Famous Rock Guitars Conclusion

This is the conclusion of the famous guitar series. I want to thank everyone who read these and the response was much more than I ever expected. I hope you enjoyed it. 

This is the last edition of this series. We covered:

Today we feature one guitar…and it’s a big one!

Image result for jimi hendrix at woodstock

Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock Stratocaster (Izabella)

This guitar is a 1968 Olympic White Fender Stratocaster, with the serial number #240981, that he bought from Manny’s Music music store in New York. Its body was made of alder and has a maple neck/fretboard setup.

Hendrix played the Strat at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, including on his famous rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner”. Hendrix purchased the guitar in 1968.

Jimi Hendrix gave the guitar his drummer Mitch Mitchell who had been with Jimi since he broke through with the Experience.

Mitch Mitchell:  ‘I had given him a drum kit as a present some time before and I said to him “I’ll have that guitar before you break it up” (I do not think that he would in fact have broken this particular guitar). He said, as was his way “You got it” and he then gave me the guitar. In retrospect I think it was by way of a gift as my daughter had just been born a few days previously’

Mitchell decided to auction the guitar off in 1990. Mitch had kept the guitar in the case and it never left his possession. The guitar needed to be cleaned up. Neville Marten who worked for Fender at the time did the job. This is what he said:

Taking the guitar to my workbench I checked the neck for straightness and it needed a slight tweak of the truss rod. That done, I cut off the strings and threw them in the bin. Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing? Today they alone would probably be worth £50,000 (with Jimi’s DNA all over them)!

At an auction in 1990, it was bought by Gabriele Ansaloni for the sum of around $300,000. Ansoloni kept it for two years before selling it on to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for a sum believed to be north of 2 million dollars (some sources also say $1.3 million and $2 million).

Paul Allen housed it at The Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington, the museum he founded to showcase the history of rock n roll music. And it’s on display there to this day…see below…

below that is Kenny Wayne Shepherd playing it.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd got to play the guitar on the Jimmy Fallon Show.

Woodstock Strat

Fender made an exact re-production of Izabella…it can be yours for around $6000 dollars.

Fender Custom Shop Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster Izabella Limited Edition Olympic White

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

33 thoughts on “Famous Rock Guitars Conclusion”

      3. No he smartly didn’t…he saw The Who and that Pete was almost obliged to smash his guitar every night and didn’t want to fall in that rut.

        What I wouldn’t give to just play a few chords on this guitar!

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    1. Yes I covered about all I wanted to cover. I guess the only one I didn’t do was Lennon’s black Rick but it was a lot of fun and I got a bigger response than I ever thought I would.

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      3. In my case, it is a post from January 2018 about Bad Company and their Live at Red Rocks album. It is still getting plenty of hits.

        Don’t get me wrong, I think the band is great, but I just don’t find anything special about the post. That being said, obviously, I don’t folks keep clicking on it! 🙂

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  3. A great idea and good coverage Max. I saw a book approximately on the topic at Barnes and Noble- didn’t catch the name but basically a coffee table book of famous guitars… you should see if your nearest one has the same . Are there enough famous basses for a series?!

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    1. Thanks Dave…like I said…more people liked it than I thought and I covered every one I wanted to except Lennon’s black Rick…I thought it was a good way to end it…I should have posted a Jimi Hendrix song today instead of John Fogerty like I did though to link these together!

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  5. I would love to go to that museum. I don’t think the Chris Cornell statue outside was life-sized which is a pity but it still looks good, especially how he lined it up with the photo in the background. I will get to that place one day! Jimi’s guitar has GOT to be the numero uno electric guitar in existence. I’m glad you finished the series with it. The story of Jimi giving the guitar to his drummer to honor the birth of the man’s baby girl is so touching. How tough it must have been for him to have to sell it for whatever reason. Someone stepped in and paid a pittance (compared to what it is worth) and then made a hefty profit off of it. Thank goodness the last buyer had the grace to place it in a museum for all to appreciate. Excellent series, Max. I like Dave’s idea of series on famous bass guitars 🙂

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    1. Thank You Lisa…people liked this ten times better than I thought they would. I am thinking about the bass guitars…I did Pauls but that is all.

      Oh I would love to go to that museum…so many things are there. A lot of pop culture treasures like this. The owner of the Colts football team owns George Harrison’s Gibson SG and George gave it to Pete Ham…so both owned it. I would love to strum one chord on this and that guitar.

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  6. Though I know next to nothing about guitars, I really enjoyed this fun series Max, and learned quite a bit. It’s too bad Neville Marten cut off all the old strings that had originally been on Jimi’s guitar. What was he thinking?

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    1. Thank you

      Oh yea…Cobain’s acoustic that was on the unplugged was lost when his daughter divorced and her ex husband got it…he was the last one I would say…never cared that much for him but he was a rock star

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      4. I think she gave it to him before they were divorced…but since they were married I don’t know how that works.
        I was going to do that guitar but I thought I would stop at the best…Jimi

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