Last September, in the mid-season opener of the Showtime series "Billions," American rocker Jason Isbell appeared as himself, to play a benefit sponsored by Taylor Mason Capital. Later in the show, he visited the gallery of painter Nico Tanner (Frank Grillo), who is essentially being kept as a pet by boyishly charming evil billionaire Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis).
Isbell looks at Tanner's paintings and makes approving noises. When Axelrod offers that he ought to think about commissioning a piece from Tanner, Isbell demurs.
"I spend most of my money on guitars," he says.
If you're familiar with Isbell's concerts, you don't doubt the accuracy of that line; the last time he played in Little Rock he showed off tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of instruments on stage. In a (terribly edited) YouTube video posted by GQ as part of its "Collected" series a little over a year ago, Isbell talked about his guitar collection, which he said at the time only contained 50 or 60 instruments.
On the video, Isbell shows off a couple of 1953 Gibson Les Paul "goldtops" (instruments that Reverb magazine blue-books at $13,205--$22,740), a pre-CBS '65 Fender Telecaster (give or take $20,000), a '60 Fender Strat ($33,000 to $75,000), a 1961 Gibson ES 335 ($25,995 to $41,995), a Gretsch White Falcon that belonged to John Prine, a Martin D-18 from the '50s ($3,500; $6,500 in today's market) and the centerpiece of the collection, a 1959 Les Paul Standard Sunburst nicknamed Red Eye, once owned by Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Ed King. (Isbell has been coy about how much he paid for the guitar, purchased from King's widow, but estimates range as high as $650,000. The 1973 Fender Stratocaster that King used to write and record "Sweet Home Alabama" reportedly sold for $450,000.)
We can be assured that in real life, Isbell spends most of his money on guitars.
Good for him. People spend their money on a lot of things, and I'd rather have classic instruments in the hands of players like Isbell than in the humidified vault of some Bobby Axelrod-like billionaire collector. That's where Ed King's Redeye ended up after it was stolen from him at gunpoint in 1987.
For years, King called every music and pawn shop in every town he visited to try to recover the guitar. Then, 11 years later, he saw it in "The Beauty of the 'Burst: Gibson Sunburst Les Pauls from '58 to '60," a book by Yasuhiko Iwanade. Though the book hadn't yet been translated into English, King recognized his guitar by a distinctive red spot near the toggle switch. Fortunately Iwanade listed the guitar's serial number. It matched.
While the statute of limitations had expired on the theft, the book did credit a collector, Perry Margouleff, as current owner of the guitar. King dug a little further and discovered Margouleff, while he collected guitars, often acted as a procurer of guitars for Dirk Ziff, the billionaire scion of the Ziff Davis company, publishers of PC Magazine and Car and Driver, and a hedge fund manager who was one of the largest donors to the Democratic Party.
(I can think of any number of reasons why a billionaire might prefer someone else to do his shopping for him--it might seem unseemly to haggle over a few thousand dollars when you're worth more than Sri Lanka. Margouleff reportedly purchased King's guitar from a Los Angeles guitar shop in 1988 for less than $10,000. Even back then, that was a good deal.)
Ziff was also an avid guitarist who built his own studio with dozens of rare guitars lining the walls. He had others, locked away in a vault he required visitors to don felt jumpsuits before entering.
After months of negotiation and due diligence--there was some question as to whether King or his insurance company was the rightful owner of the guitar--Ziff agreed to either return the guitar (then worth an estimated $40,000) or buy it from King. King wanted his axe back, and he got it. He kept it and played it as his main stage guitar until his death in 2018.
Whenever Redeye changes hands again, it's likely to sell for significantly more than whatever Isbell paid for it. Not only is it a Sunburst '59 Les Paul, it belonged to King and Isbell and has this great story about being lost and recovered. It's rare, and it has lore.
And it's a great-sounding guitar. Based on its sonic capabilities--Isbell can tell you all about how condensation affects the potentiometers in the old Gibsons to allow them to have more treble or something--its current owner claims it's the best guitar in Nashville.
I don't have a Gibson Les Paul--the headstock angle on Gibson products has always bothered me; I've always been afraid I'd snap it off--but I can understand why a working musician might want to have a lot of guitars. Every guitar has its own qualities, and when you're chasing a tone you might not be willing to compromise.
And guitars, unlike most things idiots buy, tend to retain their value; some even appreciate. I have an eight-string baritone that, according to some sites, is worth roughly $1,000 more than when I acquired it in 2016. (Part of the reason it has appreciated is that the model has been discontinued.)
I'll keep this guitar for a long time. It has a rich, throaty voice and something of the quality of a piano. I've never played it in public, but have used it on some recordings. I can justify it as a tool.
And if I did decide to sell it, I'd have to be patient. I doubt I'd find a buyer right away (if ever) and if I took it to a guitar or pawn shop I'd probably get half or a quarter of what the experts say it's worth.
It might be a stretch to call it an investment, but it's probably better--or at least safer--than collecting baseball cards or sports memorabilia. Or all those Scotty Cameron headcovers that Titleist sent me back in the day.
Hold on to any guitar--no matter how crappy it is--for long enough, and it will eventually become collectible. If you know about them, and you don't overpay, you can build a decent portfolio over time. Maybe some of them will yield returns better than Bitcoin or one of Nico Tanner's paintings.
Maybe, if you're like the "Billions" version of Jason Isbell, who admits he never really feels comfortable around the financial set, they're just a better investment.
Philip Martin is a columnist and critic for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at pmartin@adgnewsroom.com and read his blog at blooddirtandangels.com.