It was the tardy twenties in Waukesha , Wisconsin and a 13 - year - old guitar prodigy was making a little income from play his guitar at a local drive - in restaurant . discomfited that multitude sitting in their cars could n’t decently see his splendid sound , the untested guitarist stuck an oldphonographneedle on his Sears Roebuck acoustic guitar and wired it to a radio speaker [ source : Ladd ] .
It was the beginning of a lifelong love - thing with inventing and hone electric guitar . The guitar player was Les Paul and over the follow decennary , that name would be impound to many of the most legendaryguitarsin the story of popular music . So pervasive was his influence and so iconic his condition that collectors have fight back over his personal guitar for years .
In 2015 , a particularly special Les Paul guitar called the " Black Beauty " come up for auction bridge . Some dubbed the legal instrument the " Grail " of electric guitar , since it was make out to be Les Paul ’s master axe , which he continuously qualify until it became industry criterion . Some even conceive it a kind of Ur - guitar , from which all Les Pauls are descended .
Whether this is true or not , the " Black Beauty " sold for a whopping$335,500 , testament to the value many people localise on the work of the great innovator .
10: Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Black Beauty’
The Monterey Pop Festival , 1967.Jimi Hendrixis waiting wing while The Who play their band . Hendrix intends to finish his performance with a howling gesture by smash his guitar to pieces . But his plan are thwart when — to his intense vexation — he sees Pete Townshend not only destroy his guitar , but also thrust the broken instrument ’s neck into an amp .
madly searching for a means to top Townshend , Hendrix manages to get his hands on some idle fluid . Soon after , he ’s tearing up the stage like no other with the sheer virtuosic magnificence of his playing . At the end of his final man , " Wild Thing , " Hendrix pours light fluid over his legal document and ignites it . It ’s a moment that goes down in sway history — the solar day Jimi Hendrix sacrificed his dear guitar to the idol of music . Or had he ?
In 2012 , it emerged that Hendrix had actually swapped out his favorite black 1968 Fender Stratocaster for a nigh reproduction moments before the suntan . The literal one , or one reported to be real , sell at auction for £ 250,000 ( $ 289,562 ) in 2012 [ generator : Yaqoob ] . Four years earlier it sold to a U.S. aggregator for nigh $ 500,000 [ seed : Lawless ] .
But maybe the buyers were duped . By 2017,doubt was caston the legitimacy of the legendary guitar when it was put up for auction again with other Hendrix memorabilia at Heritage ’s Summer of Love auction bridge in Beverly Hills , California . Experts essay the musical instrument and were concerned it might not be the same guitar Hendrix dally at the Monterey result .
In any case , the Monterey guitar was n’t even Hendrix ’s favorite instrument . That label belong to to his noted " Black Beauty , " which he loved so much he was even loath to use it during performance . SinceHendrix ’s deathin 1970 , the whereabouts of " Black Beauty " stay on mysterious . How much is it worth ? Hard to say , but another of his iconic guitar , the " Black Widow " has been esteem at nearlya million dollar bill .
9: Bonnie Raitt’s ‘Brownie’
Bonnie Raitt grew up in a musical family and when she was a child , her grandad , a Methodist curate , pulled out a Hawaiian lick - steel guitar and taught her a fewhymns . But the godly path was not to be Raitt ’s . When she add up across a fabled recording called " Blues At Newport , " she fell outright and tough for the blues . And it was on that recording that she first heard John Hammond recreate " bottleneck guitar . " Taking the name literally , she institute a little cold-blooded medicine bottle , soak off the label and put it on her fingerbreadth . It was the beginning of her distinctive slide guitar sound [ informant : bagpiper ] .
At 3 a.m. in 1969 , Raitt happen upon an unpainted Fender Stratocaster for $ 120 . She bought it , raised the action and nicknamed it " Brownie . " It became her favorite instrument — one she ’s played at every fizgig since [ source : Piper ] .
As to where on the button Raitt was at 3 a.m. that morning in 1969 , well the location remains mysterious . One thing ’s for sure — she has no program to sell it . " Brownie ’s " value today ? Immeasurable .
8: Prince’s ‘Cloud’
Prince was unmatchable at just about everything . Not only could he sing , dance and write songs better than nearly anybody else , he could also play somewhat much every instrument recognise to down music . Above all , he was a spectacular lead guitar player . And he have it away his guitars . Probably no other guitar is more closely affiliate with his bequest than his " Cloud " guitar .
Back when he was get up to make his legendary cinema , " Purple Rain , " Prince take the air into a guitar shop in his hometown of Minneapolis and commission a local luthier ( stringed - instrument maker ) named Dave Rusan to make him a special axe . The guitar , pattern on the design of a friend ’s sea bass , would be a all important element of the film .
Prince give very few instructions , so Rusan made the guitar he hop the star would want . He got it correct . Not only did the " Cloud " guitar wiz in the " Purple Rain , " Prince loved it so much he commissioned copies and go on to play them for the next 20 years [ source : Murphy ] .
A yellow version of the Cloud now resides inthe Smithsonianas an authoritative artifact of American civilisation . That one ’s not for cut-rate sale , but a cyan gloomy Cloud sold for $ 700,000 at vendue in November 2017 , the most ever paid for one of his guitars [ source : AP ] .
7: Eddie Van Halen’s ‘Frankenstrat’
Van Halen . The name alone conjure light - speed virtuosic guitar solos . But when Eddie Van Halen started out , he could n’t recover the guitar he needed to make the sounds he heard in his headspring . So , he made one himself .
Van Halen read aside a Gibson Les Paul , a Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson ES-335 and meld them , adding a humbucker to rush . Then , with the service of some masking mag tape and spray rouge , he finished the whole affair off with the " Frankenstrat ’s " now far-famed crazy red , smutty and lily-white stripy plan [ source : Project EVH ] .
Van Halen donate his iconic guitar to the Hard Rock Café in business district San Antonio where it originally went on display . But in November 2017 , somebody stole it . Although the notable ax wasvalued at $ 100,000 , whoever took it would never be able-bodied to trade it without bringing the law down on their heads .
In any instance , the guitar softly reappeared at the Hard Rock almost before it was missed . perchance somebody just need to see if they could shred it like EVH and when they realized that was unsufferable , they make up one’s mind to do the right matter and give it back .
6: Nancy Wilson’s 1963 Lake Placid Blue Tele
When Ann Wilson determine to cover the border into Canada to follow herdraft - dodging boyfriend , her Heart bandmates comply . Because , what else could they do ? Ann had a vox like no other . In the early ' 70s , it was one thing for a band to be fronted by a fair sex with an incredible voice , but there were perfectly no rock candy outfits with a cleaning lady on lead guitar . Except for this one .
Ann happened to have a baby who could play . Really roleplay . Nancy Wilson was in university at the time , but Ann negociate to convince her sister to come up northwards and join her . When the two womanhood joined forces , nobody had ever see anything like them . raise onacoustic guitar , Nancy sling a ' 63 Fender Telecaster in Lake Placid Blue Tele over her berm and made the transition . It ’s been her favorite electric ever since and the guitar most closely associate with her unequaled whisker - elevate sound [ source : Kelly ] . She even name one of her songs " Blue Guitar " in its honor .
5: B.B. King’s ‘Lucille’
Even in the South it gets cold in the wintertime . One Nox back in 1949 , a young bluesman was playing a lance at a nightclub in Twist , Arkansas . The possessor of the reefer were heating it with a bucket ofkerosenethey’d lit on fire . The room was affectionate , the music was coolheaded and all was going well until a engagement broke out and the bucket tip over . A river of burn down kerosene pelt through the place and everybody flee for their lives including the musician .
But just as he made it outside , he commemorate his guitar . It was n’t an expensive instrument , just a Gibson L-30 Archtop , but it was all he had . He race back into the flames , fudge the burst Natalie Wood figure , grabbed his ax and made it out just in sentence .
The fight , he later on memorise , had started between two humankind combat over a woman nominate Lucille . The young musician was B.B. King and he nickname his guitar " Lucille " to cue himself never again to be so foolish as to run into a burning building . Over the year , B.B. King has had many different guitar , but they always get the same name : " Lucille " [ source : Bienstock ] .
4: Joni Mitchell’s 1956 Martin D-28
With some of the great , it ’s hard to bang where to focus your attention . When young , Joni Mitchell had a three - musical octave vocal range , which assist make her one of the most extraordinary Singer of her multiplication . Setting that aside , she ’s also an incredibly talented lyricist who ’s penned unforgettable lines that have become part of the collective consciousness . Now , add on her songwriting skills , which have resulted in dozens of innovative , intricate and beautiful tunes .
Finally , top it all off with the fact that she can wield a guitar like few others ( not to note play mandolins , flutes , pianissimo , et al ) . One of the thing that makes her guitar recreate so classifiable is the strange array of tunings she deploy . seemingly , when she was a baby , Mitchell had poliomyelitis , which weakened her left hand . Unable to play certain chord shapes , she adopt inventive tuning to compensate .
In 1966 , a Marine police captain returning from Vietnam , give Mitchell a 1956 Martin D-28 that had survived a shrapnel smasher . Mitchell love the guitar more than any other and speculate that its amazing sound was due to the blowup structurally altering the wood . woefully , in the mid-70s , somebody stole the legendary legal instrument from an airport luggage roundabout and it was never seen again [ beginning : O’Hara ] .
3: Jimmy Page’s ‘No. 1’ Gibson Les Paul Standard
Jimmy Page blew the top off rock with his incendiary solo for Led Zeppelin . And he ’s also justly noted for beautiful , mournful riffs like the intro to " Stairway to Heaven , " which has become so omnipresent that the guitar store in " Wayne ’s World " famously banned it from being played .
When Page come out with the Yardbirds , he strummed a Fender Telecaster , but in 1969 , his friend Joe Walsh of the James Gang , insisted that he try out a Gibson Les Paul . Page like it a lot , so Walsh handed it over for a sane price . The amount paid varies in the telling but it was somewhere between $ 500 and $ 1,200 . This guitar went on to become Page ’s favourite , and he ’s play it on all of Led Zeppelin ’s major recordings and live show .
Over the eld , Page has buy and used other Les Pauls , which direct him to dub that original instrument his " No . 1 . " He ’s said of it that it ’s both his fancy woman and his married woman , with the added welfare of requiring no alimony [ beginning : Graham ] .
2. Brian May’s ‘Red Special’
Brian May ’s dad was a highly skilled electronics engine driver who handmade all of the kinfolk ’s menage appliances from toasters to TVs . The Crataegus oxycantha were also pitiful with no superfluous pocket money to drop on expensive gifts . So , when , in 1963 , his guitar - unbalanced son want to calibrate from an acoustical toelectric , the two of them determine to work up the utter instrument from sugar .
They carved the cervix from an old fireplace , repurposed mother - of - pearl buttons for the fret inlay and craft the tremolo sleeve from a bike saddlebag holder and one of Mrs. May ’s knitting needles . " The Red Special " as it became screw due to the colouring material of its wood , never leave Brian ’s side , even when he went off to London to get a PhD in astrophysics .
But the instrument that play father and boy together in the making , presently tore them apart . It was in London that Brian meet a budding rock star named Freddie Mercury and formed the band , Queen . To his forefather ’s intense dashing hopes , Brian ’s PhD turn the detritus , so to talk , as Queen took off . ( He did at long last earn that PhD in 2008 , and has even worked at NASA with other astrophysicist analyzing data from the Pluto New Horizons probe [ source : Biography.com ] . )
Brian and his father last reconciled years by and by when the young guitar god take flight his parents to New York to see the band make for Madison Square Garden . The Red Special , which also go by the handle " Fireplace " and " Old Lady , " has been the guitar - star of almost every major Queen song , and remains May ’s favorite [ source : Huntman ] .
1: Willie Nelson’s ‘Trigger’
Early on , Willie Nelson played a Guild acoustical when he was trying to make it inNashvillein the ' 60s . Then , in 1969 , a random boozer somehow managed to sprain it into firewood .
On the sentry for an instrument that had the strait of his favorite guitarist , Django Reinhardt , Nelson bought a Martin N-20 acoustic sight unobserved on the recommendation of his supporter and guitarist , Shot Jackson . Stating that it was kind of like his horse , Nelson named the guitar after Roy Roger ’s steed .
Like B.B. King ’s " Lucille , " " Trigger " has been rescued from firing . And it ’s even been spirit off to Hawaii to avoid seizure by theIRS . Willie Nelson has played his instrument so hard and so long that his pick has worn a hole right through it . It ’s a cakehole the fabled musician reject to repair , suppose it ’s a patch to rest his digit . After 50 years of use , Nelson cipher he ’ll represent Trigger until they both " give out . " Hopefully that wo n’t be for a longsighted time yet [ source : Rolling Stone ] .
Lots More Information
A list of 10 renowned guitars can hardly be comprehensive . I had to whittle this down from a list that included the the likes of of David Gilmour ’s " Black Strat , " Vernon Reid ’s " ESP Mirage " and Neil Young ’s " Hank . " And what about André Segovia ’s " Hauser " and Peter Green ’s 1959 Les Paul Standard ? peradventure a inclination of 100 could gather up the skinny totality of famous guitars , but anything less is just a swing of the ax .
