Bruce Springsteen Guitar For Auction Friday

By Carol Williams/Patch Staff

ASBURY PARK, NJ - Rock and roll memorabilia lovers: attention. Those who are lovers of Bruce Springsteen's music or those who simply have an eye for Asbury Park history: the 1963 Fender Precision Bass guitar the Boss played on his premiere album is scheduled for auction Friday.

According to a posting on Guernsey's auction site as well as on liveauctions.com, Springsteen played the guitar on the 1973 album "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ," on the songs "Spirit in the Night" and "Blinded By the Light, which became a top 10 hit in the U.S. and overseas.

The website indicates the minimum bid is $40,000 and the guitar could go considerably higher, perhaps in the $100,000 to $200,000 range but hey, if you can afford waterfront housing in the city, maybe that is just the sort of thing you pick up for someone's holiday.

The history of the guitar's use in the album goes like this: In 1972, Springsteen's first album had been completed and submitted by his then-manager to Clive Davis, who ran Columbia Records, and Davis asked Springsteen to record a few more "radio-friendly" songs. In response, Springsteen wrote "Blinded by the Light" and "Spirit in the Night," and he and his manager went back into the studio to record them. However, Springsteen's usual bassist was not available so Springsteen decided to play the bass sections himself. But he did not have a bass guitar so his manager contacted a friend from a band that the manager had been in during the late 1960's - The Balloon Farm. The bass had been played on all of its songs, most notably on the 1968 Billboard Top 40 hit "A Question of Temperature." The bassist lived nearby and so he came to the studio with his 1963 Fender Precision in tow.

The guitar is not just an Asbury Park item of value. The auction house notes it was among a class of guitars that revolutionized the music industry when a California inventor named Leo Fender realized that he could improve upon the engineering of such acoustic guitars with the creation of electric solid body guitars. He also pioneered ways to streamline such guitars, according to the website.

The electric Precision bass was more compact than the acoustic double basses used in the past and the introduction of what is called the P-bass along with the Telecaster electric guitar - the first solid body Spanish-style electric guitar - led to the beginning of what is now the modern-day rock group. The amplified sound of these instruments meant that smaller groups of musicians could get together and still create big sounds, according to the auction announcement.

This guitar is in fair condition, with some very small nicks and holes on the front of the body and two divots in the wood where the bassist would have placed his thumb while playing. The black paint on the panels surrounding the volume and tone control knobs is faded around the edges.

This item is being consigned by the individual who lent the bass to Springsteen, in conjuction with his first manager, according to the website.

Bruce Springsteen playing guitar at a Paramount Theater benefit in 2007. Photograph by Mel Evans/Associated Press.