'Special' guitar's link to Queen triples value

Auctioneer Luke Hobbs holding the Warwick Buzzard bass guitar up for auction

An effort to match the pattern of wood grain on an electric bass guitar to 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 forecast to fetch £10,000 on December 2 at Gardiner Houlgate in Corsham, Wiltshire.

But auctioneers have increased that figure to between £20,000 and £40,000 after analysis of the instrument's wood grain proved it to be the same instrument played by Queen's bassist John Deacon at the 1986 Montreux Pop Festival.

Auctioneer Luke Hobbs said: "The wood grain of a guitar is like a fingerprint, so thank goodness the bass wasn't painted."

John Deacon playing the bass in the Friends Will Be Friends video

The bass guitar is now thought to have been lent to Queen by Entwistle.

When auctioned in 2003 by Sotheby'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 that the bass has subsequently been shown to be one of a small number of prototypes.

The grain-matching technique also revealed that the bass is the same one played by Deacon in Queen's 1986 video for their top 20 hit Friends Will Be Friends.

"Bass guitars generally aren't seen as being as cool as regular guitars, so tend to attract lower prices," Mr Hobbs said.

"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.

"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.