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665

The Ramones: Ramone, Johnny

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:70,000.00 - 80,000.00 USD
The Ramones: Ramone, Johnny

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Auction Date:2012 Jan 26 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Johnny Ramone’s concert-played Mosrite guitar. There is no better provenance one could hope for than filmed documentation of Johnny himself playing this guitar on the concert stage and autographing the instrument as well. It did, indeed, happen at the April 30 and May 1 concerts at Coney Island High School in Brooklyn, New York, during the final leg of the Ramones last-ever tour in 1996. Ramones founding member John William Cummings, better known as Johnny Ramone, purchased his first Mosrite guitar, a blue Ventures II model, in 1974 only months before the band’s inception. After the theft of the guitar in 1977, Johnny replaced it with a white Ventures Mark II model. As one of his favorites of the four or five Mosrite models he had in rotation, it was played onstage at the majority of the 2263 concerts performed by the band between their 1974 debut until the demise of the Ramones in 1996.

The history of this particular white Mosrite dates to the Ramones tour of Japan in 1995 when the guitarist was approached about the possibility of endorsing a Japanese-made, Johnny Ramone Signature Series Mosrite guitar. He was given this guitar, played it during several stops on the Japanese tour, and was photographed on stage with the guitar for promotional purposes. The Japanese version did see the light of day during 1996, as did the American-made version. Johnny was approached in Spring 1996 about selling his original white Mosrite; a request he declined. He did, however, offer to sell the guitar he was given in Japan. Upon accepting the offer, Johnny played the guitar during the encores at both of the Coney Island High School shows in Brooklyn; the concerts notable as being the last-ever club dates played by the Queens-based band in any of the city’s boroughs. The second nights’ encore was videotaped by the new owner, as well as the moment when Johnny signed the back of the headstock, “This is my guitar, Johnny Ramone, May 1, 1996.”

Though Johnny succumbed to prostate cancer in 2005, his legacy as a guitarist is preserved, as he was posthumously recognized as being among the greatest guitarists of all-time by Rolling Stone magazine at #16, and in 2009 as one of the “ten best electric guitarists of all-time” by Time magazine.

In addition to a DVD of the Coney Island encore and guitar signing, also included are two 5 x 6 photos from the May 1 encore, a remarkable, 9 x 12 autographed photo of Johnny backstage with the guitar flanked by two road cases emblazoned with the famous Ramones logo, and two of his guitar picks.

This guitar represents the end of an era—a newer version of the original instrument that launched the Ramones into Hall of Fame status. This instrument embodies a raw artifact from the last days of one of the arguably greatest punk bands of all time. A truly one-of-a-kind relic.
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