$96,000 for an Epiphone acoustic? Noel Gallagher’s signed Wonderwall EJ-200 smashes pre-auction estimate

Inflation is in the news a lot this weather, so just imagine our surprise when a news alert pinged to say that an Epiphone acoustic guitar just sold for $96,000 – but lo, false alarm, this was no ordinary Epiphone guitar.

No, this EJ-200, the Epiphone version of the storied Gibson SJ-200 jumbo, belonged to Noel Gallagher, and the Oasis guitarist not only used it during the writing sessions for the Manchester, England rock superstars' über-smash debut album, Definitely Maybe, but played it in the video for Wonderwall, too. And the guitar has been signed by the Chief himself.

It was sold at auction via Sotheby’s. Guitar World brought you the news when the auction first came online. The initial estimates had this big-lunged acoustic pegged somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000.

It is being called the Wonderwall acoustic because of the video, but the guitar that Gallagher recorded the actual track with met a different fate. If you cast your mind back to the pre-reunion days (well, actually to the pre-breakup days) you might remember Oasis being one of the more volatile beat combos on the indie scene.

The brothers Noel and frontman Liam Gallagher would often have it out. During one ruckus, an acoustic got turned into kindling and it didn’t even belong to them – it was the engineer Nick Brine’s.

“It was the morning after a heavy night and Liam was worse for wear,” said Brine, speaking to the BBC last year. “Noel had said something about him in the papers and Liam kicked off.

“I’m in Abbey Road’s famous Studio Two setting up equipment and hungover myself, then looking up I saw a guitar come flying over from the control room. It was Noel’s Fender Jag and it smashed to bits. I ran to the control room and Liam also made a big dent in Abbey Road’s mixing desk.”

Brine took cover. What was coming next.

“Then I see another acoustic guitar flying over the top and in a thousand pieces on the floor,” he says, “and realize that’s my guitar.”

Brine was well recompensed. The brothers gifted him the actual acoustic that tracked Wonderwall as compensation.

As for this one, well, it’s a pretty sweet Epiphone build. Epiphone doesn’t carry that model in the 2026 catalog, but the Inspired By Gibson Custom 1957 SJ-200, all-solid wood build, with figured maple to impress your gran, could be yours for $1,499. And that is a pretty sweet deal.