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Eddie Van Halen’s Iconic Guitars Sold For Insane Amount at Auction

Three of Eddie Van Halen’s guitars have sold for more than $422,000 during Julien’s Auctions’ annual Icons & Idols Trilogy: Rock’ n’ Roll Auction.

Among the guitars at the auction, Van Halen’s iconic Frankenstrat had the two-day event’s highest bids, Rolling Stone reports. One of Van Halen’s customized electric guitar sold for $231,250. The late rock star legend built the guitar for his former guitar tech, Matt Bruck. His 2004 EVH Charvel Art Series electric guitar sold for $140,800. In addition, one of Van Halen’s prop guitars used in the music video “Hot for Teacher” sold for $50,000.

Besides Eddie Van Halen’s guitars, the auction included instruments and memorabilia from other music icons. The auction sold close to 900 items, which had two of Kurt Cobain’s smashed Fender guitars, which sold for a combined total of $281,600. One of Bob Marley’s guitars sold for $153,600. This was the first time the late reggae icon had any of his guitars come to auction. Greg Allman’s mid-1960s Hammond B-3 organ also collected $102,400. 

Other noteworthy items sold at the event included the Octavia pedal Jimi Hendrix used on the live album Band of Gypsys. It sold for $70,400. 

Van Halen Music Sales Soar After Eddie Van Halen’s Death

A signed FT-79 acoustic guitar, played by Beatles’ frontman, Paul McCartney sold for $54,400. Pete Townshend’s first guitar, a 1936 Radiotone cello guitar, sold for $41,600.

After the death of legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen, the band saw a large uptick in their music sales. Billboard.com reported that sales for the 80s rock band albums and songs increased by a whopping 6,198 percent in the United States, occurring the same day as the singer’s death. 

 In contrast to the band selling a little less than 1,000 copies per day before Van Halen’s death, the band’s catalog of albums and songs sold 40,000 copies on the day he passed. This jump in sales accounted for a 6,000 percent increase.