A painstaking exercise in matching the pattern of wood grain on an electric bass guitar to video footage of the band Queen has tripled the instrument’s value as it comes up for auction.
The bass guitar, a 1986 Warwick Buzzard owned by The Who’s late bass player John Entwistle, was originally forecast to fetch £10,000.
But auctioneers have increased that figure to between £20,000 and £40,000 after analysis of the instrument’s distinctive wood grain proved it to be the same instrument played by Queen’s bassist John Deacon at the band’s landmark 1986 Montreux Pop Festival performance.
The grain-matching technique also revealed the bass is the same one played by Deacon in Queen’s 1986 video for their top 20 hit Friends Will Be Friends.
The bass guitar is now thought to have been lent to Queen by Entwistle.
When auctioned in 2003 by Sotherby’s after Entwistle’s death, the Warwick Buzzard sold for £3,500.
However, at the time auctioneers were unaware of the Queen connection and the fact the bass has subsequently been shown to be one of a small number of prototypes.
It will be auctioned on December 2 at Gardiner Houlgate in Wiltshire.
Auctioneer Luke Hobbs said: “Bass guitars generally aren’t seen as being as cool as regular guitars so tend to attract lower prices.
“However, this instrument with its history with The Who – and now Queen – is pretty special.
“These were both huge British bands with international followings so we’re expecting considerable interest.
“The wood grain of a guitar is like a fingerprint so thank goodness the bass wasn’t painted.
“If it had been, the current owners probably wouldn’t have been able to prove the connection to Queen.
“I’m a Queen fan and the 1986 Montreux Pop Festival was one of their highpoints. They were at the peak of their powers and had just released their classic album A Kind Of Magic.”
Originally designed in collaboration with Entwistle, the Warwick Buzzard bass is among the most distinctive and innovative instruments produced by the German manufacturer.
It became a regular feature of Entwistle’s later years with The Who.
