ZZ Top icon Dusty Hill's famous Fender Precision bass guitar sells at auction for $393,700

A bass guitar owned and extensively used by late ZZ Top icon Dusty Hill has sold at auction for $393,700 (£313,830) – making it the second most expensive bass ever sold at auction.

The 1953 butterscotch Fender Precision was used by Hill in the studio and on stage and even appeared on the cover of ZZ Top's 1975 album Fandango!

Only Paul McCartney's Yamaha BB-1200 bass, sold in 2021, has ever fetched more. The Beatles star's bass sold for $471,900, with the funds going to the Music Rising charity.

The third most expensive bass ever sold at auction is Rolling Stones man Bill Wyman's Fender Mustang, sold in 2020 for $384,000.

Hill's widow Charleen McCrory Hill said after the sale: "Dusty would be so pleased to know his bass is between a Beatle and a Rolling Stone!"

Hill's Fender Precision was sold as part of Julien's Auctions' 'The Collection Of Dusty Hill Of ZZ Top', which also featured some of his trademark attire and a string of other rare and exclusive items.

The listing describes the bass as follows: "1953 Fender Precision bass, serial number 970, in butterscotch finish with black pickguard, the instrument is in all original 7/10 condition, in period tweed case with a great deal of wear and an extraordinary assortment of stickers."

In an interview for Fender in 2012, Hill said of the bass: "Early in ZZ Top's career, Billy Gibbons and I drove up from Houston to Dallas. This is one of those stories you always hear, but this really happened, and we went to a pawn shop called Rocky's Pawn shop and on the wall was a Fender bass guitar and this guy truly had no idea what he had, and I get Billy to make the deal because he's better at that than I am.

"Anyway, he worked him and worked him and I got the bass for $70.  We're leaving and Billy goes 'Nope, wait a minute, no deal. You have to throw in the case.'  So he actually threw the case in, and it was close to an original case, for $70. That guitar I still have.

"You know to be truthful I don't know the year of it but it's pretty old, it's pretty old, and I played it forever, it's on the cover of a few albums and magazines, and I retired it because it was just a shame to have to put her through anymore because she did her work you know."

Dusty Hill died in 2021 at the age of 72.