A bass guitar once owned by John Entwistle of The Who has suddenly become much more valuable. Experts carefully matched the wood grain on the instrument to old video footage of Queen’s bassist John Deacon. It turns out this exact guitar was played by Deacon at Queen’s 1986 Montreux Pop Festival and in their 'Friends Will Be Friends' music video.
The bass guitar is now believed to have been lent to Queen by John Entwistle. Back in 2003 after Entwistle’s death, Sotheby’s sold the Warwick Buzzard for £3,500/€3,980. At the time, they didn’t know it had been used by Queen or that it was one of only a few prototypes.
On the 2nd of December, it will be auctioned again at Gardiner Houlgate in Wiltshire. Auctioneer Luke Hobbs explained that bass guitars usually sell for less than regular guitars, as they "generally aren’t seen as being as cool as regular guitars". But because this one is linked to both 'The Who' and 'Queen', two of Britain’s biggest bands, he expects strong interest.
The bass was initially expected to be valued and auctioned at around £10,000/€11,375. But after careful examination of the distinctive wood grain, which Hobbs described as "like a fingerprint, so thank goodness the bass wasn’t painted", the auction value rose to between £20,000/€22,750 and £40,000/€45,500....
