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Lot Essay
This is one of many guitars that I bought from John Entwistle from The Who. I set it up to do what's called 'Nashville tuning', which is when you replace the bottom four strings with the strings from a 12-string set that are an octave higher in pitch and leave the top two strings at regular pitch. The sound of Nashville tuning is like a 12-string guitar, but brighter and more focused and delicate. It can be heard very clearly on the songs 'William, It Was Really Nothing', 'You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby' and 'Half A Person'. It's a technique I mostly use for overdubs as it's effective and doesn't get in the way of the other guitars on the track.
JOHNNY MARR, 2026
Johnny Marr acquired this 1962 Epiphone Coronet from John Entwistle via well-known British guitar tech Alan Rogan while he was living in Earls Court in mid-1984. In conversation with Martin Kelly for Marr’s Guitars, Marr explained: Around this time, when The Smiths started to have a run of hits… I became friends with a guy called Alan Rogan, who is sadly no longer with us. He was the guitar tech for Pete Townshend, and he'd also looked after Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and George Harrison among many other people over the years. Alan was one of the most respected guitar experts there'll ever be, and because he was working for The Who I got a few guitars from John Entwistle. Speaking to Premier Guitar in 2018, Marr elaborated: John knew that Alan was doing some work with me and Alan guided me towards it and thought I should have some guitars. Alan pretty much marched me ’round to John’s and made me buy them!
First used in July 1984 to double the Rickenbacker arpeggios on The Smiths’ 1984 single ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’, the Epiphone Coronet became Marr’s go-to studio guitar for Nashville tuning, primarily used for doubling and layering when he wanted to add a bright, trebly tone to a track. It's a good tuning for coming up with new stuff, Marr told The Guitar Magazine’s Michael Leonard in 1997, cause you kind of feel like you're playing backwards. Interviewed by Joe Gore for Guitar Player in 1990, Marr revealed: I use Nashville tuning all the time. I've got an Epiphone Coronet with one pickup, and I string it with the high strings from a 12-string set. It's a really zingy, trebly guitar.
Marr further detailed his layered recording process in Marr’s Guitars, explaining: Over the years I've developed a style of recording using multilayered guitar parts. It's a technique I started in my bedroom at my parents' house where I would record a part onto a TEAC cassette machine (lot 3) and then build up a backing track with a lot of overdubs that all worked together. Back then I only had the one guitar so it wasn't easy to make all the layers sound very distinct. During the 1980s, as I made more albums and acquired different guitars, I was able to refine this approach. It's the thing I love to do and I named the process 'the Guitarchestra'.
A key player in Marr’s ‘Guitarchestra’, the Coronet was tracked alongside two Rickenbackers on the 1986 B-side ‘The Draize Train’ and overdubbed on the aborted single A-side 'You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby', which was ultimately released on the band’s 1987 compilation albums The World Won’t Listen and Louder Than Bombs. Conversely, the Coronet is perhaps best heard as the shimmering lead guitar on ‘Half A Person’, which Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield calls a fragile shiver of a song, and ranks as the second best song in the entire Smiths’ catalogue. Originally written in October 1986 as the intended B-side to 'You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby', ‘Half A Person’ was eventually released as the B-side to ‘Shoplifters of the World Unite’ in January 1987. Marr has continued to utilise the Coronet’s trebly tones in his solo work, most notably on the lead single and title track of his 2013 debut solo album The Messenger.
JOHNNY MARR, 2026
Johnny Marr acquired this 1962 Epiphone Coronet from John Entwistle via well-known British guitar tech Alan Rogan while he was living in Earls Court in mid-1984. In conversation with Martin Kelly for Marr’s Guitars, Marr explained: Around this time, when The Smiths started to have a run of hits… I became friends with a guy called Alan Rogan, who is sadly no longer with us. He was the guitar tech for Pete Townshend, and he'd also looked after Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and George Harrison among many other people over the years. Alan was one of the most respected guitar experts there'll ever be, and because he was working for The Who I got a few guitars from John Entwistle. Speaking to Premier Guitar in 2018, Marr elaborated: John knew that Alan was doing some work with me and Alan guided me towards it and thought I should have some guitars. Alan pretty much marched me ’round to John’s and made me buy them!
First used in July 1984 to double the Rickenbacker arpeggios on The Smiths’ 1984 single ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’, the Epiphone Coronet became Marr’s go-to studio guitar for Nashville tuning, primarily used for doubling and layering when he wanted to add a bright, trebly tone to a track. It's a good tuning for coming up with new stuff, Marr told The Guitar Magazine’s Michael Leonard in 1997, cause you kind of feel like you're playing backwards. Interviewed by Joe Gore for Guitar Player in 1990, Marr revealed: I use Nashville tuning all the time. I've got an Epiphone Coronet with one pickup, and I string it with the high strings from a 12-string set. It's a really zingy, trebly guitar.
Marr further detailed his layered recording process in Marr’s Guitars, explaining: Over the years I've developed a style of recording using multilayered guitar parts. It's a technique I started in my bedroom at my parents' house where I would record a part onto a TEAC cassette machine (lot 3) and then build up a backing track with a lot of overdubs that all worked together. Back then I only had the one guitar so it wasn't easy to make all the layers sound very distinct. During the 1980s, as I made more albums and acquired different guitars, I was able to refine this approach. It's the thing I love to do and I named the process 'the Guitarchestra'.
A key player in Marr’s ‘Guitarchestra’, the Coronet was tracked alongside two Rickenbackers on the 1986 B-side ‘The Draize Train’ and overdubbed on the aborted single A-side 'You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby', which was ultimately released on the band’s 1987 compilation albums The World Won’t Listen and Louder Than Bombs. Conversely, the Coronet is perhaps best heard as the shimmering lead guitar on ‘Half A Person’, which Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield calls a fragile shiver of a song, and ranks as the second best song in the entire Smiths’ catalogue. Originally written in October 1986 as the intended B-side to 'You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby', ‘Half A Person’ was eventually released as the B-side to ‘Shoplifters of the World Unite’ in January 1987. Marr has continued to utilise the Coronet’s trebly tones in his solo work, most notably on the lead single and title track of his 2013 debut solo album The Messenger.