6 minute read
Chris Martin
Lot 25. Chris Martin’s Tour-Played Custom Painted Fender Telecaster Deluxe.
Chris Martin’s custom-painted Fender Telecaster Deluxe played by the singer-songwriter on Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto tour during performances of the song “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face.”
The Mexican-made Tele is composed of an alder body and maple neck with maple fretboard, and is equipped with dual Fender “Wide Range” humbucker pickups. The instrument has been customized with original painted artwork over the entire body, the fretboard and the front of the headstock.
Consisting of symbols, language snippets, abstract design, and splatter rendered in vivid, eye-catching colors, the one-of-a-kind street artinflected composition is both a vibrant artwork in itself and a piece of Coldplay’s overall stage presentation.
Manufactured in 2010, the serial number “MX10285535” is printed on the back of the headstock. The art exhibits some rubbing and loss from the guitar’s stage use and the neck pickup cover shows surface wear from picking. A black Fender gig bag is included.
Lewis Allan “Lou” Reed (1942-2013) was a massively influential songwriter and guitarist who helped shape nearly fifty years of rock music.
A fan of doo-wop and early rock & roll, Reed also took formative inspiration during his studies at Syracuse University with the poet Delmore Schwartz. In the early 1960s, he briefly worked as a staff songwriter for the novelty label Pickwick Records.
In the mid-Sixties, Reed befriended Welsh musician John Cale, a classically trained violist. Reed and Cale formed a band called the Primitives, then changed their name to the Warlocks. After meeting guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Maureen Tucker, they became the Velvet Underground. With The Velvet Underground in the late Sixties, Reed fused street-level urgency with elements of European avant-garde music, marrying beauty and noise, while bringing a whole new lyrical honesty to rock & roll poetry.
As a restlessly inventive solo artist, from the Seventies into the 2010s, he was chameleonic, thorny, and unpredictable, challenging his fans at every turn. Glam, punk, and alternative rock are all unthinkable without his revelatory example. The father of indie rock, he influenced generations of musicians from David Bowie and R.E.M. to Talking Heads and Sonic Youth.
Lou Reed’s tour-played Fender Custom Shop frost gold Danny Gatton Telecaster, nicknamed, “Goldie.” The guitar features a custom maple neck and vintage Telecaster pickups (the Joe Barden “hot rails” typically found on the Gatton Teles have been swapped out, as Reed frequently tried out new configurations). The top of the neck has embedded CZ studs corresponding to the inlaid dots on the fretboard. The bridge is stamped with the serial number, “DG0036”.
“Lou played this guitar a lot! And loved it! It’s a great guitar,” said Stewart Hurwood, Reed’s guitar tech. With Goldie, Reed had an instrument that perfectly fit his playing style.
Later in life, when Reed was asked for a charitable contribution, Hurwood recalls, “We went through and selected guitars for auction. Lou said, ‘Send these guitars to Edge.’ I was surprised and said, ‘You’re sending Goldie, too?’ He said, ‘Yes, I’m done with it.’ That was typical of Lou Reed. He would be looking for new great things and phase out of old favorites.”
Goldie can be seen in stills and videos of Reed onstage playing his rendition of “Jealous Guy” at Radio City Music Hall for the tribute event Come Together: A Night for John Lennon’s Words & Music. It went on the road for the Ecstasy and NYC Man tours, last making the rounds in 2005-06.
Reed’s fondness for the guitar is evidenced by the patina and wear visible throughout. There is wear and finish loss to virtually every fret on the fret board, scratching to the pick guard and control plate, light oxidation to the head plate, long horizontal scratches and surface wear to the back of the body, light spot finish loss to the neck and head, and finish loss and tarnish to the tuning pegs.
The piece is accompanied by a Fender textured black vinyl over wood hard case marked “5” on the top edge. A piece of gaff tape on the case reads, “Lou Reed Locker #15.” Measuring 15.5”x41.5” and 4.5” deep, the case exhibits surface loss, wear, scuffs, scrapes, and tears to the covering.
Lou Reed and I were dear friends for 40 years, from the time we first met in Toronto to talk about working together on the “Berlin” album until the last time I spoke to him, just two weeks before he died in 2013. I loved and respected him deeply. He was one of the world’s great poets; someone who could tell a life in a stanza. And he wrote some of the most iconic songs in the rock and roll canon: Sweet Jane, Rock and Roll, Satellite of Love, Walk On The Wild Side, Caroline Says and many more.
Lou was eternally curious and exacting in his art and life and particularly about the tools he used to make his music. He was a blistering rock guitarist and he was very demanding of his instruments. He played them hard and he required of them a purity of tone beyond what most guitars were capable of. He was not casual about what he played. Every guitar he had was tweaked and perfected and brought to the perfect place to make the sounds he heard in his head.
When Edge and I did our first auction for Music Rising years ago, I had asked Lou if he would consider donating one of his guitars or some other memorabilia for it. As often happens with these things, he got caught up in touring and by the time he got back to his warehouse to put together a shipment for us, the auction had passed. Nonetheless, we were bowled over by the arrival of 4 stage played, Lou tweaked and maintained, brilliant sounding instruments. We determined that we would make them a centerpiece of the next auction whenever that might be. And that day has finally come.
This is personal for me. I love Lou Reed. There’s a whole wall dedicated to him in my studio. And there’s a whole chamber dedicated to him in my heart. I’m so proud and honored that we could finally offer his beautiful instruments up to enrich some new owner’s life while raising money to support his fellow musicians in New Orleans and the surrounding area in their time of need. Lot 27. Lou Reed’s Honey Blonde Danny Gatton Fender Telecaster.
Lou Reed’s tour-played Fender Custom Shop honey blonde Danny Gatton Telecaster. The guitar features a pair of Joe Barden “hot rail” humbucking pickups and a specially shaped maple neck. The bridge is stamped with the serial number “DG0040.”
Famous for their clear tones and ultra high-end clarity, Reed typically had Telecasters in his arsenal, favoring custom models as his career progressed. A honey blonde Gatton with its black pick guard can be seen in the video of the 1993 Velvet Underground reunion tour, played by Reed on classics like Pale Blue Eyes and I’ll Be Your Mirror.
A honey blonde Telecaster was used on the Ecstasy tour of 2000 and NYC Man in 2003, last appearing in Reed’s road repertoire in 2005-06. The guitar shows wear from use to the pickguard, control plate, head plate, and bridge from use. The top of the neck has embedded CZ studs corresponding to the inlaid dots on the fretboard. A few of the studs toward the base of the neck are absent.
Also included is Fender tan leatherette over wood hard case marked “8”. Measuring 15”x41.5” and 4” deep, the case exhibits a tear in the covering, sustained while on tour.
