Author Topic: Entwistle auction at Sotheby's (Read 571 times)

dfung60 · « **on:** April 23, 2003, 06:20:15 AM »

The Sotheby's auction of a collection of John Entwistle items is happening in London on May 13, with previews starting May 8. There are many, many rare and valuable instruments in this auction including many of John's notable Alembics (eight in all). This includes a number of Spider Exploiters including the V-headstock model on the cover of Too Late the Hero (described as weighs a ton), and an 8-string Exploiter.

Here's a quote from one listing (lot #226), which is notable because this was John's first Alembic -

JE: Bought from Fred Walecki whilst
holidaying in LA...I had it re-wired
back to stereo by Peter Cook. He brought
it along to a Who rehearsal when he'd
finished - I plugged it in - and it blew
my mind. I jetted to San Francisco 3 days
before the tour started and bought three
more!

Also of interest (well to me, and probably Michael Delacerda anyway) - a graphite-necked 8-string Alembic that was built for Greg Lake (no, not the famous Manticore bass, but a similar Pirate bass). There's also a short scale graphite necked Alembic with Bigsby trem.

If you like Modulus Graphite instruments, there's a very rare thru-body Modulus 8-string that was built for John, and a number of Warwick/Modulus graphite-necked Buzzards, including one that was smashed and framed by Bob Pridden for John as a Christmas gift.

If you like Buzzards, there are numerous Warwick and Status Buzzards plus there's a very unusual item - the Flock of Buzzards, the road tour case which includes five Status Buzzards (two 8-strings!).

You can check it all out here: http://search.sothebys.com/jsps/live/event/EventDetail.jsp?event_id=26007

A truly impressive collection, but under the saddest of circumstance.

David Fung

dela217 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 23, 2003, 07:02:37 AM »

David, You know what I like! That one really did get my interest.

Michael

jake · « **Reply #2 on:** April 23, 2003, 08:20:10 AM »

Wow what an impressive collection of alembics up for auction here! Of course as David said, it is a very sad day but at the same time it is amazing to see what a collection John had. And looking at the estimates, it seems to be much more reasonable to own an alembic from the entwistle collection than from oh let's say the garcia collection. In fact, many of the estimates given by sotheby's seem to be not much higher than what one would expect to pay for some of those instruments even if they didn't have such significance. Very interesting and thanks for pointing it out!

adriaan · « **Reply #3 on:** April 23, 2003, 09:18:00 AM »

I was amazed at the small number of basses actually being auctioned - I seem to remember seeing pictures with at least a hundred basses. Anyone have any ideas?

By the way, on the Exploiters, I definitely like the pointy cone headstock better than the awkward V-shaped one Alembic is using on the special edition - though I'm sure that's the one John himself preferred.

David Houck · « **Reply #4 on:** April 23, 2003, 10:29:35 AM »

A lot of neat stuff; like the Modulus with Series I electronics. Thanks for posting this, David; very nice group of Alembics to look at.

dnburgess · « **Reply #5 on:** April 23, 2003, 02:42:58 PM »

Adriaan - agree completely on the exploiter headstock. To my eye the the v headstock is too large and the shape is jarring. The body shape draws your eye along the body and up the neck - clashing with the headstock which appears to be moving in the opposite direction.

zappahead · « **Reply #6 on:** April 23, 2003, 03:21:53 PM »

The guy definetly had an eye for nice instruments. Even the guitars he had were pretty rare and interesting to say the least.

I loved the V shaped bass he had with the V headstock. There was a literal treasure trove in that auction and like someone said earlier, Im sure he has a lot more basses on top of these.

dfung60 · « **Reply #7 on:** April 23, 2003, 11:11:39 PM »

A couple of comments -

As to the reserves - not clear to me why they're so low, but this isn't uncommon. The Garcia Irwins ended up selling for probably 10x the estimates, and I think the ratio for the Clapton guitar auction was even greater. I guess that's a good strategy for the auction house - you wouldn't want to estimate an Exploiter at $50,000 and have it sell under estimate.

I'm not much of a fan of the V-headed Exploiter either. I've never seen a picture of him using it anywhere other than on that album cover. Usually you see him playing with the cone headstock basses. I remember seeing a picture of the 8-string Exploiter in Guitar Player many years ago (no Bass Player yet!) and I believe it had the knobby headstock. That would be WAY cool.

Entwistle's instrument collecting was pretty legendary. There was a cover article on his collection in Guitar Player many years ago with the light-organ Rickenbacker on the cover. Many, many beautiful vintage instruments in there, although many were not work instruments for him. You can certainly see that in the guitars in this auction, but it does beg the question of where all the Thunderbirds went! In another ancient GP cover story back when he was playing custom Fenderbirds (this must have been right after Who's Next), they mentioned that he took a shine to the original Gibson Thunderbird chrome pickups and was buying up all the originals he could find. My bro is pretty plugged in to the vintage market and has definitely seen occasional Entwistle pieces in the past.

Bill Rich produced a book a number of years ago called Guitars of the Stars which featured beautiful photos of Rick Nielsen's (Cheap Trick) guitar collection. Bill was trying to do a similar volumes of John's instruments and Steve Miller's, but I guess they never saw the light of day. I would have loved to see some detail closeups of some of the famous Entwistle Alembics.

David Fung

palembic · « **Reply #8 on:** April 23, 2003, 11:49:03 PM »

What I remember of one GP article about the Entwistle collection:
he was specialising in candy apple red fenders (basses and guitars). He owned some unique pieces. F.i. a Fender Strat with the pink Kashmir design that was normally only done on Fender Telecaster guitars (the Burton model?)
Also a Gretch White Pinguin (the solid-body version of the White Falcon) with a double cutaway: one of a kind and veeeee-ery beautiful.
Well this IS a bass-forum and John WAS a bass-player but let's stay like him: open minded!
CU

Paul

bigredbass · « **Reply #9 on:** April 25, 2003, 12:36:48 AM »

I toured the Sothebys pages of the Entwistle auction with some bemusement (he REALLY liked watches), some amusement (ALEMBICs with BIGSBYs?!?), and some sadness: Anyone blessed with the talent, success, and material wealth that followed . . . I'm afraid I can't be open-minded about this life being cut short by a cocaine-induced heart attack. THAT's the shame of it all for me.

J o e y

jet_powers · « **Reply #10 on:** April 25, 2003, 12:02:08 PM »

Indeed an amazing collection of well, everything! Deep sea diving helmets? As the old saying goes if you're poor you're crazy. If you're rich you're eccentric.

Joey is right, it is a shame for any life to be cut short in that way but I'm guessing the man didn't know another way and he was at least able to live the life he wanted right til the end.

John

thebass · « **Reply #11 on:** April 25, 2003, 04:31:41 PM »

I can't help myself but when I went through all the items, collectables and some pretty much private stuff I feel a bit like someone who's breaking into the privacy of someone else.

May be that's just me.

the_schwartz · « **Reply #12 on:** April 27, 2003, 07:36:20 AM »

Quite a collection. I especially liked some of the rarer vintage guitars & basses, along with his first (zebrawood?) Alembic that he bought here in L.A.

Surprisingly, he owned a lot of brass instruments, and his collection sports a high fish-to-Alembic ratio.

adriaan · « **Reply #13 on:** April 27, 2003, 10:35:33 PM »

He played the trumpet before becoming a bass player, so that would explain all the non-Alembic brass. Not sure about the fishes, but sharks sure ain't bass.

deehell · « **Reply #14 on:** May 13, 2003, 04:36:35 PM »

I read the posts above with interest. I was at the auction this afternoon. If you click here, you can look at all the prices raised in the sale:

http://search.sothebys.com/jsps/live/lot/LotResultsDetailList.jsp?event_id=26007&sale_number=W03875

Alembics in sale sold (all prices UKP ?) as follows:
Lot 19: Flying V ?3840 (all + 17.15% tax)
Lot 35: Baby Bass ?4560
Lot 44: Alembic Explorer ?15,000
Lot 89: Alembic Explorer ?50,400 (yes >?$75k)
Lot 226: Alembic 1974 ?13,200 (marked as JE's first)
Lot 228: Alembic 1975 ?4,560 (one with Bigsby)
Lot 279: Alembic 8 string 1979 ?10,800

Not an alembic but known to who fans:
JE's Precision rebuild: Frankenstein sold for ?62,400

Fascinating to see the afternoon sale. Some serious competition for anything that had provenance from JE.

As he started me playing bass in 1976, I ended up buying lot 228, complete with original tailpiece. JE described it as Medium scale, built for speed. The bigsby was put on backwards...you had to push down to make the note go up...confusing...nice crab claws though so that made it kinda special for me.

Even the catalogue from the sale sold out - on ebay for >$50 now!

The bargains were in the fish - and the brass. Sotheby's bought in several of the latter.