Noel Gallagher’s Oasis acoustic guitar sells for £226,800 at auction

Noel Gallagher’s signed acoustic guitar, played during Oasis’s 1996 MTV Unplugged performance in London, sold for £226,800 at Propstore’s music auction on Thursday, 1 October 2026. The auctioneer called it the highest price achieved at auction for an Oasis acoustic guitar, a record tied to a specific category rather than to all guitars or all Oasis memorabilia.

BBC News and RTÉ reported the sale on Friday. Both attributed the record claim to Propstore. Their accounts establish the reported sale figure but do not identify the buyer or state a separate hammer price. The distinction matters because the publicly reported £226,800 should be read as the sale price, without assuming how auction fees were treated.

The guitar Noel Gallagher played at MTV Unplugged

Propstore catalogued the instrument as lot 169, an owned and autographed Takamine FP460SC. According to its catalogue, it was one of two identical guitars Gallagher used during Oasis’s MTV Unplugged performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall on 23 August 1996. The pair enabled him to move between alternate tunings and songs requiring a capo, including ‘Wonderwall’.

The concert had an unusual line-up. Propstore’s account says Liam Gallagher withdrew shortly before the performance, citing a sore throat, and Noel took the lead vocals while Liam watched from the balcony. That places the guitar at a performance in which the band’s principal songwriter also became its singer for the night.

The auction listing describes Gallagher’s handwritten inscription as ‘Peace, love + Bananas!! Much Love’. It also says the guitar came with a signed letter of authenticity from guitar technician Jason Rhodes. Propstore reported that the instrument had been displayed until June 2026 in the Grammy Museum’s ‘MTV Turns Forty: I Still Want My MTV’ exhibition in Mississippi.

What the £226,800 result establishes

Propstore had given the guitar a pre-sale estimate of £75,000 to £150,000. That estimate provides context for the auction listing, while the two news reports give the final reported sale figure. The available accounts do not state a separate hammer price or explain whether the reported figure includes buyer fees, so they do not support a direct comparison between the final figure and the estimate on the same basis.

The record wording is also precise. Propstore called the result the highest auction price for an Oasis acoustic guitar. The published accounts reviewed here do not set out a full table of earlier sales in that category. They support reporting the auctioneer’s claim with attribution, rather than treating £226,800 as a record for acoustic guitars generally.

Propstore music specialist Mark Hochman called the sale a ‘fantastic result’ in comments reported by BBC News and RTÉ. He said the response reflected fans’ lasting connection with Oasis. His assessment is the auction house’s explanation of the result; neither outlet reported an interview with the buyer that might explain the winning bid.

Other results from Propstore’s music auction

The Gallagher guitar was among several high-value lots on the first day of Propstore’s Music Live Auction. A Freddie Mercury notebook containing handwritten working lyrics and notes from the Mr. Bad Guy recording sessions sold for £277,200, making it the day’s highest-selling lot, according to BBC News. RTÉ also reported the notebook as the leading lot and identified it as part of producer Reinhold Mack’s collection.

Both outlets reported that a black-and-gold military-style jacket worn by Michael Jackson sold for £226,800, matching the reported price of Gallagher’s guitar. They also reported a Yamaha C3 grand piano associated with Mercury selling for £81,900. BBC News said the first day’s lots brought in a combined £2.5 million; RTÉ reported the same total.

Those other sales show the scale of the event, but they do not broaden the guitar’s record category. For Gallagher’s instrument, the established result remains a reported £226,800 sale and Propstore’s claim that no Oasis acoustic guitar had previously achieved a higher auction price. The buyer and a separately stated hammer price have not been disclosed in the accounts available for this report.