Experimental rock juggernauts Sonic Youth are partnering with Reverb for the third time to sell a collection of studio-used gear – including Lee Ranaldo's first-ever electric guitar: a Hagstrom II.
Although it was mainly played in his high school bedroom before it was traded for a Fender Super Reverb amp, the Jaguar-meets-Mosrite-style model would serve as one of the key building blocks of what would later become a bona fide, boundary-pushing playing style.
“At some point, when my first band, The Fluks, was playing, I needed an amp, and I traded this guitar and like $60 to my drummer at that time, David Linton’s sister, who had a Super Reverb Amp,” explains Ranaldo.
“That became my first target amp, and basically set the precedent for exactly what I wanted to play out of the rest of my life… This was responsible for me getting the first one, and it came back to me recently through David’s sister.”
The Hagstrom II is accompanied by other pieces of gear from the breadth of the band and Ranaldo’s career. A well-worn Foxx Tone Machine – stripped of its initial purple velvet and with a Confusion Is Sex sticker taped to it – is up for grabs, alongside a Mu-Tron Bi-Phase, used on 1995's Washing Machine and 1998's A Thousand Leaves.
There's also a custom-built parametric EQ, gifted to Ranaldo by his old Fluks bandmate and used on Sonic Youth's debut Confusion Is Sex.
A Taylor 314ce acoustic guitar with a link to Neil Young makes an appearance – complete with the violin/cello bow he used to play it. Ranaldo played at Young’s Bridge School benefit shows, so its current bridge pins were recommended by Neil Young’s guitar tech, Larry Cragg.
In 2018, Sonic Youth launched their Reverb store with over 200 pieces of gear and memorabilia, ranging from test pressings to a ’70s Fender Telecaster Deluxe used by Ranaldo, Jim O'Rourke, and Mark Ibold from 1987 to 2009. Fast forward to 2022, and the band unleashed a stockpile of tape reels they had accumulated from various studios.
The seminal alt-rock band's return to Reverb follows in the footsteps of Green Day, Jimmy Eat World, Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes, and Josh Rand, who have all linked up with the online music marketplace to offer limited-edition memorabilia and gear directly to fans.
The official Sonic Youth Reverb shop will reopen on May 21. For more information, visit Reverb.
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