A Fender American Vintage 1962 Reissue Stratocaster formerly owned and used onstage by Johnny Marr is set to be sold at auction.
The electric guitar is to be auctioned by Gardiner Houlgate alongside the 1980s Mesa Boogie amplifier rig he paired it with for a 1989-90 world tour. They are expected to sell for up to £25,000 and £4,000 respectively.
Built in 1988, the Strat reissue featured during Marr’s stint in post-punk band The The. Having burst onto the music scene with The Smiths, Marr had a six-month stint with The Pretenders, before joining the post-punk outfit in 1988 as he navigated life after The Smiths.
Alongside founding member Matt Johnson, he tapped up Nick Lowe bassist James Eller and ex-ABC drummer David Palmer for the band. Together they recorded the album Mind Bomb, which also featured a guest appearance from Sinead O'Connor.
The record debuted at number four in the UK charts, and the Olympic White Stratocaster starred extensively across the following world tour.
A live album captured at London's Royal Albert Hall from that tour showcases the guitar doing what it does best.
Made in the factory that would later become the Fender Custom Shop, it was built to mirror the specs of Marr's favored 1962 Strat, as it had become too valuable to risk touring with.
It has since been modded by his guitar tech, Phil Powell. EMG pickups were installed to avoid hum issues and, as he told Guitar Player in January 1990, an old-style Precision bass brass knob was also fitted, allowing better grip.
As that GP feature divulges, by this point in his career, Marr was eager to experiment with new sounds – and the Strat would play a key role.
“My philosophy has changed slightly,” he said. “I've been making records for eight years, and I wouldn't like to anchor myself down to an attitude I had when I was nineteen.
“On Mind Bomb, I was getting more into atmospherics and noises, but melodic noises, not just aimless doodling. And I wanted to get into open, wide arrangements with fewer chord changes.”
The guitar’s case was eventually given a brown tag inscribed with 'Blonde Strat EMG pickups' to make it easier to pick out from what was a rapidly growing collection of guitars.
The guitar is being sold with one of Marr's personal thumb picks and a custom Ernie Ball 'Johnny' plectrum. Various photographs of Marr playing the guitar, as well as the 1990 issue of Guitar Player in which he details the mods, are also included.
Notably too, the back of the headstock has been signed by the guitarist.
The rest of that rig, which comprises a Mesa Boogie studio preamp, a Mesa Boogie quad preamp, Simul-Class 295 power amp, and footswitch, is also set to be sold to the highest bidder.
The amp features hand-marked settings for on-the-fly tone dialing. In the now 34-year-old GP interview, Marr explained how he had “intended to buy a [Mesa Boogie] 400” for the tour.
However, he found it to have “a cold hi-fi sound,” adding that “the 295 is much more sympathetic to [the] guitar.”
The auction will take place on September 3.
Head to Gardiner Houlgate to learn more about what’s set to feature on the auction block.
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