Owning Bands Old Instruments

I’m not a Strawbs fan (nothing against them I’ve just not got around to really listening to them), I have no music business connections and I’m not a working musician. Yet somehow I’ve ended up with the Strawb’s old Mellotron. I also used to have Trevor Horn’s DX7 on top of my washing machine in the utility room!
Anyone else have random instruments that once belonged to well known musicians or producers? Extra points if you have no connection to the previous owners!

 

Does the Mellotron still work?

 

I had Micky Hart's ride cymbal for a while

 

Squid, I have to know: how does one just end up with a Mellotron? Aren't those things HUGE?

I have a drum pedal once owned by Carl Palmer and (non-instrument) Tony's Levin's suitcase.

 

I guess the real question is how one establishes provenance.

 

I have a Yamaha variable pitch floor tom that used to belong to session drummer Russ Kunkel.

 

I once bought a Silvertone guitar from Will Ray of the Hellecasters.

I have a drum case with "Jesse Colin Young" stenciled on it, along with initials. I once figured out who the drummer was, but have since forgotten his name.

Don Wilson of the Ventures gave me his (used) pick.

 

Yes very well. I got it serviced a few years ago. It had also been partially restored by a previous owner.

 

Well there is that of course, but for this thread I don’t think it’s that important. I think the thing with most vintage keyboard gear is that when it was released it was very expensive and therefore generally out of reach for most amateur and semipro musicians, so a lot of it has History.

 

I used to have a 1951 Gibson L4C that came with a certificate and signature saying it belonged to Hubert Sumlin (Howling Wolf's guitar player), however it hadn't been advertised with the certificate, it was just in the case. When I came to sell it I tried and failed to verify the certificate, but still got twice what I payed for it.

 

Well I did actually want a Mellotron. I just ended up with the Strawbs one

 

how did it play?

 

Oh and I have Jen SX1000 preset cards that I think either belonged to an early incarnation of Marillion or an old band that played an awful lot of early Marillion covers

 

That's way cool if it was actually real!

 

Beautiful. It was an acoustic version, no pickups. Great for country and jazz.

Yeah. Perhaps I'd rather not know now it's gone.

 

Great! It would have been played on some or all of these albums:
Planet Mellotron Album Reviews: Strawbs
... including the rather fabulous Grave New World.

 

My dad ended up with several pieces of equipment from Big Brother And The Holding Company. Also he had a pair of A7 speakers from the Fillmore West.

 

Not me, but a high school friend of mine who is today a respected jazz guitarist told me years ago that he had acquired Jeff Beck's Tonebender fuzz box — used to great effect on so many classic Yardbirds tracks.

 

I have an electric guitar once owned by Barry Gibb.

 

Now that is seriously cool

 

Not instruments, but they are tools of the trade:

I own an EMT 140 plate reverb that is supposedly from Columbia's East 52nd Street studio.

I used to own a Distressor compressor owned by mixer Michael Brauer who had sold it to me.

 

I own Brian Dondero's old G&L L2000 bass which he used on tour and recorded with while he was part of Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. He says it was used on Nothing But The Water tracks, not sure about This Is Somewhere.

I have a road case used by Neil Young in the 1980's. Through a friend of a friend a few years ago I was hooked up with someone in Young's camp that was cleaning out an old storage facility.

Here I am with the bass in question:

 

I believe it was used on that album and the following ones. Blue Weaver and John Hawken used it

 

I have a Fender early 1960’s guitar speaker cabinet formerly owned by the guitarist in The Rivieras, and an Electro Harmonix Sitar effect pedal from Bruce Kulick. I got each because the price was right and I wanted them for their sounds, not due to any former affiliation. Arthur Kane gave me an acoustic guitar which I do treasure and will never part with.

 

I have one of Mel Gaynor’s drum sticks. It says “Mel’s Mates” on the side. He lobbed it into the crowd at Simple Minds’ Hammersmith Odeon gig in 2003, it bounced off someone’s head, and it landed in my hand!