$64,000
A Sears Silvertone electric guitar owned by Joe Gray, childhood friend of Jimi Hendrix. Gold finish, single cutaway, single lipstick pickup, and a white pickguard. In 1958-59, Washington Junior High School friends Gray and Hendrix were both interested in playing the guitar, which Gray had and Hendrix did not. The two made an arrangement that Hendrix could borrow Gray’s guitar for his performances with The Velvetones. Hendrix would string the guitar so he could play left-handed and restring the guitar for when he returned it to Gray. Occasionally, Hendrix kept the guitar at his home until Gray’s father would find it missing and make Gray retrieve it. The young men worked out a deal where Hendrix would pay for the guitar over time with the money he made from his Velvetones gigs. Hendrix did not receive any formal guitar training. With this guitar and with a model his father eventually bought him in the late 1950s, he taught himself his own unique style. The Velvetones evolved into the Rocking Teens, then became the Rocking Kings, and finally Thomas and the Tomcats, with whom Hendrix played between 1958 and 1961, at which point Hendrix joined the Army and left Washington. When Gray and Hendrix graduated from junior high and went to different high schools, the friendship dissolved. The guitar remained with Gray because Hendrix had not finished making payments to buy the guitar. Gray went into the Air Force, and the guitar stayed behind in his parents' house in Washington. Wh
Auctioneer:
Juliens Auctions
Date:
2014-05-17
