The Washburn 22- Series Hawk guitar owned by reggae king Bob Marley has been ranked among the world’s most expensive.
The instrument, valued at US$1.2 million, came in at number five in a top ten ranking by the website wealthygorilla.com. Marley is said to have been given this guitar as a gift by his technician, Gary Clausen.
According to Guitar World magazine, a Yamaha SG1000 electric guitar that was said to have been owned and played by Marley during his first international tour in 1979 was auctioned on November 24, 2008.
At the time, the magazine reported that guitar collectors were expected to bid between US$30,000 and US$40,000 for it at the auction held by Christie’s auction house.
The guitar was presented to Marley by Yamaha during a visit the reggae singer made to the firm’s factory in Hamamatsu, Japan, which was one leg of his world tour. Included with the guitar for auction were photographs of Marley playing concerts in Tokyo and Osaka.
To mark the 30th anniversary of Yamaha’s SG1000 and SG2000 guitars in 2007, the company introduced the SBG1000 and SBG2000, which were exact reproductions of the celebrated predecessors
. These were built by hand, individually, by the master craftsmen at Yamaha’s renown Music Craft at the company’s elite workshop in Hamamatsu, which produces top of the line handcrafted and custom-made instruments.
The next year, 2008, Yamaha celebrated the 40th anniversary of their guitars in the United States and introduced a limited edition of the SBG3000, which has been called a “masterpiece”, according to Guitar World.
SOURCE: Jamaica Observer
