News \
Eddie Van Halen’s Iconic Guitars Sell for $422,000 at Legend-Studded Auction
That's a whole lot of money to play "Hot for Teacher"
Eddie Van Halen’s “Frankenstrat” is easily one of the most recognizable instruments in rock history, and Kramer Guitars’ early take on the design now belongs to a wealthy new owner.
The three instruments sold for a combined $422,050 ($231,250 for the customized Kramer built with guitar tech Matt Bruck at the guitarist’s home studio, $140,800 for his 2004 EVH Charvel Art Series guitar, and $50,000 for a prop guitar from the “Hot for Teacher” video) at the Icons & Idols Trilogy: Rock ‘n’ Roll Auction held by Julien’s Auctions on Wednesday. It was the highest-priced seller out of the nearly 900 available items from a who’s who of music history featuring everyone from Elvis to Lady Gaga, while two of Kurt Cobain’s smashed Fenders sold for a combined $281,600 and Bob Marley’s first guitar earned $153,600.
Earlier this year, Cobain’s infamous guitar from MTV Unplugged sold for over $6 million.
For those of us who can’t afford to drop six digits on a piece of music history, there were also plenty of more affordable bits of memorabilia. After all, someone dropped over $10k for a page of a book featuring George Michael’s handwritten lyrics for Wham!’s “Young Guns (Go for It),” which is a small price to pay to be able to work Keanu jokes into every conversation for the rest of your life.
