it's pretty mint, probably sent by Sterling to him to sign, then off to Charity.  Probably worth more now because a) it's autographed and b) he's passed away, but only to another collector.

I've got a Jerry Donahue Telecaster (everyone knows the story on that one) that's autographed by Jerry and I have the photo of him holding it to prove it.  Probably worth more now than it was then, but moreso because it is a kickass limited edition guitar than because Jerry signed it.

Tried to buy Michael Sweet's (Stryper, Boston, Sweet & Lynch) PRS Mira from his Boston world tour.  He wanted waaaayyyyy to much money for it (I'm a huge MS fan, and a huge PRS fan, but he wanted pretty close to Private Stock pricing for it, and it was a plain mahogany Mira with birds).  He still owns it last time I checked, so that tells you something about the price.  It was one of the coolest experiences of my life though, talking to one of my idols and trying to buy his gear.  Cool guy.  (the details, he wanted $5k for it, I told him I wouldn't go any higher than $3k).

TLDR - in 90% of the cases, they're worth what they're worth to you as a fan/collector, and that's the determining factor.  Unless it belonged to Eddie, Jimi, Jimmy, SRV, Slash, or similar, it's likely not going to be widely considered to be worth that much more than any other instrument of similar build.  Hell, Rick Nielsen's guitars, being sold by him on Reverb (with COAs I believe) aren't going to that ridiculous an amount of money, and there's some pretty killer axes in that collection.

[lars]

To me it would add to the value if the instrument is still usable. Many famous guitars that sell for a lot of money were finally sold because the artist couldn't use it anymore (worn out fretboard, broken, etc). You often have to wonder why they would get rid of it in the first place if they still liked it and it worked great. The real shame is to see perfectly good guitars on display, like at the EMP, that are stuck behind glass to never be played again. They're guitars, not picasso's.

[Muadzin]

TLDR - in 90% of the cases, they're worth what they're worth to you as a fan/collector, and that's the determining factor.  Unless it belonged to Eddie, Jimi, Jimmy, SRV, Slash, or similar, it's likely not going to be widely considered to be worth that much more than any other instrument of similar build. 

That! The more famous the guitarist, the greater the value. But even then it would only apply to those guitarists who are practically brand names by themselves. A guitarist who is only known by his own fandom, his guitars obviously hold value only to his fans.

Also, lets be honest, most guitars owned even by the most famous of guitarists are nothing special by themselves. Just readily commercial available guitars that you could find in any store and that they happened to come across/pick out by accident and became famous instruments by association.

[Willybomb]

There can be only one.

One man.  One band (more or less). One geeeetar. 

Brian May's Red Special.

He has a couple of replicas, and there's always the Guild and later on the BM copies, but let's face it - when he goes, it'll be priceless.  He still uses it at every gig and on every record, and we know there's really only one.  There's not 700 variations of it unlike an EVH frankenstrat that got modded every other month.

We also know it's THE original guitar - it's not like Dave Gilmour's black strat that was purchased shortly before a gig or even a Wolfgang you can get off the shelf that's identical to what EVH uses every night.  There are features on the Red Special that they just don't bother with on the copies - like the vibrato system...

This is not really the point of the thread though, but for me outside that one example... I couldn't care less who's owned a guitar previously.

[Muadzin]

If we're talking custom made for one guitarist guitars, then Matt Bellamy's guitars come to mind as well. Although he doesn't have a single unique one like Brian May, each one does have unique features. And even though Manson does sell copies, they are not quite the same as the originals