Most Expensive Guitars in the World: Planet Rock showcases the eleven most expensive instruments ever sold. The world record has been broken three times in the past four years, and the ten instruments on this list have a combined value of more than £27.5 million.
With the exception of one charity guitar, every instrument in the Top 10 has been featured on legendary rock songs such as “Layla,” “Comfortably Numb,” “Hot For Teacher,” “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and “The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Prong Crown),” to name a few.
Most Expensive Guitars in the World
1. Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Guitar Performance
In June 2020, one year after the world-record sale of David Gilmour’s Black Strat, Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged guitar sold at auction for a staggering $6,010,000 (£4,960,000) and became the World’s Most Expensive Guitar. The late, great Nirvana frontman played the 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic-electric guitar during the band’s MTV Unplugged performance at Sony Music Studios in New York City on November 18, 1993 – just five months prior to his untimely demise at the age of 27. In addition to being the most expensive instrument, it established four additional world records: World’s Most Expensive Acoustic instrument, World’s Most Expensive Martin Guitar, World’s Most Expensive Rock Memorabilia, and World’s Most Expensive Nirvana Memorabilia. The buyer of Kurt Cobain’s instrument was the founder of RDE Microphones, Peter Freedman.
2 – Kurt Cobain’s Fender Mustang Guitar
In May 2022, the Fender Mustang guitar played by Kurt Cobain in the 1991 video for Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ became the second most expensive instrument ever sold at auction. The 1969 Fender Mustang Competition Lake Placid Blue Finish Electric Guitar sold for a staggering $4.5 million (£3.7 million) at the Music Icons auction held by Julien’s Auctions in New York. The left-handed guitar was estimated to fetch between $600,000 and $800,000. In 2019, billionaire Jim Irsay purchased the Fender Mustang guitar after purchasing David Gilmour’s legendary Black Strat guitar for a then-record $3,975,000 (£3.285 million).
3– David Gilmour’s Black Stratocaster
David Gilmour’s legendary guitar, The Black Strat, set the record for the World’s Most Expensive Guitar in June 2019 when it sold at Christie’s in New York as part of the David Gilmour Guitar Collection auction for $3,975,000 (£3,285,000). The legendary guitar was instrumental in the recording of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ (1973), ‘Wish You Were Here’ (1975), ‘Animals’ (1977), and ‘The Wall’ (1979), as well as Gilmour’s solo albums. The proceeds from the sale of The Black Strat, like those of the other instruments in the auction, went directly to the climate change charity ClientEarth. The Black Strat was the most expensive guitar in the world for almost precisely one year.
4 – Eddie Van Halen’s ‘Hot For Teacher’ Kramer
In April 2023, Eddie Van Halen’s custom-made Kramer electric guitar that he played in the seminal ‘Hot for Teacher’ sold at auction for a staggering $3,932,000 (£3,167,343). Eddie Van Halen’s stage-used and filmed guitar was custom-made by Paul Unkert of Kramer Guitars. It was one of the most iconic guitars of the MTV era. It was auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York for $3,932,000, making it the fourth most expensive guitar ever sold.
5 – Reach Out to Asia Stratocaster Fender
The Approach to Asia In 2005, a Fender Stratocaster sold for $2,700,000 (£2,232,000) in Qatar to become the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction. Proceeds were donated to Reach Out to Asia, a charity established in 2004 to aid victims of the Boxing Day tsunami. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Brian May, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Pete Townsend, Mark Knopfler, Ray Davies, Liam Gallagher, Ronnie Wood, Tony Iommi, Angus and Malcolm Young, Paul McCartney, Sting, Ritchie Blackmore, and Bryan Adams all signed the guitar.
6 – The Gibson J-160E acoustic-electric guitar owned by John Lennon
In November 2015, John Lennon’s long-lost Gibson J-160E acoustic-electric guitar, which he used on The Beatles’ ‘Please Please Me’ and ‘With the Beatles’ albums, sold at auction for $2,410,000 (£1,992,000). John McCaw had possessed the guitar since 1969, when he purchased it for $175 from his friend Tommy Pressley, who had purchased it two years earlier for the same price. McCaw was unaware that the guitar once belonged to John Lennon until he discovered a photograph of The Beatles performing with it in a 2012 issue of Guitar Aficionado. Realising its significance (and value), McCaw decided to auction it off.
7 – Jimi Hendrix’s 1968 Fender Stratocaster
The white 1968 Fender Stratocaster that Jimi Hendrix famously played at Woodstock in 1969 was purchased for a chilly $2 million (£1.65 million) by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000. Allen, a passionate guitarist and collector who died in 2018, donated the legendary instrument to the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, where it remains on display to this day.
8– Peter Green’s Greeny
When persuaded to join John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers in the mid-1960s, Fleetwood Mac legend Peter Green purchased a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard for sixty pounds. He used it on Fleetwood Mac classics such as ‘The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Prong Crown)’ and ‘Albatross’ before selling it to fellow guitar virtuoso Gary Moore in 1970. Moore played it throughout his solo career and tenure with Thin Lizzy, but financial difficulties forced him to sell it in 2006. The guitar dealer Phil Winfield purchased it for between $750,000 and $1.2 million before selling it to a private collector for $2 million (£1.6 million). Kirk Hammett of Metallica purchased Greeny in 2014 for less than $2 million, and he still performs with it.
9- Wolf Guitar by Jerry Garcia
In June of 2017, Jerry Garcia’s renowned Wolf Guitar sold at auction in New York for $1.9 million (£1.57 million). It was purchased by Brian Halligan, CEO of software company HubSpot and avid Grateful Dead fan. The proceeds from the sale of the Wolf guitar were donated to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a nonprofit organisation that specialises in civil rights and public interest litigation. Wolf, a guitar customised by master luthier Doug Irwin and inscribed “D. Irwin 001,” was delivered to Jerry Garcia 50 years ago and debuted during the Grateful Dead’s 1973 performance for the Hell’s Angels in New York City.
10 – David Gilmour’s Fender Stratocaster from 1954
The 1954 White Fender Stratocaster #0001 used by David Gilmour on Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall (Parts 2 and 3)’ sold for $1,815,000 (£1,493,000) at the David Gilmour Guitar Collection auction at Christie’s in New York in June 2019, with an estimate of $100,000-$150,000. For a few brief hours, it was the most expensive Fender ever, until another renowned David Gilmour guitar surpassed it…
