The market is always hungry for new flesh!
Every now and then some rarities are put on sale for diverse reasons. Now another electric guitar rarity from the early Guns N’ Roses days is going up for sale – the famous Gibson ES-175D reportedly owned by Izzy Stradlin and used at the “Appetite For Destruction” recording sessions.
The hollow-body model, finished in Arctic White, will be offered with a starting bid of $50,000.
According to seller Backstage Auctions, Stradlin received the guitar from Gibson artist rep Roger Bell in 1987. Stradlin subsequently used it at the “Appetite For Destruction” sessions, as well as in various concerts, most notably the February 2, 1988 Guns N’ Roses show at the Ritz in New York, which was filmed by MTV and rebroadcast on the network incessantly in subsequent years.
The story about the guitar as told by Backstage Auctions is “Izzy’s girlfriend at the time alerted two of her friends who played in a local Sunset Strip rock band. They bought this guitar, as well as a 1987 black Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion, from Howie’s store and for the past 32 years the guitars have been in their possession. They sold the guitars in 2020 to a veteran music industry executive, who is making this illustrious arctic white Gibson ES-175D guitar available for this auction.”
The guitar, unsurprisingly, exhibits some wear and tear, including “rope burn” from the yellow rope used by Stradlin along with his guitar strap, glue marks left where the bridge was reattached after it became dislodged when the guitar was restrung and an exposed screw hole from where the pickguard was removed.
An interesting fact about this guitar model is that it is mostly used by Jazz and Blues musicians and very rarely by Rock ones. Izzy is the most famous and known rock musicians that likes the model.
