A piece of Rock n Roll history is coming to Bonhams of London in December. Up for auction is Jimi Hendrix’s Epiphone FT 79 Acoustic Guitar ($Auction), one of the great musician’s favorite guitars.
The rock legend first acquired this used 1951 Epiphone FT 79 acoustic guitar (serial number 62262) for $25, in New York after his first US tour. He took it back to his Upper Berkley Street flat where his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham says it became his favorite daily use instrument. He needed an acoustic for checking out the riffs in his head because he had previously been evicted from his Montagu Square digs for practicing with an electric guitar and amplifier.
The instrument itself has a spruce top and maple sides with a tobacco sunburst finish and tortoiseshell scratchplate. The neck has a 20 fret rosewood fingerboard, chrome truss-rod with machine heads and is strung for left-handed play.
Hendrix owned this Epiphone for nearly three years which is longer that any other instrument he possessed. There are many pictures of Jimi with this guitar before he gave it to Blue Mink guitarist Alan Parker in 1970. Jimi may be gone but you can still experience one of the tools he used to forge his legend. Expected to fetch $100K-$150K.
