Billy Howerdel’s ANALOGr sale puts a Thirteenth Step Yamaha in the spotlight

Billy Howerdel’s forthcoming ANALOGr collection offers a closer look at the equipment behind A Perfect Circle, including a Yamaha AES-1500 associated with Thirteenth Step. The sale was announced on November 2, with a November 8–16 auction window.

There is an important timing detail: the individual Yamaha listing says its timed auction will begin on or after November 8 if the reserve is met. Preliminary bids are already visible. The announcement’s window should therefore not be read as a guarantee that every lot starts and finishes together.

The guitar connection

According to the artist’s announcement, Howerdel used the AES-1500 extensively in the studio on Thirteenth Step, including “The Noose” and “Vanishing,” as well as occasionally onstage. That is a specific recording connection, not a claim that it was the only guitar on those tracks or throughout the album.

For guitar readers, this is the useful part of an artist sale: an instrument can help explain the range of sounds available to a player without becoming a shortcut to explaining an entire record. The performance, processing and arrangement remain separate questions.

Studio amps, not a complete touring rig

The announcement also identifies a Fender ToneMaster head and cabinet as studio equipment used from Thirteenth Step onward, and a Dave Friedman-modified Gibson Goldtone GA-15RV. Those histories should not be flattened into a claim that everything in the collection formed one live setup.

ANALOGr lists the Yamaha and Goldtone individually. Anyone following the sale should check each lot’s current conditions rather than treating an estimated value, an early bid or the general collection dates as a completed sale. The guitar history is interesting before a final price has been established.

Sources

• Artist-attributed ANALOGr announcement
• ANALOGr: Yamaha AES-1500 lot

Image: original GuitarGangsters editorial illustration of Billy Howerdel, guided by his 2018 appearance, with a Les Paul-style guitar rather than the Yamaha offered in the sale. Identity and instrument reference: Markus Felix | PushingPixels / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. New pose, setting, clothing, lighting and composition. Illustration shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.