From Guitar World · · 5m
Johnny Marr is selling the guitars that built the Smiths
Ninety guitars, 111 lots, and the songs that fell out of them, going under the hammer at Christie's.
In brief
Ninety guitars, 111 lots, and the songs that fell out of them, going under the hammer at Christie's. Marr is letting the collection go because he would rather the guitars keep giving songs to other players than sit shut in cases. Originally reported by Guitar World.
The collection goes
Johnny Marr is putting his guitars, amps and even his gold and platinum discs up for sale at Christie's. For a player this attached to the future, the back catalogue of gear was never the point.
The book started it
Writing Marr's Guitars in 2023 meant pulling every instrument out and holding it again. Amelia Walker of Christie's calls the process cathartic, and it changed what he wanted to do with them.
“finding the muscle memory of all these amazing songs that he'd written on them”
Cases, or hands
When the book tour wrapped and it was time to pack everything away, he balked. The instruments had just come back to life and he did not want them disappearing into flight cases again.
One Jag does everything
His signature Fender Jaguar now covers every sound he needs on stage and on record. That leaves most of the old collection with no realistic job left to do.
“he's basically created an instrument that does everything he needs”
He wants them played
Walker says Marr loves the idea of someone stopping him years from now to say they wrote a song on his D-28 or played his Rickenbacker live. Even just loving the guitar counts.
“he wants them to be played, he wants them to find new owners”
111 lots, no pedals
Around 90 guitars, roughly 10 amps he has kept his whole career, about 10 gold, silver and platinum discs, plus concert and promo posters. Not a single pedal.
“The final lot count is 111”
Twenty lots for charity
The discs and posters, and proceeds from about 20 lots in all, go to The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the National Autistic Society. The Electronic and Bryan Ferry discs are in that group.
The Casino weekend
On one free weekend he wrote William, It Was Really Nothing and Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want, then topped both with How Soon Is Now on the 1963 Epiphone Casino.
Glastonbury turns pop
He played the Casino at Glastonbury in 1984, the year the festival shed its hippie roots. Fans rushed the stage and climbed the sheet metal at the front while that guitar was in his hands.
Sign us, buy me a guitar
In New York over New Year 1983, Marr heard Sire had done something similar for Brian Jones and pushed his luck with Seymour Stein. On 2 January he marched Stein down 48th Street.
“We'll sign to Sire if you buy me a guitar.”
A song before sitting down
He got the 1959 Gibson ES-355 back to the hotel and wrote Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now more or less on the spot. It then carried much of Meat Is Murder and two years of shows.
“guitars giving him songs”
A guitar with two birthdays
He had the stereo output switched to mono and Bill Puplett rewired it late in the '80s. The original pots date to '83, the Varitone is later, and the body was shipped in February 1960.
“It's a bit of a hybrid, crossing over '59 and '60.”
The jangle machine
The Rickenbacker 330 is This Charming Man and the arpeggiated, string-picking style that came with it. Choosing it was a deliberate push away from strumming.
“When you think Johnny Marr, really you think Rickenbacker.”
Lent to Oasis
One of his Ricks lies on the floor of the Supersonic cover, borrowed. On the actual Smiths single he tracked it alongside producer John Porter's Telecaster, because he owned only two guitars at the time.
“He wants them to give songs to other people.”
The Giffin Tele copy
Playing Porter's Tele left him wanting one, so Angie bought him a custom Roger Giffin build. It weighs about 10lbs, and fans know it as the guitar from Top Of The Pops.
Entwistle's blue Strat
Seven or eight guitars reached Marr from John Entwistle via Alan Rogan, this Lake Placid Blue Strat among them. A '63 body with a '65 neck, and a maple neck swapped on and off in between.
“his first proper solo on a Smiths record”
The only guitar he had
Before Morrissey, before the Rickenbacker, there was a 1977 Gretsch Atkins Super Axe, taken in part-exchange for his Les Paul. He wrote the entire first album on it and cut Hand In Glove with it.
The one he'd save
The 1984 Les Paul Standard got its Bigsby fitted by Marr himself around summer '85. It has worked harder and longer than anything else he owns, right through to The Age Of Everything.
“if the building was on fire, this would be the guitar he'd grab”
Never on an empty stomach
He bought the nine-pickup modified Strat at Music Ground in Doncaster on a trip with Noel Gallagher, days after they met. The Liddard brothers built it in 1991; it later starred in the Spirit Power And Soul video.
“Let's go for a sandwich. Never buy guitars on an empty stomach.”
Beatles money, September date
The 1963 Gibson J-160E arrived in his Beatles-focused phase, when money finally allowed two guitars to become five, then seven. The whole collection sells on September 17.
The essence
Marr is letting the collection go because he would rather the guitars keep giving songs to other players than sit shut in cases.
