JIM IRSAY COLLECTION
INCITING INCIDENTS
Christie’ s auction room, 2019. The bids for David Gilmour’ s“ Black Strat” climb into the millions, the tension palpable even over a bidder’ s phone line. Bought from Manny’ s Music in New York in 1970, this 1969 Stratocaster was not a relic preserved in amber; it was a living tool, constantly evolving. This was the guitar that recorded the solos on Comfortably Numb, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, and Money— some of the most iconic guitar work in rock history. Over the decades, it wore at least seven different necks, from maple to rosewood and back again. Its electronics were a perpetual experiment: a Gibson PAF humbucker was briefly installed, then removed; the bridge pickup was swapped for a DiMarzio FS-1, then a Seymour Duncan SSL-1C; a mini-toggle switch was added to combine pickups in new ways. Gilmour even sawed off the end of the tremolo arm to better fit his hand. The hammer falls at an astounding $ 3.975 million, the highest price ever paid for a guitar at auction. On the other end of the line, the new owner is struck by a wave of disbelief:“ Was that really me?” A month later, the story deepens: The same collector also acquires Gilmour’ s 1969 Martin D-35— the acoustic foundation of Wish You Were
Here, and the voice behind countless Pink Floyd parts— this one for $ 1.2 million.
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soundstage, 1991. The dissonant, churning riff of Smells Like Teen Spirit explodes from a 1969 Fender Mustang in Competition Lake Placid Blue. This was Kurt Cobain’ s favorite guitar, purchased left-handed from a pawn shop for $ 130 in the late 1980s, an off-the-shelf instrument that became the emblem of a sonic and cultural rebellion. It rejected the slick, high-gloss machinery of mainstream rock, its very ordinariness a statement of punk ethos. It was the guitar of a generation that found its voice in thrift stores and pawn shops. That modest instrument, seen by millions in the iconic music video, would later be auctioned for $ 4.5 million, its journey from a tool of anti-establishment expression to a consecrated artifact complete. vvv
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London sign-painter, Eddie Stokes, carefully hand-letters a logo onto a drumhead in early 1964. It’ s for a new Ludwig kit destined for a young English band about to make its American debut. Days later, on February 9th, 73 million Americans tune in
10 | SPRING 2026