Bill Wyman’s Fender Mustang and Vox AC30 set records for most expensive bass and amp sold at auction

Julien’s recently hosted the massive Property From Bill Wyman and His Rolling Stones Archive auction, and the three-day event didn’t disappoint, with a new world record set for the most expensive bass guitar and guitar amp sold at auction.

That bass was a 1969 Fender Mustang with a Competition Orange finish, used by Wyman on the Stones’ concerts and recordings in 1969 and 1970 and exhibited at the O2 Arena Rock Exhibition in 2010. It sold for $384,000.

The record was previously held by Julien’s Auctions’ 2013 sale of a left-handed Hofner bass guitar presented to Paul McCartney in 1964, which sold for $204,800.

The Fender Mustang wasn’t the only record-setting sale at the auction. Wyman's 1962 Vox AC30 Normal amp sold for $106,250, setting a new world record for the most expensive amplifier sold at auction.

The previous record was held by the combined sale of two amplifiers owned by David Gilmour, which sold at auction in 2019 for $77,000.

What’s more, neither of these landmark items was even the top seller at the auction. That honor went to the 1968 Gibson Les Paul Standard Gold Top used by Brian Jones in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus concert show and film in December 1968 and on other recordings. The guitar, with case, went for $704,000 – three-and-a-half times its estimate of $200,000.

Other items in the auction a Ted Newman Jones Short-Scale bass custom built for Wyman in the mid-1970s ($31,250); a 1965 Framus Star Bass model 5/149 gold sunburst finish ($25,600) and Wyman’s early 1960s Framus Star Bass model 5/150 ($51,200); a 1978 Kramer Stagemaster Imperial DMZ 6000 bass used during the Rolling Stones and Wyman’s solo recording sessions from the late 1970s through the 1980s ($25,600); and a 1969 Ampeg Gemini 12/G-12 combo amp ($15,625) and Wyman's 1969 Ampeg B-15N Portaflex Bass amp ($46,875) both used by the Rolling Stones in 1971 while recording Exile on Main St.

And it wasn’t all guitars and gear, either. An acrylic plush yellow toilet seat cover printed with the Rolling Stones’ iconic tongue logo design sold for $1,152, making it, according to Julien’s, the most expensive toilet seat cover ever sold at auction.