Webb’s Auction House hit all the right notes with the latest online auction in their ‘Estate’ series.
In an unlikely turn of events, a collection of rare and vintage guitars saw its total sum of bids soaring to NZD $450,000, with some instruments exceeding their lowest sale estimates by 2500%.
Many of the guitars in the lot brought in five-figure sales in the online auction earlier this week.
Music to the ears of any auctioneer and big news for the music world to know that these sorts of instruments are still appreciated in an NZ market where Webb says there is often rare appeal.
The listing, a single-owner collection, consisted of nearly 40 guitars, including a range of electric, acoustic, bass, and custom-built models.
It was everything a guitar enthusiast could want and more, with instruments from some of the world’s most renowned brands.
Image from Webb's. LEFT: Gibson Les Paul, RIGHT: Gibson Guitar (likely a Les Paul)
Most notably, gold was struck with Gibson models. Quite literally with a goldtop Gibson, likely to be a vintage Les Paul, and then with a confirmed Les Paul in black - also a vintage piece (likely dating to 1954 according to its serial number).
Both of these models, which come from Gibson’s golden era (late 1940s to mid-1960s), sold for $54,970.
Sitting just outside this golden era classification, but still selling for a respectable sum of $52,580, a 1969 Gibson ES-345TD.
But what makes these models so special?
To put it simply, the historical impact, unmatched craftsmanship, and the custom, handmade nature of Gibson guitars are what make them so sought after by collectors and players alike.
As Leah Morris, Webb’s head of decorative arts, said: “These guitars aren’t just tools for making music, they’re pieces of cultural history.”
She continued, “To own a guitar like the ES345TD or a classic Les Paul is to own a link to the audio narratives of yesteryear… They're masterfully built, steeped in legacy, and increasingly rare.”
There’s no denying the sounds of these guitars have rung out through music history and had a hand in shaping music as we know it.
Think B.B. King, Chuck Berry, and Eric Clapton. For their iconic sound, we partly have the trusty Gibson ES-345TD and ES-335 to thank.
The blues, jazz, rock, and soul genres may not have evolved and grown in the way they did if those Gibsons hadn’t been introduced and fallen into the hands of many great artists.
Then we have the equally iconic Les Paul models - yeah, the ones that fetched an almost $55,000 price tag.
To touch lightly on its lore, it’s a model famously played by Jimmy Page, Slash, and Billy Gibbons (whose favourite guitar is a 1959 Les Paul that goes by the name Pearly Gates).
As I quickly deduced from scrolling through a Reddit forum on the instrument, modern fans of the Les Paul see it as a classy and timeless instrument. One that just has that classic rock sound.
As one user explained, “I like Les Pauls pretty much solely because of their sound… it gave me that sound I always heard in my head. I played that thing almost exclusively for years”
And as another so wonderfully summed up, “it’s one of the most beautiful instrument designs ever… strapping on that 10-pound hunk of mahogany and maple feels like I’m really getting down to business.”
Makes that $54,970 seem like a small price to pay for such a legendary sounding piece of history.
Now, these guitars have added a new line of narrative to their legacy: the soaring prices they reached at auction and the start of a new chapter with the lucky new owners they belong to.
