Following on from the Clifford Essex Paragon Banjo thread next door, here's an Antiques Roadshow clip of another magnificent Banjo ~ a Whyte Laydie #7 - worth perhaps £10,000!
Then, when you think of Violins, a Strad, the "Lady Tennant" violin, was sold last year by Christie's for more than $2.03 million, the highest amount ever paid for a “Violin” at a public auction.
Of course, if Pianos are your thing, here’s one you might like to fork out for ~ the most expensive Piano:
John Lennon's Steinway Model "Z" piano which sold for a mere $2.08 million
“One-time Beatle John Lennon is said to have composed the song "Imagine" on this Steinway, which sold for £1.45 million in October 2000 to pop star George Michael. The upright walnut piano still bears Lennon's old cigarette burns.”
{ I wonder what you would do, if someone stubbed a Ciggy out on your £10,000 Paragon? }
As for percussion instruments, can you believe that a portion of Keith Moon's drum kit sold for $252,487
“This part of the custom-made 1968 kit for The Who's drummer, "Moon the Loon"—who was notorious for his wild antics on and off the stage—escaped his penchant for destruction and realized £139,650 in a 2004 auction by Christie's London.”
It seems not all musicians are paupers!
Just for Guernsey Pete ~ can anyone here say what has been the highest price ever paid for a CONCERTINA?
OK to end, let’s get really serious for a moment – what’s the most you would pay for a Bodhran?
By the blood stains and those little nicks made with my Bowie knife ~ which also have to do with the blood stains... See those few really deep ones, those were piano accordion and hammered dulcimer players. I don't bother recording the bodhranistas and assorted bangers, they're a dime a dozen, besides, they're so thick they don't bleed...
I bet you could get a lot of money for certain instruments, if you were bad enough that someone was prepared to pay you not to play. Apparently Verdi did this - hired all the street organs so he wouldn't be disturbed. A sort of "pay and dis-play" scheme.
I suppose it's also in brands. People will pay more for a Clareen then a Gold Tone or more for a paramount than other types. I myself play a Supertone banjo which I do not know many other people play.
As an pian accordionist who migrated to button over the past few years, I have had to do the valuation exercise a couple of times. Justifying each increase for each more costly box to Herself has been a real challenge. It's tough to explain the little things that make a better box 'better', and why the cost seems to go up with the 'better'
Oddly, It seems like when you are shopping the sellers price the thing like it is gold, but when you get it home it has no monetary value. But once you start playing, the instrument becomes priceless.
When I 'stepped up' with a new box a few months ago, I emailed Herself and several others who though I was crazy for what I was paying (actually turned out to be a real deal given where the President Shrub's weak dollar has gone) a link to several Hohner sites selling their "Gola"model.
$35,000 US, but if you buy today, you can have it for $27,999 US. At that price some players might buy two!
Most of these replies show how the monetary value of a particular instrument is affected by its provenance - the name/status of whoever previously owned it - and is out of all proportion to the instrinsic value of the instrument. You can usually get hold of an instrument of equivalent musical value and performance for a much lower price. Which is one reason why I won't be buying a Strad, Amati, Guaneri, Stainer etc any time soon - ALL the available ones are associated with great "Names"
I just held two "Del Gesus" in my hands last week. One 1732 Guarneri was immaculate--not a single crack, nary a scratch in the varnish. This was a thing of rare, unmarred beauty. The dealer has it priced at $7.5 million USD (about 15 Euro at the going exchange, eh?).
The other Guarneri was only $5 million USD. It had the usual, minor f-hole splits and a repaired hairline crack running up from the tailpiece saddle. This one once belonged to Isaac Stern.
The fact that these fiddles were original Guarneris mattered far more to me than their mere monetary value. I've always been drawn more to the Guarneri design--a darker tone than most Strad copies, I think.
It was amazing to get an actual adrenalin rush just from getting to hold a Guarneri.
But for me, a great fiddle is one that sounds terrific, feels just right in my hands, AND isn't out of place in a pub session. So I'm tickled to have a $650 fiddle that does all of the above. Nice to know that you don't have to spend a fortune to get a decent instrument. And a sweet sounding fiddle is priceless when you're the one playing it.
My best sounding fiddle was bought for £500. Now insured for £1,000 because i considered myself lucky when i found it, so i'd want the extra £500 to play with when finding a replacement (God forbid!)
My other fiddle is not insured. Its 4th generation (at least?) in my family so i can't put a price on it? Que sera sera.
The best bodhrans in the world cost £160, or $320.
You can get a very good drum from Ptarmigan's friend Paul McAulay for less.
Or you can buy a "brand name" for $1,000 and have a useless drum but a nice label.
Stradocaster guitars or whatever where the original cheap guitar, but once Chuck Berry/Jimi Hendix or whoever played them, they suddenly became the most expensive. Same guitars though.
I know what you mean CPT, I wouldn't let go of my Guarneri for nothing, and my backup late model Nickolo Amati, well, if I was to be honest, it is really my favourite... I just couldn't put a price on either. It isn't about money, they mean something more, like an appendage, like part of me...
In relation to concertina prices, it's true that the Jeffries is the most highly valued, but for what you can get out of it - there's reckoned to be something in the tone, and also the tuning, that makes them special. Firstly he built them using a particularly special wood for the soundboard, I believe it was an exceptionally tight-grained poplar. Then, he also gave them a non-even tempered tuning, so they don't have the slight dischordances you will find in a perfectly-tuned instrument. The actual quality of the workmanship is not reckoned to be high, but this is not the most important thing.
But what do I know, I play a couple of lower-price english ones.
And I still reckon that paying millions for an instrument once owned by someone reckoned to be famous is a luxury rich men are welcome to.
I'ld rather just have a good instrument and enjoy it for what it is.
"I'd rather have a good instrument and enjoy it for what it is." Amen.
Besides, there be no escaping the obvious conclusion, if I owned a genuine Guarneri or whatever, that I'd still sound like a fecking scraping eejit on the thing....
BTW, re: workmanship. The scroll on one of the Guarneris had chisel marks all over it, as though it had been carved quickly and not smoothed over. The dealer (very reputable) said the neck was original, according to the small book of documentation that accompanies the fiddle.
As GP says, it's not about spit and polish but how the beastie plays and sounds.
How do you value your instrument?
How do you value your instrument?
Following on from the Clifford Essex Paragon Banjo thread next door, here's an Antiques Roadshow clip of another magnificent Banjo ~ a Whyte Laydie #7 - worth perhaps £10,000!
http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/blog.asp?id=16553&blogid=2041
Just for the record, the asking price for the Paragon is £10,000 & I believe a 5 String Gibson Banjo sold a while back for around $15,000.
Surely the Banjo holds the record ~ $183M:
http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2006-09/artikel-6970056.asp
But seriously, surely this Fender Stratocaster is the World’s most expensive instrument - $2.8 million:
http://guitarsite.com/hotlicks/show.php?start=0&t=1335
Then, when you think of Violins, a Strad, the "Lady Tennant" violin, was sold last year by Christie's for more than $2.03 million, the highest amount ever paid for a “Violin” at a public auction.
Of course, if Pianos are your thing, here’s one you might like to fork out for ~ the most expensive Piano:
John Lennon's Steinway Model "Z" piano which sold for a mere $2.08 million
“One-time Beatle John Lennon is said to have composed the song "Imagine" on this Steinway, which sold for £1.45 million in October 2000 to pop star George Michael. The upright walnut piano still bears Lennon's old cigarette burns.”
{ I wonder what you would do, if someone stubbed a Ciggy out on your £10,000 Paragon?
}
As for percussion instruments, can you believe that a portion of Keith Moon's drum kit sold for $252,487
“This part of the custom-made 1968 kit for The Who's drummer, "Moon the Loon"—who was notorious for his wild antics on and off the stage—escaped his penchant for destruction and realized £139,650 in a 2004 auction by Christie's London.”
It seems not all musicians are paupers!
Just for Guernsey Pete ~ can anyone here say what has been the highest price ever paid for a CONCERTINA?
OK to end, let’s get really serious for a moment – what’s the most you would pay for a Bodhran?
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by Ptarmigan
Re: How do you value your instrument?
By the blood stains and those little nicks made with my Bowie knife ~ which also have to do with the blood stains... See those few really deep ones, those were piano accordion and hammered dulcimer players. I don't bother recording the bodhranistas and assorted bangers, they're a dime a dozen, besides, they're so thick they don't bleed...
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by ceolachan
Re: How do you value your instrument?
I bet you could get a lot of money for certain instruments, if you were bad enough that someone was prepared to pay you not to play. Apparently Verdi did this - hired all the street organs so he wouldn't be disturbed. A sort of "pay and dis-play" scheme.
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by Mark Harmer
Re: How do you value your instrument?
pay for a Bodhran?
here we go.
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by showaddydadito
Re: How do you value your instrument?
I suppose it's also in brands. People will pay more for a Clareen then a Gold Tone or more for a paramount than other types. I myself play a Supertone banjo which I do not know many other people play.
And what is showaddyadito on about bodrans?????
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by HBX KING
Re: How do you value your instrument?
As an pian accordionist who migrated to button over the past few years, I have had to do the valuation exercise a couple of times. Justifying each increase for each more costly box to Herself has been a real challenge. It's tough to explain the little things that make a better box 'better', and why the cost seems to go up with the 'better'
Oddly, It seems like when you are shopping the sellers price the thing like it is gold, but when you get it home it has no monetary value. But once you start playing, the instrument becomes priceless.
When I 'stepped up' with a new box a few months ago, I emailed Herself and several others who though I was crazy for what I was paying (actually turned out to be a real deal given where the President Shrub's weak dollar has gone) a link to several Hohner sites selling their "Gola"model.
$35,000 US, but if you buy today, you can have it for $27,999 US. At that price some players might buy two!
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by zippydw
Re: How do you value your instrument?
value is inversely proportional to number of buttons
Wheatstone english 48 keys = £1500
Jeffries anglo 39 keys = £3500 plus
a box with 120 buttons (pa) can't be worth much!!
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by geoffwright
Re: How do you value your instrument?
...except with a stake driven through it!
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by Mark Harmer
Re: How do you value your instrument?
Sean Byrne HBX: "And what is showaddyadito on about bodrans?????"
you ain't from round here are you.
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by showaddydadito
Re: How do you value your instrument?
Most of these replies show how the monetary value of a particular instrument is affected by its provenance - the name/status of whoever previously owned it - and is out of all proportion to the instrinsic value of the instrument. You can usually get hold of an instrument of equivalent musical value and performance for a much lower price. Which is one reason why I won't be buying a Strad, Amati, Guaneri, Stainer etc any time soon - ALL the available ones are associated with great "Names"
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by lazyhound
Re: How do you value your instrument?
I just held two "Del Gesus" in my hands last week. One 1732 Guarneri was immaculate--not a single crack, nary a scratch in the varnish. This was a thing of rare, unmarred beauty. The dealer has it priced at $7.5 million USD (about 15 Euro at the going exchange, eh?).
The other Guarneri was only $5 million USD. It had the usual, minor f-hole splits and a repaired hairline crack running up from the tailpiece saddle. This one once belonged to Isaac Stern.
My fiddle cost me $650 USD and I love it.
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by Will CPT
Re: How do you value your instrument?
Bet your glad you didn't drop one of them, Will?
Can you picture Planxty or the Berlin Philharmonic doing this, after a gig?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WSDGWuRyWM
Clearly, to some people, instruments have little or no value!
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by Ptarmigan
Re: How do you value your instrument?
Dick- wome people might limit your comments to bodhrans, kazoos, banjos, pipe organs and accordions.
I prefer to think that beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by zippydw
Re: How do you value your instrument?
The fact that these fiddles were original Guarneris mattered far more to me than their mere monetary value. I've always been drawn more to the Guarneri design--a darker tone than most Strad copies, I think.
It was amazing to get an actual adrenalin rush just from getting to hold a Guarneri.
But for me, a great fiddle is one that sounds terrific, feels just right in my hands, AND isn't out of place in a pub session. So I'm tickled to have a $650 fiddle that does all of the above. Nice to know that you don't have to spend a fortune to get a decent instrument. And a sweet sounding fiddle is priceless when you're the one playing it.
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by Will CPT
Re: How do you value your instrument?
My best sounding fiddle was bought for £500. Now insured for £1,000 because i considered myself lucky when i found it, so i'd want the extra £500 to play with when finding a replacement (God forbid!)
My other fiddle is not insured. Its 4th generation (at least?) in my family so i can't put a price on it? Que sera sera.
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by jfiddlerh
Re: How do you value your instrument?
The best bodhrans in the world cost £160, or $320.
You can get a very good drum from Ptarmigan's friend Paul McAulay for less.
Or you can buy a "brand name" for $1,000 and have a useless drum but a nice label.
Stradocaster guitars or whatever where the original cheap guitar, but once Chuck Berry/Jimi Hendix or whoever played them, they suddenly became the most expensive. Same guitars though.
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by bodhran bliss
Re: How do you value your instrument?
"Stradocaster" ha ha, that's funny that
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by llig leahcim
Re: How do you value your instrument?
I have a harmonica worth at least £22 so eat your bloody hearts out.
Well OK it was worth £22 but then I blew down it....
# Posted on March 31st 2008 by Steve Shaw
Re: How do you value your instrument?
I know what you mean CPT, I wouldn't let go of my Guarneri for nothing, and my backup late model Nickolo Amati, well, if I was to be honest, it is really my favourite... I just couldn't put a price on either. It isn't about money, they mean something more, like an appendage, like part of me...
# Posted on April 1st 2008 by ceolachan
Re: How do you value your instrument?
Amati, Guarneri? I thought they were a brand of perfume and bird sh*t respectively...
# Posted on April 1st 2008 by Steve Shaw
Re: How do you value your instrument?
Glad to bring a bit of happiness to the world, Mr llig.
# Posted on April 1st 2008 by bodhran bliss
Re: How do you value your instrument?
In relation to concertina prices, it's true that the Jeffries is the most highly valued, but for what you can get out of it - there's reckoned to be something in the tone, and also the tuning, that makes them special. Firstly he built them using a particularly special wood for the soundboard, I believe it was an exceptionally tight-grained poplar. Then, he also gave them a non-even tempered tuning, so they don't have the slight dischordances you will find in a perfectly-tuned instrument. The actual quality of the workmanship is not reckoned to be high, but this is not the most important thing.
But what do I know, I play a couple of lower-price english ones.
# Posted on April 1st 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: How do you value your instrument?
And I still reckon that paying millions for an instrument once owned by someone reckoned to be famous is a luxury rich men are welcome to.
I'ld rather just have a good instrument and enjoy it for what it is.
# Posted on April 1st 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: How do you value your instrument?
"I'd rather have a good instrument and enjoy it for what it is." Amen.
Besides, there be no escaping the obvious conclusion, if I owned a genuine Guarneri or whatever, that I'd still sound like a fecking scraping eejit on the thing....
BTW, re: workmanship. The scroll on one of the Guarneris had chisel marks all over it, as though it had been carved quickly and not smoothed over. The dealer (very reputable) said the neck was original, according to the small book of documentation that accompanies the fiddle.
As GP says, it's not about spit and polish but how the beastie plays and sounds.
# Posted on April 1st 2008 by Will CPT
Re: How do you value your instrument?
Thanks guys.
Here's a trick I'm sure you won't be trying soon, with your treasured instrument:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pb-3jJgvZ_4&feature=related
If a man plays his Bodhran in the Ocean, does anyone hear it?
Cheers
Dick
# Posted on April 1st 2008 by Ptarmigan
Re: How do you value your instrument?
for sonority, faithfulness, forgiving & occasional obedience.
# Posted on April 1st 2008 by drone