The 100 Most Iconic Guitars of All Time (Nos. 100-51)

The band was the New York Dolls. The attitude was punk rock. And the color was TV Yellow — which guitar manufacturer Gibson at one point marketed for budding rock stars to stand out on black-and-white broadcasts. “Me and Johnny Thunders basically put the Les Paul Junior on the map,” the Dolls’ other guitarist, Sylvain Sylvain, said in 2009. “It was the perfect guitar for the New York Dolls because it was stripped down — like the band was and like our songs were.” Guitar World called the circa-1959 Junior “minimal, direct and cut-through with the essence of rock ’n’ roll – basically the blueprint for Thunders’ own ethos.”

Talk of the Town: “I lusted after his TV yellow Les Paul Junior,” The Cult’s Billy Duffy told Guitar World. “I finally picked up my own Les Paul Junior in 1979, though it was a wine red one. I couldn’t find a yellow one in England at that time.” 

On Display: The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas has shown Thunders’ guitar for several years.  – STEVE KNOPPER

Howard never used to like Les Pauls, which she found heavy and unfamiliar, until she borrowed an SG from Heath Fogg, the guitarist from her band Alabama Shakes. She eventually found her own, a 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG Custom in Inverness Green. It’s battered but beautiful — a reissue from the early ‘80s, she has suggested — with three pickups. Howard soon had a collection of SGs (at least five, at one point), which she has been known to play through Orange amps, which offer a warmer, vintage-y sound. She played the SG during the Alabama Shakes’ star-making appearance on Saturday Night Live in 2013.

Strange But True: The SG (short for “solid guitar”) was popularized by blues legend Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who played a white one. Howard inducted Tharpe into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

Six-String Stories: “My number one thing for my guitar techs is: Do not clean the pickups,” Howard told The Guardian in 2020. “I like the sound of pickups that are worn down and kind of degraded – it’s just more interesting-sounding. That is why my SG is so unique, because of how the pickups were wound, and how long it has been since they were cleaned up.” – ALLISON STEWART

When PRS Guitars and John Mayer introduced their first collaborative model in 2018, it was something that looked familiar — and also alien — to the guitar community. Combining a Strat-like body (or “S-style,” as they say in the business) with PRS’ sleek, more contemporary aesthetic, the Silver Sky, like Mayer himself, immediately became a hot-button topic amongst purists and newer players alike. The fact that Mayer had spent much of his career as a staunch Strat man only added to the curiosity of why he had opted to develop the instrument with PRS. His explanation? His desire to make a guitar that was “sort of the future of the classic design.” Just a few years later, it’s one of the more popular signature models on the market.

Shop Talk: According to Mayer, the Silver Sky’s initial finishes were inspired by Tesla car colors. “If you look at materials that were available in the 1950s and ’60s, they’re still being used all the time, only for guitars,” he said in a Guitar Center video. “Things that are sunburst, things that are mother-of-pearl. I wanted to really move it more into this modern period of Tesla, Apple, Leica.”

Specs: Alder body, 25.5 scale length, maple neck with 635JM fretboard shape, trio of 635JM single-coil pickups, “reverse” PRS trademark headstock shape

Sound Decision: The “635” designation in the custom-designed pickups is believed to reference the fact that tonally they sound somewhere in between Mayer’s favored 1963-1964-era Strats, hence “63.5.” – RICHARD BIENSTOCK

The Gibson Les Paul has several famous finishes, among them the red-orange-yellow Sunburst and the elegant ebony that adorns the “Black Beauty” model. Thanks to Tool guitarist Adam Jones, the considerably rarer Silverburst has now joined the ranks of coveted LP colorways. Reportedly conceived to commemorate the Les Paul’s silver anniversary in 1979, and initially produced only from 1978 until 1982, the Silverburst seemed lost to history until Jones made a ’79 Les Paul Custom in the unique finish – a silver center giving way to darker hues around the body’s border, with the silver taking on a greenish hue over time due to nitrocellulose lacquer aging – his main guitar with Tool. Its stunning appearance, combined with Tool’s fervid fanbase, led Gibson to partner with Jones on a period-correct Custom Shop recreation, and eventually a full line of Jones-inspired Silverburst models.

Rarity Factor: Between just 150 and 200 Silverbursts were reportedly produced during the model’s original run. Jones has stated he owns six of these, including two 1979 examples.

Strange But True: Gibson originally employed metal-flake paint for the finish, and Jones has said he believes the “particular metallic paint does something to the tone or the resonance or the polarity” of the instrument.

Signature Style: Gibson sister brand Epiphone unveiled the Adam Jones Art Collection in 2024, featuring seven Silverburst models emblazoned with artwork from some of the Jones’ favorite visual artists, among them fantasy legend Frank Frazetta and pop-surrealist Mark Ryden. – R. BIENSTOCK

Like any mythical beast, Jimmy Page’s dragon-painted 1959 Telecaster boasts an epic backstory. Used almost exclusively on Led Zeppelin’s debut album and for the solo on “Stairway to Heaven,” this guitar’s origins trace back to Jeff Beck. Beck, who used it on such Yardbirds hits like “Shapes of Things” and “Heart Full of Soul,” gifted it to Page in 1965 as a token of esteem. Originally featuring a White Blonde finish, maple neck and slab rosewood fingerboard, Page initially personalized it by adding eight circular mirrors to the body. Shortly after, he stripped the finish and repainted it himself, creating a psychedelic dragon in a vaguely Japanese style. “I painted it in one go over the course of an evening, finishing it the next day,” Page said in his autobiography, Jimmy Page: The Anthology. “Once it was created and painted, it became like the legendary Excalibur.”

Specs: Page replaced the Telecaster’s original black pickguard with a transparent acrylic one, inserting a sheet of diffraction grating film to create a spectrum of colors when hit by light.

Retirement Party: In 1969, Page switched from the Telecaster to a Les Paul because the Tele’s single-coil pickup caused it to squeal at the volumes needed for live performances in bigger concert halls. – BRAD TOLINSKI

The Gibson Explorer’s angular shape was seen as futuristic when it debuted in the late ‘50s, but by the time Halestorm lead singer and guitarist Lzzy Hale began rocking out with the model onstage, it was deliciously retro, evoking the ‘80s metal bands she grew up idolizing. From her signature Epiphone Explorer with an “Alpine White” finish to her Gibson Explorerbird that rocks a “Cardinal Red” colorway, Hale is, in turn, converting a new generation of shredders to the hard-rocking church of the Explorer.

As Seen On: Hale flaunts her Alpine White Explorer in the music videos “Freak Like Me” and “The Steeple,” both of which are Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplays No. 1s.

Six-String Stories: “That’s pretty much my go-to guitar,” Hale told Harmony Central of her white Explorer in 2018. “Honestly, that guitar, I don’t know what voodoo happened with that one, but it works in any situation.” — JOE LYNCH

Rumored to be the first Fender Stratocaster to grace Ireland, its original owner, Jim Conlon, had ordered a red Stratocaster from the U.S. but received this sunburst model by mistake. When the intended red Strat finally arrived six months later, Conlon sold the sunburst model, which was promptly snapped up by Gallagher for just £100 in 1963.

For the next three decades, this guitar was a central piece of Gallagher’s career until his untimely death in 1995 at age 47. Over the years, the guitar’s finish was nearly stripped away, which Gallagher’s brother attributes to Rory’s highly acidic sweat, which aged the paintwork prematurely.

Strange But True: Dublin’s Temple Bar hosts Rory Gallagher Corner at Meeting House Square, marked with a full-sized bronze recreation of his legendary Stratocaster.

As Heard On: Rory Gallagher may not be as universally known as Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix, but he made a significant impact, selling over 30 million records worldwide. His 1973 album, Blueprint, which features the ’61 Strat, is often considered his best work.

Shop Talk: In a 1984 interview with Vintage Classic, Gallagher shared, “After a while, the original neck went bad on me. That was about 10 years ago, but I took it off and hung it up. After a few months it dried out and was fine again.” – B. TOLINSKI

Late-’60s photos show Reed’s primary guitar in his Velvet Underground days was a Gretsch, which he confirmed to Guitar World in 1998. A San Francisco “electronics guy” built in an echo, he said, “so I could seem to play faster than I really could.” He tinkered relentlessly, making it stereo, adding batteries, until “eventually it just ruined the guitar.” Another key Reed VU guitar: a Kent Copa, purchased for about $150 from a catalog, according to Premier Guitar. As 2021’s documentary The Velvet Underground shows, Reed and co-VU axeman Sterling Morrison took turns playing it.

Specs: The Kent Copa, made by Japanese company Guyatone, had three pickups, three volume controls, a tone control and a rotary selector switch.

Six-String Stories: “I’d been listening to [avant-garde jazz artists] Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman. Of course I was not trained to play like them. I couldn’t read and write music. I couldn’t even begin to think of having technique like that. But I certainly had the energy—and a good ear,” Reed told Guitar World. “So that’s what I was listening to, along with guitar players like James Burton and Steve Cropper.”  – S. KNOPPER

Before they were re-discovered by ‘80s alt-rock hopefuls with no money, Jazzmasters were best known for their appeal to surf-rock and jazz aficionados. Mascis bought his ‘58 Jazzmaster in a Vermont, or possibly Connecticut, trailer park. He covered its gold hardware with more gold hardware, and made it the engine of Dinosaur Jr.’s lumpy, distorted, magisterial sound. It’s also the primary inspiration for his one of Mascis’ own Signature Jazzmasters, an atypically affordable, much-desired model by Squier that has gone in and out of production.

Strange But True: Mascis went to the trailer park with the hope of buying a Stratocaster, but it was too expensive.

Strange But True, Part 2: Mascis learned how to play guitar on a Jazzmaster, his first guitar.

As Heard On: Though Jazzmasters are thought of as foundational to the band’s sound, Mascis doesn’t actually record with them. “There’s hardly ever a Jazzmaster or a Big Muff on any studio recording,” he told Reverb. – A. STEWART

Before he became “The Father of Country Music,” Rodgers was a tubercular young crooner, yodeler, former brakeman and guitar player known for his signature Martins. He used an unadorned spruce-and-mahogany Martin 00-18 to make his first recordings during the legendary Bristol Sessions in 1927. Once he had money, he used a custom Martin 00-45 (from either 1927 or ‘28) with a pearlized nameplate, and, for the audience, the word “THANKS” printed on the back.

As Heard On: Rodgers used the 00-18 to record “The Soldier’s Sweetheart” and “Sleep Baby Sleep.” Both from the Bristol Sessions, they would be the rocket fuel that powered Rodgers’ ascent when they were released two months after the sessions.

As Heard On, Part 2: Rodgers used another model, the 00-45, to record his signature hit, “Blue Yodel.”

Strange But True: Rodgers actually had an endorsement deal — when such things were unheard of — with the Philadelphia-based Weymann company. Its circa-1931 “Jimmie Rodgers Special Model 890” sold for $90, a fortune during the Great Depression. – A. STEWART

Tony Zemaitis, a London-born luthier, initially made waves in the ’60s by crafting distinctive acoustic guitars for legends like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Donovan. However, in the ’70s, he shifted his focus to electric guitars, creating designs that drew even more attention. His exploration into the properties of aluminum on guitars began after a 1969 conversation with Clapton. Zemaitis discovered that incorporating an aluminum front enhanced the guitar by reducing feedback and improving tuning and intonation—plus, it looked incredibly cool.

One of his most famous electric models was commissioned by Faces and eventual Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. Of the two guitars Zemaitis made for Wood, it was the second—with its black body and striking central metal plate—that became iconic. The design sparked a craze, drawing clients like Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, Marc Bolan, David Gilmour and Pretenders’ James Honeyman-Scott.

Specs: Many of Zemaitis’ metal plates were intricately tooled by shotgun engraver Danny O’Brien.

Stage Debut: Zemaitis built his first electric guitar for Tony McPhee of the Groundhogs.

Sold!: Zemaitis crafted only eight to 10 guitars annually. He retired in 2000 and died in 2002. These days, some of his original pieces can fetch upwards of $50,000. – B. TOLINSKI

Delighted with the craftsmanship of his custom Doug Irwin “Wolf” guitar, Jerry Garcia commissioned another instrument from Irwin, urging the luthier to “not hold back.” Irwin rose to the challenge, creating a guitar known as “Tiger,” distinguished by its “hippie sandwich” construction—a lamination of several layers of wood. This unique guitar also featured a tiger inlay near the tailpiece, and its solid brass binding and hardware contributed to its substantial weight of about 14 pounds.

Irwin crafted two more guitars for Garcia, “Rosebud” and “Headless.” But following Garcia’s death, a dispute ensued between Irwin and the Grateful Dead over the ownership of Jerry’s four custom guitars. The conflict was resolved in 2001, granting Irwin possession of both “Tiger” and “Wolf.”

Stage Debut: Garcia first played Tiger live at a concert in Oakland, Calif., on Aug. 4, 1979.

Retirement Party: Tiger was the last guitar Garcia used in public with the Grateful Dead, during a performance on July 9, 1995.

Sold!: Tiger was purchased by Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, for $957,500 in 2002. – B. TOLINSKI

When Zakk Wylde joined Ozzy Osbourne’s band in 1987, he sought a distinctive guitar to mark his new role. His choice fell on a white 1981 Les Paul Custom equipped with EMG pickups, which he eventually obtained by trading a double-neck Gibson EDS-1275 with a friend. But Wylde faced a challenge: the legendary Randy Rhoads was famously associated with a similar white Les Paul during his time with Ozzy. Seeking to carve out his own identity, Zakk opted to have his refinished in a unique oblong “vertigo” pattern. The customization resulted in a simpler, yet iconic, black and white bullseye pattern instead. Wylde embraced this unexpected design, which soon became his signature “The Grail.”

As Heard On: Wylde composed “Miracle Man,” his first song for Ozzy, on the Grail.

Strange But True: In 2000, the Grail temporarily vanished after accidently falling out of a truck on the way to a Texas gig. Fortunately, it survived its ordeal and was recovered.

Retirement Party: In recent years, Zakk has favored instruments from his own Wylde Audio guitar line. – B. TOLINSKI

H.E.R. is the first Black woman to receive a signature Fender model, and it’s a doozy – a chrome-covered Strat that flashes iridescent in the light (reportedly in tribute to a nail-polish color she likes). There’s footage on YouTube of H.E.R. playing her first Strat when she was a kid, and her trademark guitar combines that same classic feel (its vintage vibe includes a mid-’60s C-shaped neck) with modern touches (a pearlescent glow finish).

Stage Debut: At the 2020 Primetime Emmys, playing “Nothing Compares 2 U” during the In Memoriam segment, as a tribute to the late Sinéad O’Connor.

Specs: The Strat has three Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups, meant to ensure a cleaner tone.

Strange But True: H.E.R. famously played a see-through Strat at the 2019 Grammy Awards. Crafted out of acrylic and entirely clear, it was custom built by Fender in a week. – A. STEWART

By 1984, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill weren’t lacking for woolliness. But they turned the hirsute quotient up to 11 with the Dean Z “fur” guitar and bass they brandished in that year’s “Legs” video. Gibbons had played a Dean ML model on the accompanying album, 1983’s Eliminator, and Dean Guitars founder Dean Zelinsky offered to build custom instruments for the band for the supporting tour. Gibbons had one request: incorporate some sheepskins he had purchased in Scotland into the design. Up for the challenge, Zelinsky delivered a white guitar and bass, the Eliminator logo emblazoned on the fretboards, and (as requested) matching sheepskin finishes. The results even upstaged the video’s star attraction – the various pairs of legs showcased throughout the clip.

Strange But True: After covering the guitar and bass with sheepskin, Zelinsky used electric horse shears to shave a path down the center of the bodies to make room for the pickups, tailpiece and strings.

Strange But True, Part 2: The build stretched into the 11th hour. “I remember we were still gluing the fur on the tuning keys when the FedEx driver showed up to pick up the guitars,” Zelinsky recalled. “He waited while we boxed them up; they had to make it to the video shoot the very next day.”

Strange But True, Part 3: The instruments featured an attachment that enabled them to be spun 360 degrees from Gibbons and Hill’s waists while being played. – R. BIENSTOCK

A bungled attempt by acoustic guitar manufacturer Martin to make inroads into the growing electric guitar market of the late ’50s, the D-18E — essentially a D-18 dreadnought guitar fitted with two DeArmond pickups, two tone controls and a volume control — was produced for only one year and would have been nothing more than a seldom-discussed oddity if Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain hadn’t purchased one from Voltage Guitars in Los Angeles in the fall of 1993. When Nirvana came to New York to record their unforgettable MTV Unplugged performance on Nov. 18 of that year, Cobain played the guitar (which, much to the show’s producer’s dismay was plugged into two effects pedals and a Fender Twin amplifier) for the entire epochal performance, giving the much-maligned D-18E a belated star turn.

Middleman: Cobain was not happy with the sound produced by the D-18E’s DeArmond pickups and had a Bartolini 3AV pickup installed in the sound hole between them, which he used exclusively for Unplugged.

Sold!: Cobain reportedly paid $5,000 for his Martin in 1993. In 2022, it sold at auction for more than five million dollars.

Lucky 7: Martin production records indicate that Cobain’s guitar, serial number 166854, was the seventh D-18E produced. – TOM BEAUJOUR

Inspired by Pete Townshend and The Who’s British-flag pop-art iconography, the guitarist motivated his protopunk band, Detroit’s MC5, to hang American flags over their amps. It was a way of reflecting the counterculture in general and protesting the Vietnam War specifically: “The idea was, it’s my flag, too. It’s not just the right-wing flag,” Kramer told guitar.com in 2022, two years before his death. “I decided to have my guitar painted with that motif.” Kramer initially painted his white Strat with red stripes, then added the blue-and-white stars pattern to the pickguard. He also added a humbucker to make his solos louder.

Strange But True: In the ’70s, Kramer was an addict and offered the guitar to a Detroit music store to raise cash — only to be told he’d ruined it with the stars and stripes. To sell it, Kramer had to repaint it. “I suspect somewhere in Michigan there’s a Stratocaster in a case under the bed that nobody’s seen in 50 years,” he said.

Talk of the Town: “I’m a guitar-rock guy,” Kramer once told Detroit Artists Workshop. “I love loud guitars and that’s the way I still play.” – S. KNOPPER

In the swinging ’60s, Trini Lopez made his mark as Gibson’s premier signature artist, captivating audiences with uptempo folk-rock hits like “If I Had a Hammer” and “Lemon Tree.” Although Lopez’s popularity has faded, Dave Grohl has significantly helped in keeping his legacy alive by using his signature Gibson guitars during his performances with Foo Fighters in some of the world’s most famed venues.

Grohl acquired his first Trini Lopez guitar in 1992 from a guitar shop in Bethesda, Maryland, using his earnings from his tenure as Nirvana’s drummer. He was searching for a guitar that was versatile enough to play acoustically at home and powerful enough to electrify audiences in large venues like Madison Square Garden. The guitar’s distinctive diamond-shaped F-holes and elegant headstock particularly drew Grohl’s attention, leading him to develop a deep appreciation for Lopez’s design and become an avid collector of other Trini guitars.

Shop Talk: Dave Grohl once remarked, “I didn’t really know anything about Trini Lopez when I bought the guitar. I thought it was unusual.”

Specs: Trini Lopez specifically requested that Gibson incorporate a unique Fender-style six-on-a-side headstock in his design.

Specs: In 2024 Epiphone released the Dave Grohl DG-335, designed in conjunction with Grohl and boasting diamond-shape f-holes and other distinctive features from his beloved ’67 Trini. – B. TOLINSKI

One of Wilson’s most beloved guitars, she reportedly purchased the then-burgundy woodgrain Gibson at a used guitar store and modified it with a Bigsby Vibramate and a single Kent Armstrong P-90 pickup that gives the guitar its down-and-dirty sound.

As Heard On: The SG was Wilson’s go-to guitar for live versions of Heart’s “Barracuda.”

Signature Specs: The back of the SG is emblazoned with a large sticker of the U.S. Marine Corps logo — a tribute to Wilson’s father, who was in the military.

Sold!: In 2022, Wilson put a number of guitars from her collection on sale through the Reverb.com website, including the SG, which was listed for $100,000. It’s unclear who purchased it. — FRANK DIGIACOMO

Of the five guitars that Jennings used onstage, “No. 1” and “No. 2” were mid-’50s Telecasters. (They’ve been referred to as both 1953 and 1954 models in descriptions.) The first was a gift from his band the Waylors in the early ‘60s when they were playing the Phoenix club scene: a Butterscotch Blonde Tele that they had covered in black leather decorated with a cream-colored floral pattern and spiral stitching around the perimeter of the guitar.

Strange But True: According to Waylon’s son Shooter Jennings, the band paid around $40 for the Telecaster. Other accounts say the band shelled out another pittance to either a janitor or bartender at the club they were playing to add the hand-tooled leather sheath.

Signature Specs: Jennings used a banjo key on the low E string with a 1:1 ratio — the number of turns required to change the pitch from, say, an E to a D (the average is 18 turns). The key made the change instant.

Sold!: No. 1 remains with Jennings family, but Nicole Kidman dropped close to $100,000 to buy “No. 3” — a 1950 Fender Broadcaster — at auction for her husband Keith Urban. Keith Richards acquired the ’67 Telecaster that was one of the Jennings five. — F. DIGIACOMO

Jazz fusion great John McLaughlin often praised Jeff Beck as the “best guitarist alive.” The feeling was mutual, with Beck raving that McLaughlin’s playing was “unequaled.” Their respect for each other was evident when they toured together in 1975. During this time, Beck smashed his beloved ’62 Stratocaster. As a kind gesture, McLaughlin bought Beck a replacement—a white Stratocaster from Norman’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana, California. Tragically, this guitar, which graced the cover of Beck’s 1976 album Wired, was stolen soon after it was acquired. Unfazed, McLaughlin stepped in once more, purchasing another white Strat for Beck. It is believed that this guitar, alongside the repaired ’62 Strat, were the ones Beck played on Wired, an album that showcased his mastery and innovation on the electric guitar.

Shop Talk: Jeff Beck expressed his straightforward view on instruments to Guitar World in 2014: “When it comes to guitars, I don’t really give a damn about ‘custom this’ and ‘custom that.’ Most of what I need is in my fingers. You know, let’s hear it for the fingers!”

Talk of the Town: While Beck’s album Wired is hailed as a seminal work in jazz fusion, Beck himself did not identify as a jazz musician. However, he felt a deep honor when jazz legend Charles Mingus commended him for his sensitive rendition of Mingus’s own “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.”

Chart a Course: Wired peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 and was also released in a special four-channel quadraphonic edition. – B. TOLINSKI

Prince employed a futuristic-looking Jerry Auerswald guitar – the Model C – on late ’80s efforts like Sign o’ the Times and Lovesexy. In 1993, in the midst of a contract dispute with his label, Warner Bros., he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and recruited the German luthier to build him a guitar in the same shape. Known as the Auerswald Symbol (or Love Symbol) guitar, Prince played the gold creation during the period surrounding his 1995 album The Gold Experience. He later used models in various colors, including black and white, and capped his 2007 Super Bowl XLI Halftime Show performance by playing “Purple Rain” with a Schecter-built version – finished, of course, in purple.

Specs: Carved maple body and neck, “arrow” headstock, gold-plated heart-shaped tuning knobs, EMG pickups (single coil and humbucker).

As Seen On: Prince plays the original Auerswald in the official music videos for The Gold Experience’s “Endorphinmachine” and “Gold.”

Rarity: The gold Auerswald, reportedly the only Prince-owned Symbol model still in existence, resides in the collection housed at Paisley Park, Prince’s home and studio in Chanhassen, Minn. – R. BIENSTOCK

Known as the “Sun Sessions” guitar, Presley used this Martin on his early classics at Sam Phillips’ studio between 1954 and 1956. It’s unclear exactly which songs he played the guitar on, but among the songs from these sessions were “That’s All Right,” “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” “Blue Moon of Kentucky” and “Mystery Train.” Presley affixed the letters from his first name on the body, but the “S” has disappeared over time, so it still reads: “ELVI.” Presley purchased the guitar at Houck’s Piano Store in Memphis, trading in his Martin 000-18 as part of the price. “There is also extensive wear visible on the guitar due to Presley’s hard strumming,” observed Guitar World before the Martin went up for auction.

Sold!: In 2020, the guitar sold for $1.32 million to an undisclosed buyer through auction house Gotta Have Rock and Roll.

On Display: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art included the Martin in its “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll” exhibition in 2019. – S. KNOPPER

For an instrument sometimes hailed as “the Holy Grail of bluegrass guitars,” Clarence White’s Martin D-28 had an inauspicious start. In 1959, a teenaged White bought a heavily damaged, 20-some-year-old acoustic guitar, which was soon fixed up by a Los Angeles luthier named Milt Owen, who admitted the result was far from perfect. But the guitar isn’t famous for being beautiful: It’s the instrument on which the dexterous White – as part of the folk revival outfit Kentucky Colonels — helped popularize the acoustic guitar as a lead instrument in bluegrass (acoustics were mainly seen as rhythm instruments prior to the innovations of White and Doc Watson, among others). By the time White began playing with the Byrds, the Martin D-28 was out of his life – but its influence on future generations of bluegrass players was set. In fact, Tony Rice – a disciple of White’s – owned and played the guitar for years.

Battle Scars: For whatever reason, someone had carved away at the Martin D-28’s sound hole before White bought it. Perhaps deciding a knife wasn’t enough, White upped the ante and shot it with a BB gun before parting ways with the guitar in 1965.

Talk of the Town: When Tony Rice bought White’s Martin D-28 in the ‘70s, he could barely believe his good fortune. “I kept waiting to wake up,” Rice told Fretboard Journal. “For days I was thinking, ‘It couldn’t possibly have been this easy.’” – J. LYNCH

The Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist went through a series of instruments during his time with the band, but in 1976 switched to the Explorer, in its original form one of the rarest and most coveted guitars Gibson has ever made. According to Ultimate Guitar, the company made just a handful of them during their initial run in 1958, and Collins’ Korina wood edition — replicated by Gibson with a 100-axe run in 2003 — became iconic.

Strange But True: According to his guitar tech, while playing in the Skynyrd successor Rossington-Collins Band in 1980, Collins tripped while running out onstage and broke the tip of the headstock off, then glued it back on with Elmer’s glue; when Gibson issued its signature, they recreated that aspect on purpose.

As Heard On: Street Survivors, the final album with Skynyrd’s classic lineup, which was released three days before the plane crash that killed three members of the band and almost claimed the life of Collins. — DAN RYS

One of the first electric guitars on the market, the 1941 National New Yorker Electric Spanish was the guitar of choice for Memphis Minnie when she went electric in the early ‘40s. The Queen of Country Blues’ playing on this hollow, sound hole-free guitar helped the blues evolve into early rock n’ roll and inspired artists from Jefferson Airplane to Bonnie Raitt.

Rarity Factor: One of the few hollow guitars with no sound holes, the National New Yorker is additionally rare because America’s entrance into World War II necessitated the reallocation of resources used to make that model. The one Minnie wielded featured a sunburst finish.

Talk of the Town: None other than 20th century poetry giant Langston Hughes had this to say about Minnie’s guitar playing: “Louisiana bayous, muddy old swamps, Mississippi dust and sun, cotton fields, lonesome roads, train whistles in the night, mosquitoes at dawn, and the Rural Free Delivery, that never brings the right letter. All these things cry through the strings on Memphis Minnie’s electric guitar, amplified to machine proportions — a musical version of electric welders plus a rolling mill.” — J. LYNCH

Joe Satriani, known for his fluid playing technique and his distinctive bald look, has always mirrored the sleek and polished style he embodies. His breakout album, 1987’s Surfing with the Alien, notably features Marvel’s Silver Surfer on the cover, embodying the same smooth aesthetic. It’s no surprise that Satriani’s most iconic guitar, the 1990 Ibanez JS-2 Chrome Boy, boasts a brilliantly reflective silver finish that complements this theme perfectly. Although the original “Chrome Boy” offered exceptional sound, its finish was prone to peeling due to Ibanez’s then-unperfected chroming technique. Ironically, Satriani observed that each time the guitar was refinished, its sound improved, eventually making it one of his favorite instruments.

Specs: Since its inception in 1990, Ibanez has created five different versions of the Chrome Boy.

Strange But True: Satriani notes that it wasn’t until the fourth iteration, the JS1CR30, that Ibanez finally perfected the chroming process, joking, “They figured it out…it only took 30 years!”

As Heard On: Chrome Boy’s distinctive sound can be fully appreciated on the 2001 album Live in San Francisco. – B. TOLINSKI

The Spaceman has said he purchased the Cherry-burst guitar in 1976 at Manny’s Music on West 48th Street — once part of Manhattan’s much-mourned Music Row. He later modified it with three DiMarzio humbuckers, including a Super Distortion at the bridge — the Les Paul originally had just two pickups — which helped give KISS its distinctive roar.

As Heard On: Alive II

Retirement Party: According to acefrehleylespaul.com, although the Custom is most associated with Frehley and KISS, it was his primary guitar for the shortest period — 17 months between 1976 and 1978.

Sold!: Frehley’s axe was purchased by rare guitar collector Matt Swanson who licensed it to Gibson to create faithful replicas. — F. DIGIACOMO

Bakersfield, Calif., was not only the home of “Act Naturally” writer and country superstar Buck Owens but of Semie Moseley, the luthier behind Mosrite Guitars, favored by the Ventures’ Nokie Edwards and the Ramones’ Johnny Ramone. In 1966, Owens was against the Vietnam War, but also against protesters burning the American flag, and he wanted a (relatively) subtle way to show his reaction. Together, he and Moseley designed a red, white and blue acoustic — and Owens convinced his fiddle and bass players to paint their instruments the same colors. When Owens starred on Hee Haw a few years later, he said in his autobiography, Buck ‘Em!, “It seems like everybody wanted to know where they could get one.”

Mass Distribution: Owens licensed the red, white and blue model to Chicago Musical Instruments, which sold each model for $82.95, often through the Sears catalog. Owens’ first check was for $15,000.

Six-String Stories: Rev. Ray Boatwright helped fund Moseley’s forays into the guitar-building business, co-signing on a band saw, tabletop drill press, air compressor and other tools, which Moseley used to build Mosrite #1 in the reverend’s one-car garage in 1954, according to Bakersfield Guitars: An Early History. Among the first to use his models: Lorrie and Larry Collins of the Collins Kids, a ’50s rockabilly duo. – S. KNOPPER

Mark Knopfler stuck primarily to Strats and Les Pauls in Dire Straits, but the most indelible guitar image connected to the band is that of his 1937 National Style “O” resonator, famously depicted floating in the blue sky, storm clouds gathering in the background, on the cover of their Billboard 200-topping 1985 album Brothers In Arms. Knopfler purchased the National from guitarist and friend Steve Phillips in the ‘70s and used it extensively in the studio and onstage with Dire Straits and in his solo career. He has described its tone as “somewhere between the guitar and a piano,” which is pretty much exactly how it sounds on his most famous performance with it – the beautifully fingerpicked melody that leads the 1980 classic “Romeo and Juliet.”

As Seen On: The guitar also appears on the back cover of Brothers In Arms, this time as a painting by German artist Thomas Steyer.

Specs: National manufactured the first resonator guitars in 1927, designed with a metal body and interior speaker-like cones to produce more volume than acoustics in the pre-amplification days. Three years later, the brand introduced the Style O, boasting a nickel-plated brass body, with a “chickenfoot” coverplate on the front and an etched Hawaiian island scene on the back.

Strange But True: In 1973 Knopfler briefly played with an English pub rock band named Brewers Droop (slang for alcohol-induced erectile dysfunction). Sixteen years later some of these recordings were released on the album The Booze Brothers, the cover of which parodied the Brothers In Arms art — this time with the neck of Knopfler’s National experiencing the dreaded “droop.” – R. BIENSTOCK

Although Rolling Stones co-founder Brian Jones played many guitars during his tenure with the band, he is most closely associated with the teardrop-shaped white Vox Mark III presented to him by Tom Jennings (of Vox’s parent company, Jennings Musical Industries) in 1964. The guitar, which was a one-of-a-kind prototype built for Jones by Mick Bennett, featured two single coil pickups, a chrome pickguard, and ebony fretboard with a zero fret and a round vinyl cover that buttoned to the back of the guitar. Jones would first appear in public with the guitar on July 11 in Bridlington, Yorkshire, and he then used it for subsequent television appearances promoting the Stones’ then-new single “It’s All Over Now.”

Numbers Game: Once in production, the “teardrop” Mark III was rechristened the Vox Mark VI.

Fender Blender: When assembling Jones’ Mark III, Mick Bennett repurposed a Fender Stratocaster bridge that had been sawed off on one side to remove the hole for the tremolo arm.

Twin Tone: Vox built a companion 12-string Teardrop that was used during the Stones’ July 1964 appearances on the television show Ready Steady Go! – T. BEAUJOUR

Both husband and wife are known for their playing prowess, though they come at it from very different directions. Trucks has long played his red SG — in fact, he’s rarely seen without it — in open E tuning with a classic thick glass slide, a nod to his guitar hero and Allman Brothers predecessor Duane Allman. Tedeschi, meanwhile, is less dogmatic and uses a rotation of guitars, but has become most known for her Telecaster, which Fender enshrined with a signature version modeled on her 1993 Caribbean Mist original.

As Heard On: Tedeschi’s 1998 album Just Won’t Burn features her original on the cover; Trucks has played his SG on more than a dozen albums across his solo band, three Allman Brothers records (and countless live albums) and a slew of Tedeschi Trucks Band releases.

Strange But True: Trucks’ custom SG was modeled on Gibson’s Dickey Betts SG, which itself is a replica of a 1961 SG that Dickey gave to Duane Allman, which Allman’s daughter then gave to Trucks. Got all that? — D. RYS

Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen is a guitarist given to eccentricities both sartorial and musical. One of his favorite absurdist acts of the late ’70s was to don up to five guitars at once, among them a Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson Les Paul Junior, for his unaccompanied guitar solo, playing each and then discarding it to reveal the next guitar underneath. Wishing to one-up himself, Nielsen originally approached his friends at Hamer guitars with the idea of a six-necked instrument that would twirl like a roulette wheel. He abandoned that idea in favor of a five-necked behemoth that included a 12-string at the top, three standard guitar necks in the middle and a fretless neck at the bottom.

Three’s Company: Nielsen commissioned two additional five-necks from Hamer after the original 1981 example: one a Korina wood hollow body, and one in his trademark checkerboard finish that he still brings on the road.

Chop Shop: The five-neck was constructed by modifying the bodies of five double-cutaway Hamer Sunbursts and attaching them together.

Early Adopter: Nielsen worked with Hamer from its inception and owns a Hamer guitar with the serial number #0000 – T. BEAUJOUR

His Purple Majesty played some one-of-a-kind axes, such as his custom-made “Cloud” and “Love Symbol” guitars, but his flamed maple top Hohner Mad Cat Telecaster knockoff was his primary guitar in the studio and onstage. Hohner, known for its harmonicas, began producing the Japanese-made Mad Cats in the 1970s until it was sued by Fender because its headstock was allegedly indistinguishable from Fender’s Tele.

Rarity Factor: Prince hired world-class luthier Roger Sadowsky to build six Mad Cat replicas for him.

As Heard On: Prince acquired the original in the late ‘70s — it is said that he liked the leopard-print pick guard because it jibed with his fashion sense — and used it for the recording of Purple Rain, among many other classic albums. He also played a Mad Cat during his mind-blowing solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Strange But True: Two of the Mad Cat replicas Sadowsky built were equipped with tubing to spray Ivory Liquid during the guitar masturbation scene in the Purple Rain movie. Sadowsky told Ultimate Guitar.com that he dubbed them the “Ejacucasters.” – F. DIGIACOMO

One of the most iconic guitars in heavy metal has a pretty heartwarming origin story. A 14-year-old Darrell Abbott (chaperoned by his mom) won a Dean ML after smoking the competition at a guitar contest in Dallas. The future Dimebag Darrell sold the guitar to a friend, but it soon fell into the hands of his pal Buddy Blaze, a talented luthier who began toying around with it. Among other changes, Blaze tweaked the neck to emphasize the V shape, added a Floyd Rose bridge, moved the stock pickup to the neck, repainted the maroon axe a dark shade of aqua and applied a bitchin’ lightning bolt design. Not long after Phil Anselmo joined Pantera as its singer, Blaze put the guitar back in Dimebag’s hands, who fell in love with the guitar without realizing it was the same one he won as a kid. When Blaze revealed the fateful full-circle moment to him, the guitarist was ecstatic – and metal would never be the same.

As Seen On: An energized Dime sports the Dean From Hell (words that were scrawled on the guitar in marker) on the cover of Pantera’s iconic 1990 breakthrough, Cowboys From Hell.

Retirement Party: The well-loved guitar got knocked around onstage so much that Dime retired it in the mid ‘90s, bringing it out only on occasion. Fittingly, his beloved Dean From Hell was on display at his funeral after his murder in 2004. – J. LYNCH

The Shakespeare of country music made “nearly all his popular recordings with his Martin,” a 1940s acoustic that had an ebony fretboard, diamond-shaped inlays and the serial number 87422, according to Dick Boak’s Martin Guitar Masterpieces. Not much is known about the guitar’s origins, other than Hank Sr. purchased it from Tut Taylor, the dobro player who owned a Nashville guitar store, and recorded most of his classic recordings — from “Lost Highway” to “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” — with it. Hank Jr. is said to have inherited the guitar, which he reportedly sold for some shotguns.

Where It Is Now: Neil Young eventually wound up with the 1941 model and has played it regularly for years, telling crowds: “This is Hank’s old guitar,” sometimes introducing his song about it, “This Old Guitar.” Another model, circa 1944, was on display for years at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. Boak called it “one of the most valuable guitars ever made.”

Talk of the Town: Nils Lofgren, who plays with Young and Bruce Springsteen, told guitar.com in 2022: “I think it was on ‘Walking on the Road.’ [Neil] was on an electric piano and he said, ‘Why don’t you try an acoustic guitar?’ and he just happened to have his Hank Williams guitar, ‘Hank.’ So now I’m playing acoustic rhythm on a guitar Hank Williams played. That was a beautiful thing.” – S. KNOPPER

Reid had just formed Living Colour when he connected with the guys behind ESP, the Japanese guitar brand that had just launched in the U.S., and commissioned a custom model inspired by one he saw in the ESP offices that reminded him of Marvel’s Silver Surfer. The final version was, in a way, a bit of a collage of other inspirations: the swirl design he saw in the office; a guitar he had been using up to that point that was painted by graffiti-inspired artist Keith Haring; and a V-neck inspired by a ’63 Fender he had played in the past, with EMG active pickups, which were new at the time.

Six-String Stories: “The ESP coming into my life at that point was a shift,” Reid told the ESP site. “It was specifically for the band Living Colour. It was a colorful band name; I thought I should have a colorful guitar, right?”

As Heard On: Reid most famously used the guitar in writing “Cult of Personality,” the Grammy-winning first song off Living Colour’s 1988 debut Vivid. — D. RYS

Jack White has never been one to follow the beaten path, and his taste in guitars illustrates that. Those idiosyncrasies were especially evident during his years with The White Stripes, a period where White was often seen wielding a striking red-and-white 1964 Valco Airline Res-O-Glas. The angular guitar, crafted from fiberglass, was originally marketed through Montgomery Ward department store catalogs. The guitar was challenging to play, but it produced a uniquely jagged tone that resonated with White’s contrarian aesthetics. “If you want it easy, buy a new Les Paul or a new Stratocaster,” White once quipped, emphasizing his preference for instruments with character over ease of play.

Specs: The Valco Airline guitars lack truss rods; instead, their necks are reinforced with steel to maintain sturdiness.

Sold!: The price for a Valco Airline in 1964 was $99. These days they can fetch up to $3,000.

Under the Influence: During his time with the White Stripes, White also played a 1950s-era Kay Hollowbody, favored by bluesman Howlin’ Wolf, and a Gibson L-1 acoustic, known for its association with blues legend Robert Johnson. – B. TOLINSKI

Before Paul Reed Smith established PRS Guitars, now one of the premier electric guitar and amplifier manufacturers globally, he was a modest luthier in Maryland. Smith had already crafted guitars for musicians like Peter Frampton and Ted Nugent when he targeted Carlos Santana, celebrated for his exceptional sound and selective choice in instruments. In 1980, Smith managed to secure a meeting with Santana, who was immediately impressed with a custom guitar Smith presented. The endorsement from Santana not only put Paul Reed Smith on the map but also kickstarted a lasting collaborative friendship.

Shop Talk: Carlos Santana initially remarked that the first guitar Paul Reed Smith crafted for him was so exceptional it must have been an “act of God,” and challenged Smith to replicate the feat. “After the fifth instrument, which was a doubleneck, he called me up and said, ‘Okay, you’re a guitar maker,’” Smith recalled to Premier Guitar in 2023.

Strange But True: In the early 2000s, Santana challenged PRS to design a high-quality yet affordable guitar, leading to the creation of the Santana SE (Student Edition) in 2001.

Specs: At Santana’s behest, Paul Reed Smith designed a revolutionary new tremolo system that incorporated miniature rollers on each string to reduce friction. – B. TOLINSKI

Love’s trademark guitar, built for her in the Fender Custom Shop, takes its cues from a Rickenbacker and a vintage green Mercury she used to play. The Venus (in Surf Green, with a matching headstock and a single pickup) was later replicated and sold as the Squier Venus.

Rarity Factor: It was custom built for Love by master luthier Larry Brooks, who had previously collaborated with Kurt Cobain. According to Brooks, Love’s “ballsy-toned” Venus was built without a volume knob at her manager’s request, so it couldn’t be damaged or grabbed when crowdsurfing.

Sold!: The Venus sold on online instrument marketplace Reverb for $68,289.95 in 2022. – A. STEWART

Springsteen was 22 when he bought this Frankensteined Fender from New Jersey luthier Phil Petillo for $185, which he later called “the best deal of my life.” An early-’50s composite of an Esquire (the neck) and a Telecaster (the body) housed in honeyed blonde wood, it had been heavily refashioned with four pickups and a wooden chunk behind the black pickguard removed. It was a “mutt,” Springsteen said, but he learned how to make it talk, and the guitar has accompanied him on his storied ascent from Jersey clubs to stadiums, even making an appearance on the Born to Run album cover.

Six-String Stories: “This feels like my arm,” Springsteen told Stephen Colbert in 2021. “If I have this guitar, I don’t have anything on. This became an extension of my actual body.”

Strange But True: To ensure the guitar made it through a typical sweat-a-thon Springsteen concert, Petillo had it waterproofed.

Retirement Party: Springsteen hasn’t brought the now-fragile guitar on the road in years, preferring to use dupes instead, though he still records with it, and played it during his 2009 Super Bowl halftime show. It has also been on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. – A. STEWART

Some of the most classic-Who-ish photos of Townshend performing live in the late ’70s — windmilling, leaping, sneering — involved this wine-red guitar stamped with a large white “5.” Although Townshend was known in the ’60s for his Gibson SGs, he shifted to Les Pauls in the ’70s for a heavier sound, and played a variety of them, sticking numbered decals on the bodies so he could quickly select one with distinctive capo settings during live shows. He had one problem with the model: its neck. “Under the rough treatment I give them, they don’t seem to last very long,” he told Sound International in 1980.

As Seen On: The Who’s performances in The Kids Are Alright documentary, including “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” from Shepperton Studios, U.K., in 1978.

Talk of the Town: Townshend switched from the SG to the Les Paul Deluxe after Gibson took the SG of the market, which caused logistical problems for the destructive guitarist. “I don’t break them deliberately anymore, but when I spin them around, when I’ve had a few drinks, I bang them and they crack and they break.” Eventually, he contacted Gibson for custom models, and the company responded with four, at $3,000 a pop. He was displeased with them and picked up the Deluxe instead. – S. KNOPPER

Clapton was a 21-year-old British guitar phenom when he recorded Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. The 1966 album (nicknamed “Beano” because Clapton is reading a Beano comic book on its cover) kickstarted a worldwide blues-rock revolution. Throughout, Clapton played a ‘59 or ‘60 (probably a ‘60, due to the shape of its neck) Les Paul Standard with a sunburst finish, also nicknamed Beano, plugged into a topped-out Marshall amp, a sound that would change history. The Burst disappeared from a church basement in London during rehearsals for the first gig by Clapton’s next group, Cream, further cementing its journey into myth. Beano’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Strange But True: According to Clapton, whoever stole Beano came back to steal its case a few weeks later.

Six-String Stories: Few clear pictures of Beano exist, which will make authentication difficult if it ever turns up. Clapton has described it as red-gold in color, with one cutaway and cigarette marks pocking the front. “Just magnificent,” he told Guitar Player in 1985. “I never really found one as good as that. I do miss that one.” – A. STEWART

The guitar that changed the world was a workmanlike 12-string Stella, canonized by Louisiana blues and folk artist Huddie Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly. Writer Ross Altman once called Ledbetter, whose music would prove foundational to the development of rock n’ roll, a “one-man heavy metal band.” Everything about the Stella was heavy (the weight of its strings and body) and rumbly (Ledbetter probably used a lower version of standard tuning, but no one really knows for sure). The Stella was large and long-scaled, its strings widely spaced, in order to accompany Lead Belly’s large hands.

Sold!: On Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance, Kurt Cobain describes being approached by the Lead Belly estate to buy the Stella for $500,000, which even Cobain couldn’t afford. (Would David Geffen buy it for him? Cobain wondered. He would not.) According to representatives from the bluesman’s estate, Lead Belly’s niece wanted to sell the guitar to Cobain, but asked to meet him first, so he could reassure her he wasn’t going to smash it. The meeting never took place.

As Heard On: Lead Belly used the Stella on some of the best-known versions of now-standards including “Goodnight Irene,” “The Midnight Special” and “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” (though many versions of each song exist). – A. STEWART

Holly was struggling in geometry, and responded to this problem by trading his acoustic Les Paul (and a borrowed $1,000) for a new Fender model called the Stratocaster, changing the trajectory of rock n’ roll forever. (OK, fellow Strat aficionado Carl Perkins, and others, had something to do with it, too.) Holly used the axe he purchased at Adair Music, in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas, to play those famous downstrokes on mid-’50s classics “That’ll Be the Day,” “Peggy Sue” and the rest. Holly lost this model after a tour-bus theft in Michigan — so the guitar did not die with him in the fatal plane crash of 1959 that claimed the lives of Richie Valens and the Big Bopper, too.

Where Is It Now?: Nobody knows, but a 2019 documentary, The ’54, suggests an Australian producer and collector purchased it by random chance in Lubbock in 1979.

Talk of the Town: Fender called him “the first high-profile rock n’ roller to adopt the Fender Stratocaster as his guitar of choice.” Holly-inspired Strat forebears include George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. – S. KNOPPER

In May 1973, Bob Marley poked his head into Top Gear, a funky music shop in London known for its second-hand guitars. Among the odds and ends, he noticed an unusual Les Paul Special heavily modified by its previous owner, Dan Armstrong, the inventor of the famous Ampeg Dan Armstrong Lucite acrylic guitar. Armstrong put fingerboard markers where dots had been and a white plastic binding around the headstock. Captivated, Marley bought the guitar and used it as his primary stage and studio instrument for the rest of his career.

Yet, the modifications didn’t end there. Marley admired Jimi Hendrix and reached out to his tech, Roger Mayer, to see if he could create something that would make the Les Paul distinctly his own. Mayer told Reverb in 2021 that he suggested an elliptical aluminum plate under his pickup switch that would “be like a third eye looking out from the guitar,” and adding a matching brushed aluminum pickguard. Marley used it until his death in 1981.

Strange But True: Before Marley acquired it, the guitar was briefly owned by Marc Bolan of T. Rex, who exchanged it back to Top Gear for a Les Paul equipped with humbucking pickups.

Icon Status: Following Marley’s death, his Les Paul Special was declared a national treasure by the Jamaican government.

Retirement Party: The Bob Marley Les Paul Special is currently on display at the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaica. – B. TOLINSKI

Jerry Cantrell’s 1984 G&L Rampage, affectionately nicknamed “Blue Dress,” is a seminal piece from the grunge era. With Alice in Chains, Cantrell has wielded this guitar since he purchased it in Dallas in 1985, and it has featured on nearly all his recordings, including iconic tracks like “Man In the Box” and “Would.” The guitar’s design, inspired by Eddie Van Halen’s iconic Frankenstein, includes a distinctive circle and square pattern. Notably, it features a pinup girl in a blue dress—a sticker designed by the renowned French painter Alain Aslan, sourced from the adult magazine, which gives the guitar its nickname.

Strange But True: G&L was the creation of former Fender masterminds Leo Fender and George Fullerton (“G” for George and “L” for Leo).

Rarity Factor: The Rampage was introduced in 1984 and was one of G&L’s earliest models.

Shop Talk: “It’s nothing fancy,” Cantrell told Total Guitar in 2014. “There’s plenty of fancier, cooler guitars, but it’s always felt comfortable for me to play from the get-go.”

Missing In Action: Cantrell’s Rampage was thought to be stolen in 2024, but it was simply misplaced while in transit between a photo shoot and his recording studio. – B. TOLINSKI

For someone whose career dates back to the 1950s, it’s notable that the guitar most commonly associated with the Chicago blues legend wasn’t created until four decades later. Guy had been playing Strats since the ‘60s — he claims that Clapton and Jeff Beck picked them up because of him — but the polka dot design was crafted by his request in the early 1990s, as a tribute to his late mother; it first appeared on the album cover of 1994’s Slippin’ In, and he’s played it in concert ever since.

Six-String Stories: “I promised [my mother] that I was going to buy her a polka dot Cadillac to make her feel better, because she had had a stroke and she never saw me play … I was going to get famous and drive back to Louisiana in a polka dot Cadillac to show her I’d made it,” he told Guitar World in a 2015 interview. “So I finally got the guitar company, Fender, to make me a guitar with the polka dots, and they’ve made quite a few of them now.”

As Heard On: Guy played Strats for years, but the polka dot motif shows up on Slippin’ In, Heavy Love, Rhythm & Blues and The Blues Is Alive and Well. — D. RYS

Gifted to him in 1970 at a Humble Pie gig in San Francisco, “Phenix,” a heavily modified 1954 Gibson Les Paul, would become Peter Frampton’s go-to guitar for a decade. Appearing on albums like Humble Pie’s Rock On and Performance Rockin’ the Fillmore, the black Les Paul would become lodged in the popular culture firmament in 1976, when it was pictured with the guitarist on the cover of his eight-times platinum Frampton Comes Alive! double album. The guitar was presumed destroyed in 1980, when a plane carrying Frampton’s equipment crashed during takeoff on the island of Curaçao, but it had in fact been recovered from the wreckage by a customs agent. Spotted by a local luthier, the guitar was returned to Frampton in 2012. As it had truly risen from the ashes, it was dubbed “Phenix” by its rightful owner.

Triple Threat: When it left the Gibson factory in 1954, Phenix was originally equipped with one P-90 and one “staple” pickup, but it had been carved out to fit three humbucking pickups before Frampton acquired it.

Less Is More: In their literature of the period, Gibson referred to Les Paul Customs as “Fretless Wonders.”

Hiding In Plain Sight: During the almost quarter century that Phenix was MIA, it was seen being played by a local guitarist in Curaçao. – T. BEAUJOUR

Eric Clapton’s 1964 Gibson SG, dubbed “The Fool,” is a vibrant testament to the psychedelic era. Painted by Marijke Koger and Simon Posthuma of the Dutch design collective The Fool, this guitar became synonymous with Clapton during his time with Cream. The artwork on the SG was commissioned by Robert Stigwood, the band’s manager, as part of a broader project (that also included custom designs for Ginger Baker’s drum kit and Jack Bruce’s Fender Bass VI) in preparation for Cream’s debut U.S. tour.

The Fool was more than just a showpiece; it played a crucial role in the production of Cream’s second album, Disraeli Gears, contributing to iconic tracks such as “Sunshine of Your Love” and “Strange Brew.” The guitar’s journey didn’t end with Clapton. After Cream disbanded, he passed the SG to George Harrison, who subsequently handed it down to Apple Records artist Jackie Lomax. Later, it found its way to Todd Rundgren.

Specs: The Fool was painted with oil-based enamel paint, in the gaudy DayGlo of the day.

Lookin’ Good: The centerpiece on the face of the guitar is a cherub whose curly hair was inspired by Clapton’s hairstyle at the time.

Strange But True: The original design extended onto the fretboard, which Clapton later had cleaned to avoid interference with his playability. – B. TOLINSKI