Johnny Ramone’s Mosrite Ventures II guitar is up for auction along with a number of other memorabilia that was used by the Ramones over the years. According to the auction page, the guitar, which has been at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for number of years, was used by the artist at every show between 1977 and his eventual retirement 20 years later, approximating its use at about 1,500 shows over the course of his career. The guitar was also used in all 15 Ramones albums (studio and live) from this period, and the guitar’s bidding price sits at $275,000 with the next bid being $302,000. The iconic guitar is expected to reach $500k by the auction’s end on Saturday, September 25 according to brooklynvegan.com.
Watch the video made by RR Auction about the guitar here:
The auction page also includes the history of the guitar itself, reading “According to guitar historian Chris Lamy, Cummings originally purchased this guitar between October 23, 1977 and October 30, 1977, to replace his original blue Ventures II slab body, which was stolen from the Sire Records van (with rest of the band’s gear) on the night of October 22, 1977, after the band’s show at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. Ironically, this guitar had been offered to Cummings earlier in 1977, but he passed on it feeling it was too expensive at $500, which was a little less than 10 times what he paid for his original Ventures II in 1974.”
Other items included in this auction are Johnny’s Electro-Harmonix Mike Matthews Freedom Amp, microphones used by Joey at Ramones’ final concert, a map of the Chelsea Hotel basement drawn by Dee Dee Ramone, and more. The collection currently belongs to Daniel Rey, who produced number of Ramones albums and was a friend of Johnny’s, and is worth close to a million dollars with all the items. RR Auction also has some other interesting auctions going on, such as JFK’s Diary from the Summer of 1945, a set of pipes that used to belong to Albert Einstein and John Lennon Signed Album with Doodles.
Leave a Comment