We dive into some of the eye-watering prices for iconic pieces of music history.
The price of a drum kit is much like the length of a piece of string… wait, how long is a piece of string? The most expensive guitar was the Martin D-18E acoustic Kurt Cobain played on Nirvana’s iconic MTV Unplugged taping, and later sold at auction for $6 million. Paul McCartney’s Yamaha BB-1200, which he played with Wings, was most expensive bass of all time with the hammer falling on $496,100.
Piano
When John Lennon’s Steinway Z1 upright piano in 2000 went to auction (he wrote “Imagine” on it, not on the white Steinway Baby Grand used in publicity shots), George Michael outbid the Gallagher brothers and Robbie Williams and paid $1.75 million so it stayed in the UK.
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Have drums created such havoc among fans? We look at five which did.
RINGO STARR’S LUDWIG OYSTER BLACK – $2.1 MILLION
Jim Irsay, the $4 billion worth owner of the Indianapolis Colts football team was 11 when The Beatles broke up.
Like all Beatles arch-fans, he spent time trying to get the Fab Four to reunite.
Offer
The highest offer for the drum kit came from American concert promoter Sid Bernstein, who did The Beatles’ early American concerts.
He offered $230 million in 1976 for a single concert – worth $1. 27 billion in today’s money – which they politely turned down.
Collector
Irsay was also a serious memorabilia collector, his collection including Bob Dylan’s 1965 Newport Folk Festival guitar, Lennon’s “Paperback Writer” Gretsch guitar and Les Paul’s “Black Beauty.”
He figured that if the four wouldn’t reunite, at least he could use his wealth to get their instruments together.
Charity
In December 2015, Ringo Starr put his 800-piece memorabilia and private items for auction to raise money for his charities aimed at advancing social welfare.
Among the items was a book titled Everything I Know About Drumming by Ringo Starr, which was blank inside!
Black Pearl
Irsay paid $2.1 million ($2.65 million in today’s money) for Ringo Starr‘s 1963 Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl three-piece kit, which Starr bought on May 12, 1963.
He also forked out that day for a 1964 Rickenbacker that John Lennon gave the skinsman as an apology after a fierce argument which saw the Ringster quit the band.
$4 Million
“It took over $4 million and 45 years, but we finally got them back together,” Irsay told Rolling Stone after his successful bid.
“I know it’s a symbolic thing, but it really means a lot to me.”
Can’t Buy Me
Ringo used the Black Pearl in more than 200 of the band’s performances in 1963 and 1964, as well as 180 recording sessions including the ones for “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “She Loves You”, “All My Loving” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
It was Ringo’s first Ludwig. In those days, Ludwigs were twice as expensive as English brands because high import duties and shipping costs.
So Richard Starkey initially went for a Premier and Ajax.
Drum City
But after the Beatles’ new manager Brian Epstein talked the Drum City store in London into giving his client a deal “because they’re going to be so huge”, he brought Starr to pick a drum kit.
He went for a $380 Ludwig instead, saying, “I always wanted an American kit.”
He liked the small scale of the Ludwig (20” bass drum) because he “wouldn’t get lost behind it.”
Stats
- 4-ply maple and American veneer shells
- Speed King bass drum pedal
- 22′ x 14′ bass with fold out bass drum spurs
- 16′ x 16′ floor tom
- 9′ x 13′ tom
- 5′ x 14′ Supersonic chrome snare
- Medium-coated white batter heads
- Standard Ludwig hardware: Speed King hi-hat stand, low snare stand, cymbal stand, shell mount cymbal holder, multi adjustable single tom holder mount
- Original Zildjian Brass
- 20″ Heavy crash
- 18″ Medium ride
- (2) Matched 13″ hi-hats
“I just loved the look of the kit, it was American, and it sounded great. I play them to this day. I’m the best advert that Ludwig ever had.”
Ed Sullivan
The Beatles’ legendary appearance on TV’s The Ed Sullivan Show on September 5, 1964, was watched by 73 million viewers, or 30% of the population.
The next morning, teenagers flooded into music stores to buy guitars, basses and drums.
Ludwig Drum Company sold $6.1 million worth of products in 1964. In two years, it doubled to $13.1 million, and its factory in Chicago worked 24/7 to keep up with the demand.
NEIL PEART’S “HOCKEY THEME” – $1.5M
Canadian trio Rush were avid hockey fans, and it was no surprise that drummer, the late Neil Peart, was asked to record a new version of Dolores Clama’s 1968 theme song for TV’s Hockey Night In Canada.
For someone renowned for his massive array of drums and extended solos, being asked to make a one-minute track was obviously an issue.
Two Months
Peart said he spent two months on the track, refining and rehearsing it.
“It was one of the great experiences of my life. … We had one minute. And basically I said, ‘I want to get everything I know into this minute.”
Updated
In 2009 when Peart recorded the updated theme song, he returned to the Drum Workshop (DW) to build a hockey-themed drum kit.
The set is airbrushed in Lacquer Graphics with NHL logos and ultra-custom Ice Blue hardware.
Masterpiece
DW Customs artist Louie Garcia said, “Neil told me he wanted to begin a new masterpiece with this drum kit.
“He really wanted it to represent the game of hockey, incorporating center ice and the face-off circles.
Ice
“For the look of ice, we with went with a pearlescent color called Blue Frost. It really is a unique kit.”
The kit, valued at $1.5 million, raised money for a cancer charity, when fans were allowed for a donation to have themselves photographed behind it.
TERRY BOZZIO’S BLACK PAGE KIT – $1M
When skilled inventive drummer Terry Bozzio was playing with Frank Zappa, the latter wrote a complex drum & percussion piece called “The Black Page #1” for him.
Bozzio instantly mastered it, and commissioned DW to make a one-of-a-kind $1 million Black Page drum kit.
Detailing
It came with intricate detailing and drums, cymbals and percussion effects of every sound to create the suite, inspired by a 40-piece orchestra Zappa had previously worked with.
During the Zappa days he mixed and matched different brands as Gretsch, Rogers and Slingerland along with Pollard syn-drums and Remo roto toms.
Approach
He once said of his approach: “My drums are tuned to chromatic and diatonic pitches and I have, I guess, I have two and a half, three octaves or so of notes to play on the toms.
“Then I have the eight different white notes of the piano as my bass drums.
Accompany
“So I’m able to accompany myself much the same way a pianist would — with his left hand playing the bass notes and the right hand soloing against it.
“That’s how I approach the drum-set. It’s very melodic, it’s compositional — it’s also improvisational — but I improvise in a compositional matter.”
Debate
There was also debate as to whether he needed all those drums, or whether much of it was theatre.
When Bozzio was asked, he chuckled: “Some nights, I might not hit certain things or do certain things, but within a week, I will have used everything.”
QUEEN’S NEWS OFF THE WORLD KIT – $850,000
When Queen went in to make their sixth studio album News Of The World (released in 1977), Roger Taylor used this kit for the album and the tour.
On some parts of the world tour, his bass drum featured the album’s robot logo.
Drum Friendly
The album had some great drum friendly tracks like “We Will Rock You”, “We Are The Champions”, “Sheer Heart Attack” and “Get Down Make Love”.
At auction, it got a buyer for $850,000.
Stats
According to Taylor, the News Of The World kit was this:
- 26” x 18” bass drums
- 14” x 10” concert tom toms (mounted on a separate tom-tom stand)
- 15” x 14” rack tom tom
- 16” x 15” rack tom tom
- 18” x 16” floor tom tom
- 20” x 17” floor tom tom
- 14” x 16” snare drum
- 14” x 15” Ludwig timbales (on a separate stand over the floor tom toms
- 15” Avedis Zildjian hi-hats
- 8” Paiste 2002 bell
- 18” Paiste 602 crash
- 18” Avedis Zildjian crash
- 18” Avedis Zildjian crash
- 20” Avedis Zildjian ride
- 20”Paiste 2002 china
- 22” Avedis Zildjian ride (used as crash)
- 60” Paiste symphonic gong
- Bespoke beaters
- Paiste gong stand
- Ludwig hardware
- 3 x cowbells
- Ludwig Speed King pedal
- Rogers hi-ha stand and tom-tom mounting hardware
- Premier sticks
- Bass drum logo, white crest/black background (North America)
- Bass drum logo (News of the World robot/Europe)
CHAD SMITH RED HOT KIT – $300,000
Chad Smith fits in so seamlessly with Red Hot Chili Peppers, that it’s hard to believe that he almost didn’t make the final cut.
For a start, the band hated him as soon as he walked into the audition.
He “strutted in like he owned the place” and his metal haircut and bandana rankled them.
Snigger
They’d already decided, with sniggers, to let him just do the audition and throw him out, never to see him again.
But that changed when Smith powered in, his John Bonham-inspired single-kick approach giving their funk-rock a closed fist punch.
He was the best drummer they’d ever played with, and they knew it instantly.
Bandana
They invited him back the next day, but singer Anthony Keidis took him aside and told him, he had to cut his hair and lose the bandana.
Smith returned the next day, still sporting his bandana.
But he was too good to pass up, and Keidis would later admit that it was his stubbornness that made them realise how he’d fit right in.
Smith joined in December 1988 as they worked on Mother’s Milk, the album that was to break them internationally.
Pearl
Smith played Pearls for most of his career but switched to DW in 2016.
He endorsed Sabian cymbals, but switched to Paiste in May 2022.
He opts for Vater Funk Blaster signature sticks and Remo drum heads.
Showman
“I’m not that much of a showman,” Smith told Modern Drummer inn 1999. “But I am enjoying myself and I think people can see that.
“I’d never let the theatrical stuff get in the way of the actual drumming, but when you’re comfortable and playing what’s in your heart and soul, people pick up on that sort of honesty.
Natural
“It’s gotta be a natural thing, though, not like, ‘You’re crazy! You’re zany! You’re wacky! Okay, you’re a Chili Pepper.’
“You just gotta be who you are. I think that’s part of why they wanted me to join the band.
“With any good musician, part of the way they sound is their personality flowing out of their playing.”
Design
He commissioned DW to create a drum kit with the striking Chili Pepper design on each drum and on the bass drum head, with a limited edition going for $300,000.
Another stand-out was when he worked with tattooist to the stars Henk ‘Hanky Panky’ Schiffmacher to create classic symbols from tribal and tattoo art, which was “a reflection of Chad’s life – completely designed to the specs and wishes of Chad himself”.
Looking to buy a piece of music history for yourself? Julien’s Auctions host some pretty remarkable pieces! Shop them here.
