“An evocative track reflecting the social and political unrest of Britain”: The Specials’ Ghost Town bass fetches thousands at auction – having been bought for just £200

The 'Ghost Town' Bass - Horace Panter's 1971 Fender P-Bass & More! | Guitar Auction Preview March 26 - YouTube

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The Fender Precision Bass used to record The Special's gloomy political anthem, Ghost Town, has sold at auction for over $15,000 – meaning its value has increased by more than 5,000%.

The bass, built in 1971, was bought by Horace Panter for £200 and was famously used on the 1981 track that topped the UK charts. Although its sale, by Gardiner Houlgate, fell short of the estimated high price of £20,000 (approx. $26,500), it still represents a staggering increase in value.

The auctioneer had expected the instrument, which has undergone a series of modifications over its lifetime, to “stir up considerable interest,” given Ghost Town's significance as a song that encapsulated the era's bleak political climate.

“Ghost Town is such an evocative track reflecting the social and political unrest of Britain at that time,” Gardiner Houlgate’s Luke Hobbs said ahead of the auction. “Horace Panter's bass is a big part of it.”

The four-string was also used in Horace Panter’s supergroup, General Public, which featured members of The Clash and Dexy’s Midnight Runners after The Specials broke up. It can be heard on their 1984 single Tenderness.

Panter had bought it from a store in Kettering, Northamptonshire, the same year Ghost Town was recorded and released. He would go on to install a brass bridge and nut, and DiMarzio pickups.

Further mods, made at a later date, included the addition of its brass pickguard and matching knobs. He also repainted the bass, giving it the Powder Blue chic it still has today.

In an Instagram post announcing the auction, Panter called the bass a “beauty.”

The auction, though, has been dwarfed by the sale of a large portion of the late Jim Irsay’s monumental gear collection. The line-up of electric guitars and other storied pieces of gear and memorabilia contains a number of the world’s most expensive guitars, and, in a surprise to no one, many sold for record-shattering prices.