Clapton Guitar Sale (NZC)

[rdavies@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

No Zep content here I'm afraid but I thought this was cool particularly if
you've an interest in guitars....

You might have heard that Eric Clapton is selling 100 of his guitars to raise
money for a drug rehabilitation centre.  Christies are running the auction and
the guitars are on show in their London sale rooms for today and tomorrow (85
Old Brompton Rd, South Kensington).  I went last night and it was quite a sight.
There's several 'famous' instruments there including the sunburst Strat he used
on Layla (complete with substantial cigarette burning on heasdstock) and the
brown Tele he was often pictured with around the same time.  There's about  a
dozen Signature Strats, some of which were used on stage and in the studio over
the past 10-12 years, including many that you'll recognise from photographs
(trivial fact: Eric had some instruments sprayed to match the colour of his
Mercedes at the time... he's had several Mercedes).

Also to be seen are the Gibson Explorer used at the ARMS gigs, the Martin he is
playing on the cover of unplugged (along with quite a few other Martins etc),
the Martin he used as his principle acoustic in the 70's (with the  Hank
Williams stencil).  Quite a lot of the vintage guitars were bought by Clapton as
collectors items rather then working instruments and some of the others (eg Sig
Strats) have not been used by him.

Richard Chandler, purveyor of guitars to the very rich and famous, was on hand,
I think he may written the catalogue and curated (if that's the right word) the
exhibition.  He was answering questions and showing people instruments, as was a
guy I believe to be Clapton's guitar tech.  There was a lot of: Eric says this,
that, the other which was fascinating.  We latched onto someone who looked like
a serious buyer (ie very well suited and spoken) and followed him around as
Chandler showed him some of the key pieces and talked about them.

Estimated prices for some instruments seemed very modest, Sig Strats (with no
real historical provenance) were USD2000-3000, more collectable vintage gear was
higher but still less than you might see in some shops (even without the Clapton
connection).  However Chandler (who also guided the valuations) said that
although Eric wanted the prices low, in reality they were likely to realise far
more... but it was still worth putting in a bid!  Of course the key instruments
were in the USD100,00's.

The show viewing finishes in London tomorrow, and then high-lights move to Los
Angeles for  a few days, the complete sale can be viewed n New York for the days
prior to the auction on 23(ish) June.  Dress very smart, talk very rich, be more
forward than me (not a problem for Americans!) and maybe you'll get to fondle a
famous instrument.

Rob Davies
UK