If you’ve ever wanted to own a bass guitar played by Green Day’s Mike Dirnt — including some that were set on fire — here’s your chance. Dirnt is selling a bunch of his gear alongside clothing he’s worn over his three-decade career via online marketplace
Reverb. The collection, which can be previewed now via Dirnt’s Reverb shop, goes on sale beginning Sept. 9.
“I’ve found some amazing guitars and basses over the years. When you’re on tour for a long time, you’re always looking for cool gear. You’re always thinking about what could be on the next record or what do I need to play tonight or what can I find that sparks inspiration,” Dirnt said in a statement. “Every guitar, every bass, every amp has something different. You pick up a guitar and strum it and you think, there’s songs in this thing and I’m going to extract those songs. Then once you feel like you’ve gotten the songs or the recording out of it, it’s time to let it go and give it to the next person.”
Among the notable items in the collection are a bevy of bass guitars that were burned onstage during the Nimrod and Warning tours, when drummer Tré Cool would set his kit on fire back in the late Nineties and early 2000s. “Tré Cool is our resident pyromaniac…there’d be a 20-foot fire going and my bass and Tré’s kit are burning while Billie’s playing ‘Time of Your Life.’ It was pretty awesome actually,” Dirnt said.
If burned axes are not your thing, the collection includes an unplayable original Gibson Grabber guitar, which was unintentionally smashed by Cool and Dirnt.
Other guitars on offer are two American Idiot-era Fender Mike Dirnt Signature Precision bass guitars he played while touring in support of that record, which he customized himself; a signed Fender bass guitar that served as one of the main basses used to cull Nimrod; and a 1962 Fender Precision bass in Fiesta Red, which Dirnt called “special,” adding: “This thing really plays incredibly.”
Amps, speaker cabinets, and amp heads are also part of the shop’s collection, which features articles of clothing he’s worn onstage and in music videos. The shop will feature the leather bomber jacket he wore in the “Wake Me Up When September Ends” music video along with the security outfit from Green Day’s “Oh Yeah” visual. There are also jackets worn during the 21st Century Breakdown, American Idiot, and ¡UNO! tours, Dickies pants pinstriped by Dirnt, and more. Nearly all of the clothing pieces were designed, altered, or reconstructed by Dirnt. Proceeds from the clothing sold will go to charity.
“This is all stuff people have seen me wearing in the past,” Dirnt said. “If somebody wants to buy a pair of the pants and cut it, make bracelets with it, cut a patch off and put it on your jacket…that’s the coolest thing ever. It’s just fabric. Play with it. Have fun with it like I did. From me to you.”
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