Robin Finck Sells 200 Guitars, Including His Nine Inch Nails Les Paul

Guitarist Robin Finck will sell roughly 200 instruments and pieces of gear, including the Gibson Les Paul '60 Reissue Goldtop he played at Nine Inch Nails' Woodstock '94 set, when the Official Robin Finck Reverb Shop opens on Nov. 11.

Finck, who has spent decades alternating between Nine Inch Nails and Guns N' Roses, is selling the collection outright rather than at auction — meaning fixed prices and, presumably, first-come buyers.

What is in the shop?

The headline item is the Goldtop he nicknamed "Old Gold." Finck joined Nine Inch Nails in 1994 and played that guitar at the band's notoriously muddy Woodstock '94 performance, in the "March of the Pigs" music video, and on the Self Destruct tour. He used it on every Nine Inch Nails tour he played through 2014.

"On the day we shot the video for 'March of the Pigs,' that version of Nine Inch Nails had never played a show in front of an audience," Finck said in a statement. "My whole world was about to tilt. This is the only guitar that made it out of 1994 intact. I don't know why or how because it's also the guitar I played more than any other."

A second centerpiece is a "translucent white" 1990 Gibson Les Paul Custom. "It's the only guitar I had when I landed in Nine Inch Nails," Finck said. "I've played it for over 35 years. It has always been favored."

The shop also lists:

• Additional Fender and Gibson guitars played with Nine Inch Nails and Guns N' Roses
• A Fano Alt de Facto PX6, the guitar Finck played for Nine Inch Nails' scene in Twin Peaks: The Return
• Effects and fuzz pedals, among them the DOD FX25 Envelope Filter used to record Guns N' Roses' "Better"

The Fano carries its own celebrity footnote. "I'm an enormous fan of Twin Peaks and all things David Lynch," Finck said. "It was just so cool to be on set and experience David calling out from his collapsible canvas director's chair."

Why is he selling?

Finck's stated reason is storage, not crisis or retirement. "I've genuinely used and enjoyed all of these pieces, so much so that I've ended up with two or even three of some of them," he said. "You know I love all these sweeties, I just don't need multiples of them anymore. I have been so fortunate to have played these on stages all over the world, and now they're poised to play with someone new."

What does this change for buyers?

No estimates or reserve prices appear in the announcement, and none are needed: this is a retail sale. That removes the auction-house premium from the equation but shifts the risk of fast sellouts onto procrastinators. Fans of 1990s industrial rock — or of Lynch's cancelled-too-soon universe — have until Nov. 11 to decide how much a provenance-documented Les Paul is worth to them.