Now the piano, made by the New England Piano Company and with metal nails subsequently placed into the hammers to provide the special, harpsichord-like sound, is being put up for sale. The asking price is a cool $475,000, that is just over 370,000.

"I'm selling it for the owner who wants to remain anonymous. He was able to buy it when the Record Plant shut down in [the late 1980s], " said Gary Zimet, a memorabilia dealer who operates the momentsintime. com website. "It's a piece of musical history, given that it was used by Lennon, Dylan, Bowie, Aerosmith and a bunch of others. The Record Plant was one of the hottest spots for more than 20 years and practically everyone who recorded there used it."

The piano, which comes with a letter asserting its authenticity by the studio's former piano technician, Sam Berd, was attached to the wall of the studio.

"The history of the piano is vast, having resided in the hallowed halls of the Record Plant Studios for so many years, " says Berd's letter.

New York-based Zimet is a wellknown dealer of pop culture memorabilia and artifacts. One of the items currently being offered for sale on his company's website is the Double Fantasy album autographed by Lennon for Mark David Chapman just hours before Chapman fatally shot the musician outside his Upper West Side apartment block.

Ironically, Lennon and Yoko Ono were returning from the Record Plant studios on the night of 8 December 1980, when Chapman stepped from the shadows and started firing.

Earlier this year Zimet announced he was offering for sale what he described as "unquestionably" the guitar used by the legendary bluesman Robert Johnson in the 40 or so recordings made before his death at the age of 27.

The asking price was $6m, but the authenticity of the instrument was doubted by many experts. Zimet now says that following additional research, he cannot guarantee that the guitar was Johnson's.