Harmony Stratotone guitar played on the Rolling Stones debut single fetches $150,000 at auction

 It was the guitar Brian Jones played on the band’s earliest demos and at their early club gigs and used to teach Keith Richards

It is a lot of dough for an entry-level instrument – but given the Stratotone's provenance, the auctioneers were estimating it would go for more than twice that

The late Brian Jones’ early ’60s Harmony Stratotone has sold at auction for $150,000. Guitar World reports.

This was the guitar that Jones used on all of the Rolling Stones early recordings, including their debut single – and it was used to teach Keith Richards how to play.

With all that in mind it is maybe understandable that a budget electric guitar that you could pick up on the vintage market for a grand-and-a-half should go for megabucks.

“Perhaps even more importantly, this was the guitar Jones used to teach a young Keith Richards, helping shape the partnership that would define the band’s sound for decades.”

(Image credit: Heritage Auctions)
And all that aside, it is undeniably one cool guitar. You have the wooden bridge and this utilitarian trapeze-style tailpiece. You have the cupcake volume and tone knobs.

Also, it is a rare dual-pickup version, and what pickups they are too, those ‘Hershey bar’ single-coils giving you a variant on the fat heat of a P-90.