19/11/2008 [Artists]
When the Pop Culture auction opens this month at Christies in New York, the famous auctioneers are expecting high bids on a particularly special lot - a Yamaha SG1000 electric guitar owned and played in concert by Bob Marley during his final world tour with Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1979.
Bids of between $30,000 and $40,000 are expected on the handcrafted guitar which was presented to Marley during his visit to Yamaha’s Nipon Gakki workshop in Hamamatsu during the Tokyo leg of the tour. Included with the lot are several photographs of the legendary singer playing the instrument at Tokyo and Osaka venues.
The SG series of guitars are probably Yamaha’s best known range of guitars and were originally designed in conjunction with the artists of the day to be the ultimate electric guitar. Probably the most famous SG player, Carlos Santana, was responsible for the sustain-maximising spec of the classic SG2000 and the guitar remains as popular as ever with contemporary artists like Airbourne and Mastodon choosing Yamaha’s flagship model. Each guitar in the SG range is still individually hand built by a small group of highly skilled master luthiers at the Hamamatsu workshop in Japan and uses a combination of ultra-traditional construction and cutting edge technology to continually push the boundaries of this classic instrument.
For more information about the SG1000:
http://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/guitars_basses/el_guitars/sg1000_black/
To visit Christie’s web site:
http://www.christies.com/
