Guitars, Equipment Owned By Steely Dan's Walter Becker Sells For $3.3 Million At Auction

Hundreds of valuable guitars, amplifiers, and other music gear once owned by the late rock guitarist Walter Becker were recently sold at auction for an impressive total of a few million dollars.

As per reports, the previously announced auction of music possessions previously owned by the Steely Dan co-founder, which included an astounding collection of 600 guitars and 400 amps in total, sold for $3.3 million at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, CA over the weekend. The collection ended up being the largest assortment of guitars and amps ever sold by the notable auction house in its 17 years of business.

Following Becker’s death in September 2017 at the age of 67, the vast collection of his old instruments, in addition to effects pedals and recording gear, had been sitting in storage in New York and Hawaii, in addition to the apartment still owned by the guitarist’s widow, Delia Becker.

“Amps were lined up at the foot of the bed,” Delia Becker mentioned to go with the report. “Under every table, the dining room table was all amps and then all the floor space.”

“A few guitars that he played, a lot of guitars that were one-off custom made were bumped up,” Julien’s property manager, Jason Watkins also added. “We tried to price guitars he played onstage a bit higher. But auction value, technically, is lower than [the] resale value because you’re operating on your time frame and not the buyer’s time, so the value should be less … You don’t do yourself a lot of favors by trying to set the prices high. You scare bidders away.”

A signature 1959 Gretsch Tennessean hollow body electric guitar signed by Chet Atkins sold for $12,800, while a 1957 Fender Duo-Sonic electric guitar seen in the liner notes of Steely Dan’s 1977 Aja album sold for $57,600, and a pedalboard set up pulled from Becker’s apartment sold for $32,000. The highest purchase of the collection was that of a green Stratocaster-style guitar from New York-based guitar maker Chihoe Hahn, which sold for an impressive $68,750.

Recently, the City of New York officially renamed a Queens city block after the late guitarist, with a sign for “Walter Becker Way” now posted on the corner of 112th Street and 72nd Drive.

[H/T Billboard]