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Bob Dylan’s old guitar sells for more than £300k at auction

Bob Dylan used the instrument at the famous Concert for Bangladesh and up until the mid 70s.
Bob Dylan used the instrument at the famous Concert for Bangladesh and up until the mid 70s. Bob Dylan used the instrument at the famous Concert for Bangladesh and up until the mid 70s.

A guitar once owned by Bob Dylan has sold for almost $400,000 (£303,000) at auction.

Heritage Auctions in Dallas said the 1963 Martin D-28 acoustic guitar was snapped up for $396,500 by a buyer who wanted to remain anonymous.

The listing for the instrument said it was played through US star Dylan’s entire set at ex-Beatle George Harrison’s 1971 Concert For Bangladesh, which was held in Madison Square Garden, New York.

The singer-songwriter, 76, also used the guitar during his Rolling Thunder Revue tour from 1975 to 1976.

The listing said it displayed “wear commensurate with stage use, but respectful wear in the form of the usual light scratches, dings and dents, more so at the upper edge of the back of the guitar, likely the result of a harmonica holder or the metal buttons of a blue jean jacket”.

Dylan sold the instrument to musician Larry Cragg, his guitar repairman at the time, in 1977.

Cragg said he kept the guitar in a humidity-controlled environment and that it has not been played since it was last strummed by Dylan.


The original purchase receipt was included in the lot and said: “Bought from Bob Dylan Martin D-28 #196405 and case for $500.00.”