
For $1.25M, You Can Own Jimi Hendrix’s 1961 Epiphone Wilshire Guitar
A piece of musical history is being placed on sale and it could be yours for slightly over $1 million.
According to TMZ, the 1961 Epiphone Wilshire guitar that was once owned and played by legendary rock musician, Jimi Hendrix has just been put up for sale. The instrument can be purchased for $1.25 million according to the Moments in Time website.
Hendrix reportedly bought the guitar for $65 after being discharged from the Army in 1962. In exchange for the Danelectro instrument he previously owned, he traded for the Epiphone Wilshire and paid $65 for it. This took place in early 1963, around the time he first started performing with King Casuals at Club Del Morocco.
Discogs reported that the band was originally named ‘The King Kasuals’, and started in 1962. Jimi Hendrix and bassist Billy Cox founded the band while both were in Clarksville, Tennessee. They started the group after they were discharged from the adjacent Fort Campbell Army post.
If this guitar is sold at the requested amount, it will be the highest price paid for an instrument once owned by the rock musician. The Independent has reported that previously, back in 2016, another guitar that Hendrix reportedly bought for $25 was purchased for more than £200,000 (254,395.00 US dollars) at an auction. Then four years later, in 2020, a non-branded Japanese sunburst electric guitar from the early Sixties that was once owned by Hendrix was sold for £171,080 ($217,492.29) at another auction.
On September 18, 1970, the young musician was found dead inside the Samarkand Hotel, west London, in the apartment of his then-girlfriend, German figure skater Monika Dannemann. He was only 27 years of age. The cause of death was listed as barbiturate intoxication and inhalation of vomit.
Hendricks is part of the “27 Club” named for young musicians who sadly passed away at the age of 27. That list includes the likes of Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Robert Johnson, and Janis Joplin.