Robert Fronjian

Aptly named “Frankenstein” the guitar was pieced together by Eddie Van Halen from modified factory seconds and mismatched odd-lot parts. then spray-painted. It represents an effort to combine some of the most desirable elements of Gibson and Fender guitars into a single instrument that was not commerically available at the time. Van Halen was continually striving to acheive the ultimate guitar tone, playabillity, dependability, and functionality. The unique guitar embodies not only his groundbreaking and unorthodox playing style but also his ingenuity in design and engineering. One of the most recognizable guitars of all time. It spawned legions of copies from other manufacturers and inspired generations of fans to design their own instruments.

Contured ash body, maple neck 25 1/2 in. scale:spray-painted red finish with black and white stripes; PAF humbucking pickup at bridge, dummy neck pickup, single volume control, Floyd Rose locking vibrato system, 1971 quarter.

And he put it to good use !!

Though Buddy Holly was famous for performing with a 1954 Stratocaster, he composed many of his hits with this wartime Gibson J-45. It is probably the acoustic guitar used to record “Everyday,” “Send Me Some Lovin,” and “It’s Too Late.” Holly was likely inspired to add the hand-tooled leather cover, a popular decoration among country-western guitarists, when he saw one on the cover of Elvis’s 1956 debut album. The Leather work features the titles of several of Holly’s songs and the name of his home state. A leather tooling enthusiast, Holly probably made it himself.

Spruce top, Mahogany back, sides and neck, rosewood fingerboard, 24 3/4 in scale length.;sunburst finish.

Though known for playing Fender Stratocasters. Jimi Hendrix played this 1967 Gibson Flying V “Love Drops” extensively from 1967 to 1969. He probably used it on his 1967 BBC Radio 1 sessions and 1968’s Electric Ladyland, notably for his solo on “All Along the Watchtower.” Hendrix modified the nut and strap button and painted the instrument himself using nail polish. When Hendrix gave the guitar to Mick Cox of the Irish band Eire Apparent in 1969, Cox refinished it in black and removed the original design. In 1990’s, session musician Dave Brewis acquired the instrument and restored Hendrix’s original paint job.

Mahogany body and neck,rosewood fingerboard, 24 3/4 in. scale;black finish with painted designs, two humbucking pickups, three-way selector switch, two volume controls and one tone control; Vibrola vibrato tailpiece.

1960 Gibson Les Paul Custom

“Black Beauty”

Jimmy Page acquired this Gibson Les Paul Custom in 1960 and used it for his main session work from 1962 to 1967. The Guitar was stolen from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport in April 1970, when Page took it on tour in the United States for the first time, and returned to him on November 12, 2015.

Carved mahogany body and neck, ebony fingerboard; 243/4 in. scale; black finish; three PAF humbucking pickups, three -way selector switch, two volume and two tone controls; Bigsby B7 vibrato.

Les Paul Standard 1959-60 “Number One”

Jimmy Page purchased this instrument in 1969 from Joe Walsh, who was in the band James Gang at the time and later became a member of the Eagles. When Page received it, the neck had already been shaved down to a thinner profile. It has been Page’s main guitar throughout his career, used in every Led Zeppelin performance and recording from 1969 to the 2007 reunion and his post-Zeppelin work with the Firm and others, it remains in active use today as his primary guitar.

Mahogany body and neck, carved maple top, rosewood fingerboard; 24 3/4 in. scale; sunburst finish; two volume and two tone controls, push-pull phase switch.

Fender Telecaster 1959 “Dragon”

Jimmy Page received this guitar from Jeff Beck and used it for his 1967 work with the Yardbirds, playing it with a violin bow on experimental live versions of “Dazed and Confused.” After the Yardbirds disbanded, he used it to record all of Led Zeppelin (1968), Page hand painted the dragon design on the body with transparent acrylic over silver-gray diffraction film. The guitar was later stripped by well-meaning friend, but page restored the design in 2018.

Ash body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, 26 1/2 in. scale; clear-coated finish with hand-painted design, two single -coil pickups, three-way selector switch, volume and tone controls.

Harmony Sovereign H1260 1962.

This acoustic guitar is one of Page’s main songwriting instruments. He used it to compose material on the first four Led Zeppelin albums, to record the majority of the Led Zeppelin III (1970), and to record the acoustic parts of “Stairway to Heaven.” It remains in use today.

Flat spruce top with round sound hole, mahogany back, sides, and neck rosewood fingerboard; 25 in. scale; natural finish.

Black & White-1961 Danelectro 3021.

Page bought this guitar from London’s Seimer shop in 1963 for his session recording work and first played it live in 1967 with the Yardbirds on his instrumental piece “White Summer.” He used it in “Celtic tuning,” the alternative tuning with strings tuned to DADGAD, with Led Zeppelin on “When the Lvee Breaks,” “In My Time of Dying,” ‘ Kashmir,” and “Black Mountain Side.”

Fender Stratocaster 1956-57 “Blackie” was Eric Clapton’s main recording and perfromance guitar in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and has become his most famous instrument. Clapton’s guitar tech Ted Newman-Jones assembled it from three late- 1950’s Stratocasters: it has a 1956 body, a 1957 neck, and 1950’s pickups. He purchased the instruments from Sho-Bud Guitar Company in Nashville in 1970, at a time when the model had largely fallen out of fashion. (He bought three other Statocasters at the store, giving one each to George Harrison, Pete Townshend, and Steve Windwood.) Clapton first played “Blackie” live at London’s Rainbow Theatre at a 1973 concert organized by Pete Townsend.

Contoured ash body, maple neck with walnut “skunk stripe,”25 1/2 in. scale;black finish, three single-coil pickups, three-way selector switch, one volume and two tone controls.

Gibson Les Paul Custom 1957;painted 1968. After the Rolling Stones’ infamous drug arrest February 1967, the band took a break from performing, and at some point Keith Richards decorated this guitar using paint pens, creating a colorful abstract design on the body and silver stars on the controls. The instrument appeared in the Jean-Luc Godard film Sympathy for the Devil (1968), which explores that song’s writing and recording process during the Beggers Banquet sessions. It was also used in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus(1968, released on film in 1996).

Carved mahogany body and neck, ebony fingerboard; 24 3/4 in. scale; black finish with hand-painted design; three PAF humbucking pickups, three-way selector switch, two volume and two tone controls.

Wah, Wah :

You snooze, you lose.

I waited a bit to long to get to the exhibit. Keith already plucked his main-axe for the tour.

Fender Telecaster 1954 “Micawber”

Richards received this guitar from Eric Clapton on his twenty-seventh birthday in December 1970 and first used it to record Exile on Main Street, in 1971. During the session for that recording, Richards removed the low E string and tuned the five string guitar in an open G chord (GDGBD), a technique that became part of his signature sound. He went on to use the guitar for most of his songs in open tunings. In 1980s, Richards named the instrument “Micawber” after the character from Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield.

Ash body, one piece maple neck with walnut “skunk stripe”; 25 1/2 in. scale; single-coil pickup at bridge, humbucking pickup at neck, three-way selector switch, volume and tone controls; pickups, tuners, and bridge replaced.

Stevie Ray Vaughn, one of the key drivers of the 1980’s blues revival, used “Number One” as his main instrument throughout his career. Vaughn acquired the Stratocaster, built from a 1963 body with 1962 neck and 1959 pickups, from Ray Henning’s Heart of Texas music store in 1974 and modified it with black pickguard featuring his intials. Inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Otis Rush, Vaughn added a lefty vibrato. Vaughn played this guitar on his albums with Double Trouble and with his brother Jimmie Vaughn, and he likely used it on David Bowie’s Let’s Dance in 1982. made after the two met at Montreux Jazz Festival.

Contoured alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard; 25 1/2 in. scale; sunburst finish; three single-coil pickups, three-way pickup selector, one volume and two controls; lefty vibrato bridge.

Immediately after receiving the “Wolf” guitar from Doug Irwin in 1973, Jerry Garcia commissioned “Tiger,” telling Irwin to make the most extravagant instrument he was capable of. The instrument-composed of highly figured exotic woods that are sandwiched and laminated together and exmbellished with ornate brass bindings and the inlay of a tiger-took Irwin about two thousand hours of work to complete over six years. Garcia first played “Tiger” on August 4, 1979, at the Oakland Civic Auditorium, and he used it almost exclusively until 1989. It was the last guitar Garcia played publicly with the Grateful Dead, at a performance on July 9, 1995.

Cocobolo top and back,flame maple and padauk neck-through body, ebony fingerboard; 25 in. scale; natural finish; one single-coil and two humbucking pickups, five-way selector switch, two volume controls and one tone control, two coil tap switches, effects loop output and on/off switch, unity-gain buffer.

“Wolf”

Doug Irwin, San Francisco

1973

“Wolf” was Jerry Garcia’s main guitar with the Grateful Dead from 1973 to1979, a period when he was expanding his “astral” country and blues sound. He commissioned it in late 1972 after playing a guitar that Luthier Doug Irwin had made for the manufacturer Alembic. The instrument’s cutting-edge active electronics gave Garcia a wide variety of tonal options; he described it as “twelve guitars in one.” “Wolf” was also the first guitar on which Garcia experimented with Musical instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) implementation in the 1980’s. a feature included on Irwin’s “Rosebud,” another guitar that he custom built for Garcia.

Quilted maple top and back with purpleheart core, four -piece maple and purpleheart neck through body, ebony fingerboard; 25 1/2 in. scale; natural finish; one single-coil and two humbucking pickups, five-way pickup selector switch, pickup coil switches. One master volume control and two tone controls, unity-grain buffer, effects loop output with on/off toggle.

One of the most important singer-songwriters of her generation, Joni Mitchell is also an inventive guitar player who utilizes a wide variety of alternative tunings and has influenced rock musicians such as Bob Dylan, Prince, Bonnie Raitt, and Neil Young.She began her career performing on acoustic guitar, and in the 1970’s she began to explore the electric sounds of rock, pop, and jazz. Mitchell used this Ibanez archtop on the 1979 live album Shadows and Light and also on the Refuge World Tour (1983).

Archtop hollow body with f-holes, spruce top, maple back, sides, and neck, ebony fingerboard; 24 3/4 in. scale; natural finish; two floating miniature humbucking pickups, three-way selector switch, two volume and two tone controls.

An unusual five-neck guitar has been a featured in guitarist Rick Nielsen’s performances with Cheap Trick. After a period of playing live with multiple guitars strapped on simultaneously, he began collaborating with Hamer in 1981 to combine all of his needs into one outlandish instrument. This guitar, Nielsen’s first of its kind, was built by laminating together the bidies of five Hamer Specials. Nielsen went on to commission and perform with several other five-neck instruments, each with a different configuration.

Mahogany body and necks, maple top,rosewood fingerboards; 24 3/4 in. scale;orange finish; twelve-string neck; muultiple six string necks, one with Vibrola and one ffretless; two DiMarzio humbucking pickups per neck, five-way rotary neck selector, three-way selector switch, two volume controls and one tone control.

Elvis Presley was primarily a vocalist, but his instruments were an important part of his iconography in promotional photos and posters, and he also frequently played guitars like his Martin D-18. Early in his career, he sang with the lead guitarist Scotty Moore, whose creative solos influenced many subsequent players. In the legendary 1955 Sun Studios sessions, Elvis used this D-18 as a rhythm guitar, his aggressive strumming providing a strong accompaniment to Moore on electric guitar and Bill Black on bass.

Flat spruce top with round sound hole, mahogany back and sides, and neck, rosewood fingerboard 25 1/2 in. scale; natural finish, metalic “Elis” stickers attached to the body (missing "S”)

The Southern Jumbo is a powerful flat top guitar favored by many country and western musicians, This one was Don Everly’s main songwriting instrument from the age of sixteen, which he used to cowrite many of the Everly Brothers’ hits, including “(Till) I Kissed You” and “Cathy’s Clown.” The duo was famed for their close vocal harmonies and driving rhythm-guitar playing. Their music, including their characteristic open tunings (when a guitar’s open, or unfretted, strings are tuned to a major chord), had an impact on the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and the Rolling Stones, among others.

Flat spruce top with round sound hole, mahogany back and sides, rosewood fingerboard 24 3/4 in. scale; sunburst finish with five-ply white and black binding.

The Everly Brothers built their music identity around familial relationship. They appeared on stage and screen with matching outfits and Gibson acoustic guitars, performing country-western-style poplular songs in their close harmony. This pair of instruments was designed for the duo’s performance needs. featuring double tortoiseshell pickguards to protect the tops of the guitars from the brothers’ powerful rhythmic strumming and adjustable string-through bridges- designed by their father, country-western entertainer like Everly- that enabled them to easily change broken strings.

Flat spruce top, mahogany back and sides, rosewood fingerboard 24 3/4 in. scale. black finish, adjustable string through bridge.

Steve Miller received this guitar from Leslie West of the Vagrants and Mountain in 1967 or 1968. It was originally painted a pale yellow that Gibson developed to appear white on black-and-white television. Miller had the guitar repainted with intricate psychedlic designs by surfboard artist Bob Cantrell and changed the pickup covers, tuners, and controls to match the new color scheme. He used it extensively in recordings and live performances through the 1970s, including Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert in 1973 and the Midnight Special in 1974.

Mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard; 24 3/4 in. scale painted designs; two P-90 single-coil pickups, three-way selector switch,two volume and two tone controls.

In 1943, Muddy Waters moved from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago, where he formed the first significant electric blues band, By 1951, his group included guitarist Jimmy Rodgers, harmonica prodigy Little Walter Jacobs, and pianist Otis Spann, Waters blend of rural blues with modern amplification profoundly influenced a generation of British rock guitarists, including the Rolling Stones, named after Walter’s song “Rollin Stone.” This guitar was the primary instrument used by Waters from 1958 until his death in 1983.

Ash Body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard(non-original) 25 1/2. scale; aged red finish painted over original blond; two single coil pickups, three-way selector switch, volume and tone controls; bridge and controls replaced.

Fender Stratocaster

1964

Bob Dylan debuted, on July 26, 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport Rhode Island. Dylan angered some people with his electric guitar and band debut. It was a defining moment in rock music history.

Contoured alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, 25 1/2 in. scale, sunburst finish; three-single coil pickups; three-way pickup selector; one volume and two tone controls.

Esquire-Telecaster

1953-54

Bruce Springsteen used this modified Fender guitar, composed of a Telecaster body and an Esquire neck, as his primary instrument in countless live performances and recordings from 1972 until about 2005. On the iconic Born to Run (1975) album and cover and tour poster, Springsteen faces away from the viewer with his guitar slung over his back. The instrument also appears on the covers for live 1975-85(1986), Human Touch (1992), and Wrecking Ball (2012). Springsteen told the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, “When I put it on, I don’t feel like I have a guitar on. It’s such an integral part of me.”

Ash body, maple neck with walnut “skunk stripe”; 25 1/2 in. scale; yellowed and worn butterscotch finish; two single-coil pickups, three-way selector switch, volume and tone controls; Telecaster body with Esquire neck.

Fender Stratocaster

1993

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana demolished this guitar at the climax of a performance in Inglewood, California during the 1993 tour in support of In Utero. He destroyed the bridge pickup by using his technicians drill, allegedly to impress Eddie Van Halen, who was in attendance.

Contoured basswood or alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard; 25 1/2 in. scale; black finish; two-single coil pickups, bridge pickup missing, five-way selector switch, one volume and two tone controls.

Gibson Flying V

1959

Neil Young used this Gibson Flying V on tour with the Stray Gators in 1972 and 1973 in support of Harvest, which resulted in the live album Time Fades Away. The instrument also appeared with him onstage through-out the 1970s and until the 2000s, hung as a stage prop when not played. Young’s furious and melodic sound is most often created with another Gibson guitar, his highly modified 1953 Les Paul.

Korina (limba wood) body and neck, rosewood fingerboard; 24 3/4 in. scale; natural finish; two PAF humbucking pickups, three-way selector switch, two volume controls and one tone control.

Don Felder of the Eagles ised this white double-neck guitar for both the six-string and twelve-string parts of “Hotel California” in live performances. He played the twelve-string neck with a capo(a bar clipped between frets to raise the pitch of the open strings) on the seventh fret for the intro and verses, and the six-string neck for the choruses and guitar solos. Gibson introduced its double-neck instruments in 1958 with the EMS-1235, featuring a standard guitar neck and a short-scale “mandolin” neck turned an octave higher. In 1962, the company issued the EBD-1250 double bass, pairing a standard guitar neck and bass neck.

Mahogany body and necks, rosewood fingerboards; 24 3/4 in. scale aged white finish; two humbucking pickups per neck;two volume controls and one tone control, three=way pickup and neck selector switches, separate output jacks.

“Punk Bass”

Custom FB4 -1998

Flea’s most recognizable bass guitar from his career with the Red Hot Chili Peppers is his custom instrument made by Modulus, a maker known for its basses that combine traditional woods with materials more common in the field of aerospace engineering. Flea covered the red, white, and blue bass in stickers featuring his favorite punk bands, nicknamed it the “Punk bass,” and used it extensively for the red Hot Chili Peppers’ By the Way album and tour (2002-3). Modulus produced a Flea signature model bass on his design.

Alder body, carbon fibber neck, phenolic resin fingerboard; 34 in. scale; red, white, and blue finish, stickers; one active humbucking pickup with master volume control, treble and bass boost/cut controls.

Fender Stratocaster

1973

U2’s guitarist the Edge helped pioneer the use of analog delay effects within the structure of rock music, redefining the electric guitar as an atmospheric, textural instrument. Acquired in 1986, this Stratocaster was his primary instrument on the Joshua Tree album and tour (1986-88), and most recently on the tour commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of its release.

Contoured alder body, maple neck with walnut “skunk stripe”; 25 1/2 in. scale; black finish over original walnut brown; three single-coil pickups, three-way pickup selector, one volume and two tone controls.

“Spider 13”

KH-3

ESP Custom Shop, Tokyo and Los Angles Ca. 1992

The Name of this instrument derives from the decals of a spider and number 13 on its body, which were designed by hardcore punk, metal, and skate artist Brian “Pushead” Schroeder. Kirk Hammett first used the instrument on tour in 1992 in support of Metallica’s 1001 self-titled album, commonly known as “the Black Album.” and has continued to use it for live performances since.

Alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard; 24 1/2 in. scale; black finish; decals; active EMG 60 and 81 humbucking pickups, three-way selector switch, two volume controls and one tone control.

“Aztec De la Chole”

Five-String Electric Bass

Gibson Brands Nashville, Tenn. 2007-8

Robert Trujillo began using this five-string bass guitar, with an additional string below the standard four strings of most basses, on Metallica’s World Magnetic tour in 2008. Paying tribute to his indigenous heritage, the bass is decorated with wood-burned design based on an Aztec calendar that was created by Trujillio’s wife, artist Chole Trujillio.

Alder body with walnut center stripe, maple neck with walnut stripe, rosewood fingerboard; 34in. scale; sunburst finish, wood-burned Aztec calendrical design; two active EMG J-bass single-coil pickups, two volume and two tone controls.

"Prince”