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Over 14 and a half million bucks for a 1970 Strat? Some folks have money to burn.I guess the new owner will have some bragging rights at his next cocktail party.
nytimes.com
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03-13-2026 12:59 PM
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That is amazing it makes me think, I like D'angelico guitars and I could buy up and own everyone on the market right now with plenty of money to spare. Then I could start going after those not on the market. My calculations suggest I could own 414 of them if I had to pay $35k a pop.
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According the wikipedia (which mirrors what lots of sources say about the black strat):
"During the post Roger Waters era, David Gilmour switched to several vintage reissue Stratocasters from Fender. The most notable one being a candy apple red Stratocaster fitted with EMG pickups. The Black Strat was promptly retired and put on display at the Hard Rock Cafe in Dallas, Texas. The guitar was returned to Gilmour in the late 1990s, but having not been displayed in a glass case during its time at the Hard Rock Cafe, it sustained significant damage and the theft of many of its parts. Due to the constant modifications, the only original part on the guitar, apart from the body, is believed to (possibly) be the bridge plate."
So $14M for a partscaster that is not the guitar Gilmour actually played. Now that's what I call a bargain!
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In three more generations no one will know or care who David Gilmour was but I suppose it means something to the purchaser. In times where money was plentiful I was not always prudent with my spending either. That said, celebrity owned gear is worth exactly $0 additional dollars to me than current market price, but I'm not a collector either. Still, it's not like it comes with a celebrity guitarist attached to it.
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Maybe, but I'm not so sure about that. Pink Floyd has multi-generation fans, and that might continue. My son is 20 and he is definitely aware of PF (and Gilmour). There's a certain amount of rock from my youth that he was exposed to through my listening, but there's considerably more that he stumbled on himself and brings up with me. PF is one of those (I've barely listened to them since I was a teenager).
Originally Posted by DawgBone
I doubt I'd ever want to buy a celebrity-owned guitar, but I do appreciate some of them. I went to the big rock instrument exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum a few years ago, and I have to admit I got a thrill out of seeing some of the items because of how much the music they were used for means to me. Originally Posted by DawgBone
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Guys pay that much for a PRS Private Stock,i think i'd rather have Gilmour's guitar's mojo even if it is a partscaster.
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$14.5 mil for a PRS? For real? Originally Posted by nyc chaz
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Well, that is a lot of money to pay for a vandalized guitar. Mind-boggling to me that the venue didn't protect it more and protect itself from liability vis-à-vis Mr. Gilmour.
Celebrity owned guitars hold little fascination for me. There are only four that I can think of at the moment, in which I would have any interest (and couldn't afford any of them): Rory Gallagher's 1961 Strat; Ed Bickert's Telecaster; Johnny Smith's 1955 D'Angelico; Tal Farlow's prototype Gibson. None of them would make me play any better.
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Nobody is paying $14,500,000 for a PRS guitar. Originally Posted by nyc chaz
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The new owner is probably an investment fund.
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Yes, those are a lot of fun. I once went to the British Museum and they had a display of original copies of Beatles lyrics, written in notebooks, on cocktail napkins, a a dozen other things, scraps of paper.... Originally Posted by John A.
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Wes's Wes Montgomery L5? Metheny or Jim Hall's 175? Clapton's Beano era sunburst Les Paul? It would be fun to see and/or play any of them, but I don't need to own them. Originally Posted by Cunamara
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You are right,but i saw where a guy paid a crazy sum for one,if i can find the link i will post it. Originally Posted by DRS
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Peak pricing on guitar related gear across the board seems like it is right now IMO. Baby boomers and older gen X with a lot of interest and max disposable income. It doesn't appear as though future generations will have that kind of income and even so there aren't going to be as many fans in the future and the fans drive the prices. Originally Posted by John A.
Maybe I'm off base but I don't know anyone under 30 with the level of interest in bands like Pink Floyd or the Beatles like I did 30 years ago. All of that stuff is basically old folks music and in another ten years many of the bands dominating classic rock radio currently will no longer be featured frequently, if at all. Seems like the "classic rock" holding younger people's attention is 90's era grunge and punk. Never thought that'd be even considered classic rock but I also thought there would always be oldies stations and now there are almost none. I guess time will tell.
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My only observation on this is that a well known musician might well have more opportunities to try and buy unusually good instruments, which might occasionally make a great instrument available for sale - personally I’d pay about 10% over the odds for a “name-owned” guitar if it played wonderfully - otherwise I couldn’t care less!
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I think of it like this:
One billion dollars = 1,000 million dollars.
There are now several people worth over 20 billion dollars. 20 billion dollars = 20,000 million dollars
To someone with that sort of wealth 14 million dollars is pretty much meaningless. For someone with one billion dollars, they would still have 986 million dollars. To someone with 20 billion dollars, they would still have 19,986 million dollars. It does raise an interesting question for me though ... is there someone that wealthy who would get some thrill out of owning the T-Bone Walker guitar? Maybe it really is worth the asking price to someone.
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Back in the day when I did a few gigs with Bruce Forman, I got to play a few of his guitars (His signature Ibanez, his L-5, his Sontag and his Ribbekee Halfling). It is a funny thing, on all of his guitars, I still sounded like me and not him. As always, it is the mechanic, not the tool.
Owning Gilmore's guitar would not move my playing forward a bit. I can think of better ways to spend 14.5 million bucks. Don't get me wrong, I like Gilmore's playing quite a bit. But I would feel like a fool spending that much and getting so little.
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Originally Posted by nyc chaz
PRS=$14,000-20,000 approx for a PRS private stock.
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Repulsive.
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Remember what The Who sang:"They call that a bargain-the best I ever had!"
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Say what you want and spend what you want. Enjoy it. But in the end it's a thing. You can't take it with you as far as I know lol.
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Country songwriter Leon Payne spoke for me when he said, "Ain't Nothing to Me."
I like the way Johnny Winter did it on his "Still Alive and Well" album. Rick Derringer on the steel guitar.
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I don't even know who he is now..... Originally Posted by DawgBone
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lol! Originally Posted by skip ellis
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LOL. I personally find Pink Floyd extremely dark and depressing. The only thing it does for me is make me want to put a gun to my head and pull the trigger but they seem to have cultivated a more rabid fanbase than the Beatles over the last 30 years. They do have a distinct "sound" but not one that appeals to me at all. Originally Posted by Skip Ellis
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