The 1951 Fender “NoCaster” is an electric guitar with an interesting history. Slash, Kirk Hammett and Rick Neilson all played this guitar at some point in their careers, which is pretty unique, to say the least. It is one of a kind, and I won’t get into the backstory here ’cause it’s all over the internet. We are continuing on our mission to inspire and motivate people around the world. Here's a look at the value of Stratocasters with non-original finishes compared to those with original finishes across five different periods. However, this particular one was played by Keith Richards during the Rolling Stones debut performance on the Ed Sullivan show, which was a prominent moment in Rock and Roll history. This performance and choice of a guitar by Dylan marked his transition into using more electronic instruments. This guitar was the result of Bryan Adams “Reach Out To Asia” project; which was set up to help the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. A non-original finish on a vintage Fender can take a serious toll on its market value, even in cases where the finish is done by a highly-skilled professional. Bear in mind that suggesting that one model is more […] #1) Fender Stratocaster – The Most Expensive Guitar Required fields are marked *. Commonality of Finishes for Strat Sales on Reverb. The 1965 Fender Stratocaster was first used by Bob Dylan during the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Is there another corner of the gear world you'd like to see more data on? By clicking Subscribe, I agree to the processing of my data in order to receive emails. In 1996, Eric Clapton wanted to order a special guitar to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Fender. It’s one of those things where you definitely would if you could! The Fender Stratocaster has featured in a lot of recordings since 1954 when the … When he's not talking about business or marketing, you'll find him in the gym. This makes it the most expensive Les Paul ever sold. However, the actual whereabouts of the guitar are still unknown to this day. We think this should give an accurate reflection of the market in general, but may be different from prices achieved in private sales and through other channels. It became his most famous guitar, recording with it in the studio and playing it at countless live performances. With that in mind, the guitar sold at auction in 2003 for a cool $1 million. These guitars are put together using meticulous design and construction processes that ensure your guitar feels and sounds amazing as soon as you take it out of its case. Because of who owned the guitar, and the story behind it; the 1964 Fender Stratocaster sold at auction for an impressive $965,000. Today, we're exploring Reverb's historical data on vintage Strat sales, and letting the numbers do most of the talking. Bob Marley, perhaps the most famous Reggae artist to have ever lived, only owned seven guitars throughout the course of his life. Offering the dual benefits of classic single coil Fender attack, with the extra heft of a bridge humbucker, we get a guitar that can handle most styles of music with ease. The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton and Freddie Tavares.The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously manufactured the Stratocaster from 1954 to the present. Finding valuable guitars. The only true Strats are made by Fender, and can basically be divided into two categories. The list of guitars and figures mentioned below have been compiled from various sources around the web, such as Money Inc, String Joy & Guitar Player. The Fender American Performer Stratocaster is one such guitar. Hey! Strats from '54 are being sold for $100,000 or more. This guitar was made to commemorate the very first Starts that came out in 1954. However, you’re not going to find any of these guitars in your local guitar shop, that’s for sure, as they’re the most sort after on earth! The vintage Fender Stratocaster market is often looked at as a bellwether for the vintage guitar market at large. The guitar is unique because it has some of the most famous rock stars signatures inscribed all over its body. 18969 ventura blvd. Learn everything you need to know to choose the right Stratocaster for you. While the Telecasters were the companies first guitars, the … Clapton then patched together parts from the remaining three guitars to create, “Blackie”. Also, it has been well recognized for its remarkable influence on the sounds of modern music. The story goes that Eric Clapton decided to buy six guitars, giving one each to Pete Townsend, George Harrison and Steve Winwood. Here’s a quick recap of the 10 most expensive guitars in the world. Tweed covered Fender amps are very collectable. See VG’s 30 Most Valuable Guitars!. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top "horn" shape for balance. Naturally, highly coveted '50s Strats sell infrequently compared to the lower-end late '70s models. There are numerous guitar choices, and in this article you will find out the most exquisite, expensive and unique guitars a human hand has made for the world. The new Fender American Ultra Stratocaster has been tweaked to make it the most perfectly playable Strat yet, but we're even more smitten by the Tom Morello signature Stratocaster. The extremely high number of '79 Strat sales is partially due to the introduction of special edition. The Fender Stratocaster prides itself as one of the most iconic guitars in the market today. Vintage Guitar is marking 25 years of publication with a year full of cool giveaways and features. Note: the numbers above are limited to sales on Reverb. The father of the widely popular Fender Telecaster, the prototype was sold for $375,000. Most of the people choose a guitar to start learning chords and everything the wonderful creation can provide to the world of music. It was part of a larger Christie’s auction of the musician’s instruments which brought in a total of $21,490,750 — the most valuable musical instrument sale in history, according to the respected auction house. This 1958 Gibson Korina Explorers value, can be attributed to having been played by three of the worlds best guitarists. Needless to say, Fender’s 1949 Broadcaster Prototype is considered a jewel among guitar collectors. The only real downside to the Fender strat is the price point. Those made in United States, and those made in Mexico. Oops, looks like you forgot something. In closing we present not another graph, but rather just a quick gallery of the five most expensive Strats to sell on Reverb. As of late 2018, that distinction now goes to the American Performer Stratocaster. It was sold for a whopping $965,000 at an auction by an unnamed buyer. Simultaneously collectible, they’re desired for their rich vintage tones and renowned as everyday workhorses that cover several sonic bases better than many bells-and … John Lennon’s 1962 Gibson J-160 E electric acoustic was one of a pair of almost identical acoustic guitars; purchased by John Lennon and George Harrison in London in 1962. The custom Doug Irwin was the last guitar Jerry ever played in public; which is one of the reasons why it fetched so much at auction. Generally, the most expensive ones have a pristine original finish and come in an original case. It is a factory black 1960 Standard that was ordered in lieu of the more expensive Les Paul Custom. Even the less glamorous deluxe models sit at around $800, and the American standard series that many players clamor for generally retails at around $1,000. Additional Fender Guitar History. Better quality wood, pick-ups and strings, plus build quality and craftsmanship, all add up as you start to climb the ranks in the guitar world. These are the 10 most expensive guitars in the world: Jerry Garcia was the lead guitarist for Grateful Dead. Now, time for a primer: A vintage guitar, generally speaking, is one made in the 1980s or earlier. The 1958 Gibson Korina Explorer is the sixth most expensive guitar in the world. It seems like, as with most memorabilia or collectables, previous owners, significant dates and events and unique custom designs play a massive part in the valuation of such items. Nowhere in the guitar world is finish more important to collectors than with vintage Fenders. With guitars, it’s certainly more to do with who’s played, performed and recorded with them more than anything else. Only around ten of these guitars were ever made, so when you combine the rarity and unusual shape of this guitar with its player history; it’s easy to see why it managed to fetch $1.1 million dollars at auction. The vintage Fender Stratocaster market is often looked at as a bellwether for the vintage guitar market at large. The Fender American Stratocaster guitars make our list of best high end and expensive electric guitars as they’re entirely worth the £1000+ price tag. tarzana, ca 91356 (818) 344-8300 The sale of “Wolf” was part of a fundraiser for the Southern Poverty Law Centre, and “Wolf” managed to sell at auction in 2002 for almost $2 million dollars. Learn more about Fender electric basses. Since 1987, the Fender American Standard Stratocaster had been the company's most affordable U.S.-built model. Based on your location, we've changed your settings: Average Prices by Model Year for Sunburst Strats, This graph shows the average sale price for original, Sunburst Strats for each year of production. Next we'll look at average prices of vintage Strats on Reverb over the course of three years. #2 Most Expensive Electric Guitar: Fender “Reach Out To Asia” Stratocaster Price Tag: $2.7 Million . Matt McIntyre is a digital marketing consultant and certified marketing strategist. The stock, right-handed Stratocaster with Olympic white finish is nothing special when compared to some of the other guitars on the list. However, it was played by Jimi Hendrix at the 1969 Woodstock music festival; where his legendary performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” took place. After the Beatles performed a gig in 1963, the guitar somehow managed to disappear and was presumed lost, but later resurfaced again several years later. The pilot, upon receiving no response from the singer’s management, has kept the guitar for nearly 50 years. It was used to co-compose, with Paul McCartney, Beatles songs like, “I Saw Her Standing There” and “She Loves You”. The Fender “Reach Out To Asia” Stratocaster , rumored to cost Fender between $15,000-25,000 to produce, was the result of the Reach Out to Asia project, conceived by Canadian rocker Bryan Adams. We have reached over 155 million views in the past 6 years, and amassed over 200,000 followers on social media. The most famous Fender’s signature is for creating the Fender Stratocaster, which is an incredibly user-friendly guitar that has been proven time and time again to be easy to repair, easy to upgrade, and provides users with the ability to grow along with their skill level. Coming in at number five on our list of the most expensive guitars in the world is Bob Marley’s, Washburn 22-Series Hawk. These graphs show the breakdown of original finishes within all vintage Strat sales for guitars from the '60s and from the '70s. Welcome to our community, and we are so grateful to have you here with us. Please check the fields highlighted in red. A compound radius fingerboard (more on that in a minute) and a recessed Floyd Rose vibrato make for outstanding playability and tuning. That sort of pricing just isn’t realistic for the budg… A Brief History Lesson As the world’s first commercially successful solid-body electric guitar, the Telecaster was groundbreaking when Leo Fender introduced it in 1951.. At the time, rock and roll was still a few years away, and Leo and his staff were building guitars and amplifiers for western swing guitarists looking to get more volume and projection. Its name, “Tiger” came from the custom painted tiger head Jerry had commissioned on the body of the guitar. 2. Fender literally wrote the book on electric basses, laying the foundation for musical innovation and evolution. Because of its unique history, Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, purchased the guitar in 1998 for approximately $2 million. Stratocaster guitar—Fender Sold for: $959,500 The Fender Stratocaster is one of the most respected electric guitars in rock music. “Reach Out To Asia” sold at auction in 2015, by Sotheby’s, for $2.7 million – making it the most expensive guitar sold in history! If you want the best of the best, something like an American elite with the Fender name proudly emblazoned across the headstock will easily set you back over $1,500. Built at the company's Corona, California factory, you can expect to find in these or any other American-made Strat the durability, craftsmanship, and consistency that have made Fender's reputation. Jerry Garcia’s second guitar to be featured on our list of the world most expensive guitars is yet another custom Doug Irwin, nicknamed, “Wolf”. Your purchases help youth music programs get the gear they need to make music. A lot of famous bands and artists owe some of their success to their spot on the Ed Sullivan Show, and collectors and memorabilia investors understand how events like this add significant value to items like Keith Richards 1959 Les Paul. #1 Most Expensive Guitar: Fender “Reach Out To Asia” Stratocaster Let’s go ahead and lead with the goods. Being the first-ever electric guitar that Bob Dylan played during a live performance, it goes without saying that this guitar has some major historical value. The tweed Bassman with four 10 inch speakers and four inputs (1957-1960) is considered by many to be the finest guitar amp ever made. Data compiled by Alan Greenwood and Gil Hembree. Fender Stratocaster became one of the most popular guitars, with numerous copies being made all over the world to this day. This month, we continue the celebration with a list of the 25 guitars that, thanks to certain players, songs, and the laws of supply and demand, have become exceedingly valuable. Your purchases also help protect forests, including trees traditionally used to make instruments. They were used to acoustic versions of all of his songs, and they made sure to let him know when he came on stage at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. David Gilmour’s black Fender Stratocaster – $3.9 million. Similarly to first-issue books, the 1954 Stratocaster is the most collectible compared to all of the other years. American Gibson and Fender guitars from the 1950s and 1960s are among the most valuable, though vintage Rickenbackers (favored by The Beatles, The Byrds and Tom Petty) have made big strides in recent years. The title of the most expensive guitar in the world goes to the “Reach Out To Asia” Fender Stratocaster, which sold for $2.7 million in 2015. Jerry Garcia’s Custom Doug Irwin “Tiger” was sold at auction, by Guernsey’s auctioneer’s, in 2002 for $957,500, to Jim Irsay, owner and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts. One of those guitars was this 22-Series Hawk Washburn; which he gave as a gift to his guitar technician, Gary Clausen. A Fender Stratocaster used extensively by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour just set a record as the most expensive guitar to ever sell at auction. Next on the list is “Blackie”, Eric Clapton’s famous mashup of parts from three separate guitars. Trying to find the best Fender Stratocaster is not that hard. Copyright © 2014-2020 Wealthy Gorilla Limited, The 20 Most Expensive Engagement Rings In the World. The more powerful tweed amps with multiple speakers are the most valued by collectors and players. Standard 1959 Les Paul’s are worth in excess of six figures, without the help of a famous name, and to date, there’s not that many left knocking around. If you’re into your guitars, then you’ll know they can get pretty expensive. Today, we're exploring Reverb's historical data on vintage Strat sales, and letting the numbers do most of the talking. And sometimes it's much more — at the time of publication, Reverb.com had a 1954 Stratocaster with a listed price of $225,000. The Fender Stratocaster guitar is probably the most popular solidbody electric guitar ever made. Similar to his custom Doug Irwin, “Tiger”, its name derives from the custom wolf artwork on the body of the guitar. True Strats are made by Fender, and amassed over 200,000 followers on social.. Custom painted Tiger head Jerry had commissioned on the list is “ Blackie ”, Clapton... More electronic instruments guitars were initially called “ Broadcaster ” during the initial run in 1950 exploring... 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