Mike Hanopol is Putting Up His Prized Guitar for Auction. And Oh The Stories It Can Tell

(SPOT.ph) Mike Hanopol has lost his headless Steinberger 10 times but it keeps finding its way back to him. This February, however, the Pinoy Rock icon might be cutting all ties with the guitar that’s been so attached to him since owning it more than 40 years ago. It’s up for bids this coming weekend at an online sale at Salcedo Auctions with an estimate price of P450,000 to P550,000.

Not that Hanopol is aching to get rid of the instrument. The 77-year old singer-guitarist-songwriter, one of the pioneering members of the influential Juan Dela Cruz Band, the man behind the hits “Laki Sa Layaw,” “Umiikot-Ikot” “No Touch,” and “Titser’s Enemy Number 1,” in fact speaks very highly of his Steinberger. He almost seems offended when asked what its value is to him. “Sa akin yung tanong na yun mali yun eh,” he tells SPOT.ph. “Sa akin priceless na siya eh. Sa dami ng nangyari diyan…”

How Mike Hanopol got hold of the Steinberger 

The Steinberger arrived in the musician’s life in the early 1980s. At that time, he’d left a flourishing career in the Philippines and moved first to South Florida before finding a place in New York City. It’s in New York where he would purchase the guitar for 1,200 USD. If we take Hanopol’s word for it, one of the things that attracted him to the guitar was the fact that it just won an award—the Award of Excellence from Materials Engineering, if we’re to go by Steinberger history.

“Walang lumabas na guitar na mas magaling pa diyan,” Hanopol tells us. “Naluma yung sinasabi nila na perfect pitch. Eto sobra pa sa perfect pitch.” 

The man should know. Before that, he’s had a Washburn, a Gibson, a Fender, an Esquire.  When asked what his first guitar was, he couldn’t give a simple answer because to him there were many. “Papalit-palit. Minsan binibili ng iba, eh di may una na naman ako,” says Hanopol who started playing with the ukulele at home when he was three.

Losing the Steinberger and finding it again 

The Steinberger was the guitarist’s constant companion during his gigs in America. Like we said in the beginning, it had a penchant for getting lost but its human always found a way to reunite with his musical partner. Hanopol had left it once in a restaurant, and then in a parking lot—coming from an afternoon show and in a rush to make it to a performance venue that’s a three-hour drive away, he forgot to load it in his car and realized he’d left it only when he arrived at his destination. 

Others would not bother to come back for the guitar. What are the chances it’s still there, in a public place, three hours after? But Hanopol went back, made his evening audience wait, zigzagged through the cars along the expressway and found the instrument no longer where he thought he left it. Thank heavens someone else found the thing and deposited it to the establishment desk where Hanopol would eventually get reunited with it.

Then there was that one time in London, when he was with a big group of musicians, and he left it in the cab that took them from airport to their designated apartment. He didn’t know the taxi driver, nor knew a way to get in touch with the cab company. He was panicking. Then he thought of calling their show promoter to ask for help. “Really?” the show promoter said. “You know what? I am the owner of the taxi company.” Hanopol got his beloved guitar that same night. 

The big offers the Steinberger attracted 

The rock legend’s Steinberger is, in local parlance, “mainit sa mata,” especially to guitar fans. In fact, Hanopol has been offered sizable amounts of money to take it off his hands. In 1993, someone had been looking to find one—Hanopol says only 1000 pieces were produced of the model—and was willing to pay 25,000 US dollars for it. He said no.

Years after, while on a visit to what he refers to as the Jimi Hendrix museum in Seattle, Hanopol says his Steinberger case caught the eye of a museum personnel who asked if it contained the real deal inside it. When Hanopol assured the man it did, the musician tells SPOT.ph a call was made right there and then to Bill Gates, essentially informing the Microsoft founder that the one guitar missing in their guitar tree—in which hang famous guitars in history—has just entered the building. Hanopol says Gates asked the man to make an offer of 50,000 US dollars for his guitar, which Hanopol also declined. (The Hendrix museum Hanopol mentions here is likely the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle which houses a guitar tree and which was originally Experience Music Project founded in 2000 by Gates’ Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. However, there is a 2001 Guardian report that says that among Gates’ “esoteric interests” includes a 40M-pound Jimi Hendrix museum in Seattle).

A third offer for the Steinberger came from a guy in Bicol, also a guitarist, who was willing to exchange his casa-fresh Honda Accord for the guitar. “Buhay ko na ‘yan. Andami ko na kinita diyan. Andami na nakinabang diyan. Andami nang binuhay, sinuportahan…Ano, Honda Accord lang kapalit?” Hanopol told the guy it’s not for sale. 

“Dumikit na sa akin ‘yang gitara. Parang one piece na ako at siya,” he tells SPOT.ph. So why is Hanopol, after all he’s gone thru with the guitar, after declining big amounts of money, parting ways with his longtime buddy now?

Covid has something to do with it. When Hanopol was struck with Covid in 2021, there was a point he was sure he was not going to make it. He spent days in a hospital in San Mateo in Marikina, the only medical institution then that could take him and his wife in (she also had Covid). “Kung tumagal pa yun, tapos na ‘ko. Wala na,” he recalls of his confinement. His oxygen level had shot down to 70. After seeing so many leave the hospital ward dead, “nakapikit na lang ako," he says. "Hindi na ako gumagalaw eh.”

But he made it out alive, and clearly the experience had left such an impact that he now considers whatever material wealth he has as something that should be put to more thoughtful use. So yes he’s decided to say goodbye to his Steinberger by having it auctioned. He and his wife believe leaving the guitar unsold might just cause complications in the future. If he sells now, he could enjoy the money himself, while he's around. “Hindi lang para ma-enjoy pero makatulong din, sa synagogue,” he says. The Hanopols are Russian Jews and serve in a synagogue in Makati.

The rock icon looks back at the Covid episode with both seriousness and humor. As we wind down our interview, he tells us that during that dark period, he received a sign that meant it wasn't over yet for Mike Hanopol. It was what convinced him he would survive the deadly virus. He had a vision, a dream. "Unang senyales, alam mo mabubuhay ka, panaginip," he says. "Pag nanaginip ka, buhay ka." It was one of those things he learned while in Israel. At the hospital in San Mateo, he dreamt he was on a bus thinking about a biscuit he had in Batangas. And in the dream he remembers thinking: "Parang masarap yata mag-Pantoja," referring to the popular neighborhood bakeshop. And then he woke up. 

The Salcedo Auction Gavel & Block online sale called Pop! happens on February 3, 2024 at 11AM.