Reverb.com, the online music resale platform, has one truly unique feature that's great for musicians and music fans alike. And that's the fact that they give artists the ability to open their own Reverb shop, where they can list their valuable and historically significant instruments and gear for sale directly to their fans. How cool is that?
Today, seminal alt-indie-noise rockers Sonic Youth announced that on May 21, they'll be going live with their Reverb shop for the third time since 2018, where in the past they have listed over 200 items, including a Fender Telecaster used by the band and tape reels that were used in their recording sessions.
And this year's haul is looking pretty enticing as well. One highlight: Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo's very first guitar.
The guitar, a Hagstrom II, rarely saw action outside of the budding guitarist's bedroom before being traded for a Fender Super Reverb, a move that had its own significance for the aspiring player:
"At some point, when my first band, The Fluks, was playing, I needed an amp, and I traded this guitar and like $60 to my drummer at that time, David Linton’s sister, who had a Super Reverb Amp…that became my first target amp, and basically set the precedent for exactly what I wanted to play out of the rest of my life…This was responsible for me getting the first one, and it came back to me recently through David’s sister, " Ranaldo said in a press release announcing the sale.
While there don't seem to be many power tools (which the band is famous for using on their instruments) in the shop this time around, there are guitars, synths and keyboards, pro audio gear, and more—all with their place in Sonic Youth's epoch-defining run as one of indie's most innovative groups. A few more things you'll find in their shop:
- A Foxx Tone Machine used in the band’s earliest days. Stripped of its initial purple velvet, the well-worn pedal has a Confusion Is Sex sticker taped to it.
- A Ludwig Phase II Synthesizer that Ranaldo called “The sound of Washing Machine’s ‘Diamond Sea’” and “preposterously cool.”
- A Mu-Tron Bi-Phase, which Ranaldo called “one of the most coveted pedals,” that was used on A Thousand Leaves, Washing Machine, and more.
- A custom-built Parametric EQ that was gifted to Ranaldo by his old Fluks bandmate and used on Sonic Youth’s Confusion Is Sex.
- A Taylor 314ce acoustic guitar that Ranaldo played at Neil Young’s Bridge School benefit shows, complete with the recommended bridge pins from Neil Young’s guitar tech, Larry Cragg, and the violin/cello bow Ranaldo used to play it.
- Urei Studio Monitors from The Knitting Factory that were gifted to Sonic Youth when they first set up their own studio, Echo Canyon.
- Two stamp pads that Ranaldo would use when writing songs to impress an image of the guitar neck on his notebook so that he could write down the chords for each song.
Watch Ranaldo introduce the shop by telling the stories behind some of these legendary items in the video below.
Head to Reverb to be among the first to gain access to Sonic Youth's shop and see what other unique pieces of alternative music history you can find.
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