Excuse me while I kiss this prize! Jimi Hendrix guitar goes on sale for $1.25 million
Excuse me while I kiss this prize! Jimi Hendrix guitar goes on sale with a $1.25 million price tag – 62 years after the legend paid $65 for it
- One of the first guitars used by Jimi Hendrix has been listed for $1.25 million
- Hendrix played the Epiphone Wilshire for his early band ‘The King Kasuals’
- Despite the hefty price tag, Hendrix only paid $65 for it in 1962
A piece of rock and rock music history is now up for grabs as a classical guitar owned by a young Jimi Hendrix has hit the market for $1.25 million.
The legendary artist’s 1961 Epiphone Wilshire guitar has been put up for sale more than six decades after Hendrix first picked it up.
Long before he drove or stunned audiences at Woodstock with an electric rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, the Wilshire was one of the first guitars Hendrix performed with.
While he was able to negotiate a price tag of just $65 for the guitar, it will take a very wealthy music lover to get his hands on the pricey antique.
One of the first guitars used by legendary artist Jimi Hendrix is on sale for $1.25 million
Hendrix (left) used the guitar during the early days of his band ‘The King Kasuals’
The Epiphone Wilshire was purchased by Hendrix in 1962 for just $65
Hendrix owned a fleet of iconic guitars until his untimely death in 1970, aged just 27.
He was best known for shredding on a 1968 Olympic White Fender Stratocaster, which he most famously used during his generation performance at Woodstock in 1969.
However, according to Farout Magazine, his all-time favorite guitar was another Stratocaster in an all-black finish, which he affectionately dubbed “Black Beauty.”
But in the years before he found mainstream success, in 1962, shortly after being discharged from the military, Hendrix chose the Wilshire currently up for auction.
Desperate for the Wilshire to aid his budding career, Hendrix traded in his Danelectro guitar and $65 for the instrument.
He used the guitar before going solo while a member of his early band ‘The King Kasuals’.
The guitar was previously on the market in 2008 and a private collector is now selling it through the owner Moments in time.
The instrument comes with a photocopied letter of authenticity and a collection of images showing Hendrix playing the guitar.
It’s not the first time one of Hendrix’s cheap guitars has fetched a fortune.
In 2016, a used guitar that Hendrix bought for just $25 was picked up at auction for more than $200,000, according to Yahoo News.
And four years later, a rare Japanese sunburst electric guitar used by Hendrix in the 1960s was purchased for more than $171,000, more than four times its pre-auction estimate.