The most famous Rock guitar in History ?

[Panamark]

Is it Elvis's first acoustic ?
Is it Ed's Frankenstrat ?
Is it BB King's Lucille ?
Its it Eric Claptons Strat ??

Jimi Hendrix's upsidedown strat ??

Whats some deserving contenders for the most famous guitar ever !

[nosuchluck]

Lucille, Blackie and the Frankie are certainly up there..

add to that Randy Rhoads' flying V and Stevie Ray Vaughan's strat.

[Vinnie Velvet]

Ace Frehley's smoking guitars were pretty famous, not to mention his "light-up' Les Paul from Dynasty.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Originally posted by Panamark

Ed's Frankenstrat
Jimi Hendrix's upsidedown strat

Yeah!
And Pete Townshend's (and then Angus's) SG.
Jimmy Page's double-necked guitar.
Keith Richards's 5-string axes.

[Hardrock69]

There are two of them. None even come close.

Both were owned by Jimi Hendrix:

1. The infamous Strat that was burned at the Monterey Pop Festival. Only pieces of it still exist, and here is a link to a page for the museum in Seattle founded by Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft):

http://www.emplive.org/archives/index.asp?a=&section=show&id=123&pg=1&artid=31

There was an article in Guitar World in the 90s concerning this guitar. They had managed to locate all the major pieces from the body, and they had done a detailed study of frames from the film of Jimi's set, and he handed the neck of the guitar to some chick in the front row...but nobody has ever been able to figure out who she was, and the whereabouts of the neck remain a mystery...

[Hardrock69]

2. The Woodstock Strat - it is on display at the EMP museum in Seattle.... here is the history of it:

Jimi Hendrix Woodstock Strat®

Woodstock

Probably the most famous Stratocaster® of all time is Jimi Hendrix's 1968 Strat®. On 18th August 1969, Hendrix and his "Band of Gypsies" were the final act to come on to the stage at the Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York. Most of the 400,000+ people who flocked to the festival had already packed up and began their journey home. But on a rainy Monday morning, the crowd of around 30,000 that remained witnessed the most remarkable performance in rock history.

It was here that Hendrix played his infamous version of the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, signifying the close of the sixties and Hendrix's distaste in the U.S involvement in Vietnam.



Specs

The guitar used on this momentous occasion was a white Fender Stratocaster®, made in 1968, serial number 240981. As with all of his other Strats, this one was right-handed, flipped over and re-strung to accommodate his lefty technique. This historic axe had an alder body, maple neck and fretboard, Olympic White finish, late 60's-style large headstock, and tremolo.

Under the Hammer

The guitar was sold at Sotheby's auction house in London in 1990 for £174,000 (295,800 Euros). The guitar was resold in 1993 for £750,000 (1,275,000 Euros) to an Italian collector and disc jockey called Red Penny.

A few years later, Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen discovered the whereabouts of the guitar and made the Italian an offer that he couldn't refuse! Red Penny accepted, and Jody Patton, Allen's sister and EMP executive director, flew to Italy to fetch it. She bought first-class seats for herself and the guitar for the return flight.

The guitar is now owned by Paul Allen who placed it as the central exhibition in Seattle's Experience Music Project, a huge state-of-the-art museum of rock memorabilia.

[Hardrock69]

Here is a 1965 Strat owned by Hendrix that is currently for sale:

http://www.maverick-music.com/scripts/vintage-guitars.asp?idproduct=765

[eddieisking]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
2. The Woodstock Strat - it is on display at the EMP museum in Seattle.... here is the history of it:

Jimi Hendrix Woodstock Strat®

Woodstock

Probably the most famous Stratocaster® of all time is Jimi Hendrix's 1968 Strat®. On 18th August 1969, Hendrix and his "Band of Gypsies" were the final act to come on to the stage at the Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York. Most of the 400,000+ people who flocked to the festival had already packed up and began their journey home. But on a rainy Monday morning, the crowd of around 30,000 that remained witnessed the most remarkable performance in rock history.

It was here that Hendrix played his infamous version of the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, signifying the close of the sixties and Hendrix's distaste in the U.S involvement in Vietnam.



Specs

The guitar used on this momentous occasion was a white Fender Stratocaster®, made in 1968, serial number 240981. As with all of his other Strats, this one was right-handed, flipped over and re-strung to accommodate his lefty technique. This historic axe had an alder body, maple neck and fretboard, Olympic White finish, late 60's-style large headstock, and tremolo.

Under the Hammer

The guitar was sold at Sotheby's auction house in London in 1990 for £174,000 (295,800 Euros). The guitar was resold in 1993 for £750,000 (1,275,000 Euros) to an Italian collector and disc jockey called Red Penny.

A few years later, Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen discovered the whereabouts of the guitar and made the Italian an offer that he couldn't refuse! Red Penny accepted, and Jody Patton, Allen's sister and EMP executive director, flew to Italy to fetch it. She bought first-class seats for herself and the guitar for the return flight.

The guitar is now owned by Paul Allen who placed it as the central exhibition in Seattle's Experience Music Project, a huge state-of-the-art museum of rock memorabilia.

Only ONE thing you forgot to mention here, was in a back issue of "Guitar World" magazine, May 2005, was a list of the most expensive guitars in the world.
The number one most expensive guitar in the world, right now, is Jimi's 'Woodstock' strat, listed at $5,000,000....

Ed' Frankenstrat was #5, priced from $1,000,000 to Priceless
Clapton's "Blackie" was listed at $1,000,000 plus
Brian May's Red Special listed at $500,000 plus

[academic punk]

Didn't Dweezil Zappa own Jimi's Woodstock Strat? I'm sure of it.

BTW - more famous than any of these is Ed's FrankenStrat. Instantly identifiable, and it makes a bold individual unique statement from the moment you see it. You're telling me you could recognize Clapton's Blackie from any other Strat in a heartbeat???

[Hardrock69]

No. Dweezil inherited a Strat from his Dad that was played AND burned by Jimi Hendrix at the Miami Pop Festival, where Frank Zappa was on the bill also.

Jimi gave his Woodstock Strat to his drummer, Mitch Mitchell, who auctioned it off in the early 90s. See the link above for the exact history of the guitar.

And it does not matter whether I could rcognize it or not.
Ed's Frankenstrat is down the list compared to the above axes owned by Hendrix and Clapton. Note that I am not saying Ed's guitar is not a famous guitar. Just the others are WAY more famouser.

[monkeythe]

While not necessarily a "rock" guitar, Willie Nelson's guitar with the hole in it is the most recognizable guitar still in use today. Some of the other guitars mentioned there are several versions of compared to this one in a kind classic.

[Mr Badguy]

Gene Simmons` axe bass

Steve Vai`s love heart shaped triple neck

Geddy Lee`s double neck Rickenbacker

[academic punk]

Originally posted by Hardrock69
No. Dweezil inherited a Strat from his Dad that was played AND burned by Jimi Hendrix at the Miami Pop Festival, where Frank Zappa was on the bill also.

Jimi gave his Woodstock Strat to his drummer, Mitch Mitchell, who auctioned it off in the early 90s. See the link above for the exact history of the guitar.

And it does not matter whether I could rcognize it or not.
Ed's Frankenstrat is down the list compared to the above axes owned by Hendrix and Clapton. Note that I am not saying Ed's guitar is not a famous guitar. Just the others are WAY more famouser.

I follow you. But the title of the thread is "Most famous", not "most expensive".

Clapton's guitar is famous b/c he played it. Ed's guitar is famous not only b/c he played it, but b/c it was a "new" approach to the visualization of the guitar.

Let's put it like this: would your 14 year old kid sister be able to distinguish clepton's blackie from any other black-finish strat?

BTW, Thanks for the corrections re: dweezil!

[Cato]

Rickenbacker 325 Jetglo.

everybody knows whose guitar this is.

[Cato]

also my Fender pawnshop '54 strat is famous as well, isn't it?