Albert Hammond Jr of the Strokes has followed in the footsteps of Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Rancid and Placebo – and, yes, even budget gear giant Harley Benton – and has opened an official online store on Reverb.
This, of course, is not the first time Hammond Jr has done this. In 2018, he partnered with the internet gear retail giant to raise some money for charity. He sounds a little unsure whether this is a good idea or not but the money is going to a good cause so maybe we should buy before he changes his mind.
“It’s kind of scary to go through these…like, ‘Oh I’m going to take that back!” he says. “My hope is that they find a home within you.”
And this gear is on sale right now. Sadly, his Gibson SG with the Bigsby (apparently he was “going through a Bigsby phase”) has already been sold, because that looked like one super-cool electric guitar. We’re not surprised it has gone – especially at that price. But this being Hammond Jr, there is more than just guitars.
The multi-instrumentalist has cymbals, kick-drum heads, hard-shell guitar cases, and even an old Roland Jupiter-6 analogue synth is up for sale. Now that is an object of interest.
This polyphonic synthesizer, launched in ’83, discontinued a couple of years later and it belongs to Hammond Sr, who is hopefully aware that his boy is flogging it on the internet. Those things are worth a bit of money.
As are Custom Shop Fender Strats. Hammond Jr is selling one, already relic’d by the luthiers at Fender’s Corona, California facility but bearing some of the scars from being the Strokes guitarist’s back-up Strat.
Now, this actually looks eerily similar to the one pictured at the top of the page and even though it needs a setup it looks a decent buy for $5,000. C’mon, it’s Friday night, just buy the thing, bookmark MusicRadar’s guide to setting up your electric guitar and you’ll have it fixed up in no time.
Strokes fans have plenty to get into here. There’s a Guild acoustic that was Hammond Jr’s number one acoustic guitar on the 2007 Yours To Keep Tour.
There’s some damage to the finish but it’s from Hammond Jr so that makes it worth a bit more – relic’ing, the old-fashioned way. “All the dings are real,” he assures us. “They look like they’re from my belt.”
Another that caught our eye was a 1959 Fender Custom Shop Jazzmaster Relic, which has a Mastery bridge and a lot of vibe, even though it is missing its whammy bar. Hey, spares are readily available. The Rhythm circuit is disconnected but that’s an easy mod and who uses that anyway?
There is also a Telecaster that’s been retro-fitted with a P-94 (a P-90 soapbar in a humbucker casing) and was used to shoot a Fender commercial. “The neck felt so nice and I asked them if I could keep it because it made me feel like I was going to practice more,” says Hammond Jr.
Bassists, we haven’t forgotten you. If you liked the bass guitar tone on 2013’s Comedown Machine you can now buy the Precision Bass Hammond Jr used on it.
For more details, head over to the Official Albert Hammond Jr of the Strokes Reverb Shop.
