Seven Sensational Stratocaster® Guitars!

1. The Jimi Hendrix “Black Beauty” Strat®

“Black Beauty” was the nickname that Jimi Hendrix gave to one of his most cherished guitars – a black, maple-necked Fender® Stratocaster®, serial number 222625. This was one of his main Stratocaster® guitars, which he used regularly from 1968 right up until his death in 1970.

Black Beauty is featured in a variety of famous photos, including a series of pictures taken at the legendary TTG studios in Hollywood.

It is unclear where Hendrix got the guitar from, but the chances are, it was probably among one of the guitars given to him by the then-CBS/Fender® Corporation as a promotional gift.

For its first year of ownership, Black Beauty played a very special part in Hendrix's life. Reluctant to play it too much on stage, burn it, or smash it to pieces, Jimi used the guitar to practice on, when staying in hotels. Black Beauty would also occupy his time while he was staying at his girlfriend Monika Danneman's London apartment. There is a fair chance that a number of classic Hendrix tracks were created on this Strat®.

As the Sixties passed into the Seventies, Hendrix began to use Black Beauty for live performances - the most famous being his memorable turn at the Isle Of Wight Festival on 31st August, 1970. Along with his other Band Of Gypsys (Mitch Mitchell on Drums and Billy Cox on Bass), Hendrix gave an electric performance, with Black Beauty playing a pivotal role. The staggering Machine Gun best illustrates his use of his beloved black Strat®.

Just eighteen days after the show, Hendrix died at his girlfriend Monika Danneman's apartment. Danneman revealed afterwards that Hendrix had played the guitar on the night of his death and had penned the following lyrics:

“The story of life is quicker than the wink an eye.

The story of love is hello and goodbye.

Until we meet again.”

After Jimi's death, his cherished Strat® became the property of Monika. Unable to cope with Hendrix's death, she became a virtual recluse, spending a great deal of time painting portraits of Hendrix in her coastal house in Seaford, south east England.

On 5 April 1996, Monika was found dead in her fume-filled Mercedes. The official verdict was suicide.

After her death, it is unclear exactly what happened to Black Beauty. The most popular notion is that Black Beauty is now owned by Uli Jon Roth (the former guitarist of German rock band The Scorpions) and kept – unplayed – in a trunk at his home in Wales. After meeting Monika in the mid 70's, the pair entered a 20-year relationship which lasted until her death.

The other notion is that Black Beauty passed on to the Danneman family.

Whatever the case, Jimi's last Strat® remains an elusive instrument. Unplayed since his death and hidden away from the public eye, it is now one of the most valuable and desirable guitars in the world today.

2. Eric Clapton's “Slowhand” Strat®

On 24th August 1999, Eric Clapton held an auction of 100 of his guitars at the Rockefeller Centre, New York. This was to raise money for his Crossroads Centre, a drug rehabilitation facility on the Island of Antigua. This high profile event attracted attention from all quarters of the music world, with Christie's, the auction house charging $300 for a paddle. (A paddle is a small numbered bat which is held aloft when bidding for an item).

The highest price paid for a Stratocaster® that day (and still the highest price ever paid for a Fender® Stratocaster® at auction) was $497,500.00. This was for Clapton's ‘Brownie' Strat®, the one famously used on Layla and other tracks.

The second highest price paid for a Strat® on that memorable August day received little coverage, but at over two hundred thousand dollars, it certainly ranks as one of the most valuable Stratocaster® guitars in the world.

The guitar in question was a Sunburst Stratocaster®, manufactured in September 1954 (first year of manufacture). The reserve price on the day was $20-30,000. This hardtail Strat® with its serial number of 7431, is known as the “Slowhand Strat®” because of its use by Clapton in slide and rhythm work on such albums as Slowhand (1977) and Backless (1978) (Listen out for it on the final track of Backless, Tulsa Time). The Strat® was used consistently up to the Behind The Sun tour of 1985.

The guitar can also be seen on the 1979 Japan tour during the concert at Budokan, Tokyo, which was recorded and later released as Just One Night. The guitar was also used live on Tulsa Time during the ARMS concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London in 1983 and on Roger Waters' Pros And Cons Of Hitch-Hiking tour in June-July the following year.

The Slowhand Strat® has 'T-G-9-54' written in pencil on the back of the neck, where it meets the heel cavity. (This can only be seen when the neck is removed from the body). This was written by a Fender employee at the time of manufacture. Other specs include a maple neck with skunk stripe routing, 21-fret fingerboard, tailpiece with adjustable saddles, white single-ply pickguard and a tweed rectangular hardshell case with red plush lining. On the case is a sticker with '54 S/Burst Fender Strat #7431' written by Clapton's guitar tech Lee Dickson. The case also contains a strap.

Matt Brewster, owner of 30th Street Guitars, one of New York 's largest vintage guitar stores said after the auction “It's outrageous, but worth it.” Brewster estimated that a 1954 Fender Stratocaster like that would fetch about $20,000 in "dead mint" condition. He attributed the inflated price to Clapton's long-time association with the Stratocaster®.

Some people who attended the auction however, think that the bidding was initially high because one or two of the participants thought they were bidding for Brownie! Whether this is true or not remains to be seen.

The successful bidder was Michael J. Malone of Seattle-based AEI Music Network, Inc. The guitar now forms part of the company's private collection.

3. Stevie Ray Vaughan's “Lenny”

Texas Strat® player Stevie Ray Vaughan is regarded by many as one of the greatest guitarists who ever lived. His passionate, soulful music, played in his unique and inimitable style has spawned countless imitators, but no-one has matched his talents. His tragic death in a helicopter accident in 1990 has done nothing to diminish his enormous worldwide fanbase.

Although Stevie's first-choice axe was a battered old Sunburst Stratocaster® which he called “Number One” or “First Wife” (See Ten Stratocaster® Guitars To Die For), he had a number of others, which he used for touring and recording. Another of his favourite Stratocaster® guitars was Lenny, a brownish-orange 1963 maple-necked model.

Lenny was named by Vaughan after his wife, Lenora "Lenny" Bailey who was married to the guitarist between 1979 and 1988. According to legend, Stevie first saw the guitar in a pawnshop in Oak Cliff, Texas in 1976 but was unable to afford it. Lenora, then his girlfriend, sent one of Vaughan 's road crew - Byron Barr – to purchase the Strat® as a surprise birthday present for her husband. Barr bought the guitar with his own money, but Lenora didn't have the funds to pay him back, so she had a whip-round among her friends to raise the cash. However, by this time, Stevie had managed to raise the funds by himself (with the help of his leather jacket!) and bought the guitar as a birthday present for himself!

When Vaughan first purchased Lenny, it had a fairly thin neck, complete with rosewood fretboard. This was replaced by a chunkier neck, given to him by ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons. The right-hand vibrato was kept the same but was reset by guitar tech Rene Martinez as a pull-up/push-down system (known as a “floating” tremolo). In addition, Lenny was strung marginally lighter than Number One and had only four springs in the vibrato.

The stock pickups remained unchanged and, combined with the maple neck and thinner strings, gave the guitar its own bright, jazz-like tone. Stevie loved to use Lenny for softer moments and would often finger-pick solos to emphasise the softness further.

Other modifications included the insertion of a brass nut, a filigree-style decal near the bridge, and the guitarist's trademark “SRV” initials on the scratchplate. Lenny had a neck change at some point, maybe because of an accident involving some stage equipment falling on some of Stevie's guitars at the Garden State Arts Center (Homedale, NJ) in the summer of 1990. It is unclear, however, whether it was one of the instruments involved in the incident.

Lenny was used on a number of songs, notably Lenny and Riviera Paradise and can be seen on the Stevie Ray Vaughan-El Mocambo DVD.

Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of Lenny. The most likely outcome is that Lenny and Stevie's other guitars passed to his brother Jimmie after his death. This claim is supported by the fact that Jimmie now owns Stevie's “First Wife” Strat®. However, it may also be the case that Lenny was dismantled and used for parts during the guitarist's brief but sensational career.

4. Mark Knopfler's Red Stratocaster®

In the late seventies and the first half of the eighties, one band rekindled the flame of out-and-out guitar music in Europe and the U.S. Mark Knopfler and his band Dire Straits had a string of hit albums, including Dire Straits (1978), Communiqué (1979), Making Movies (1980), Love Over Gold (1982), Alchemy (1984) and their worldwide best-seller Brothers In Arms (1985).

Among the many songs that propelled the band to the top were Sultans of Swing, Tunnel of Love, Romeo and Juliet, Money for Nothing and Brother In Arms. This last album became the first to be released on the new Compact Disc format, selling over twenty-six million copies to date. For this reason alone, Dire Straits were the first true rock band of the modern era.

Knopfler's main guitar of choice for several of their hits was an original 1961 Stratocaster®, serial number 80470. Although the famous Strat® is red, the finish is not original. Knopfler explains: “The Strat® was the first guitar to really capture my imagination and the first guitar I desperately wanted to own. Needless to say, it was years before I could afford to buy one. That was the '61, which had been stripped to a natural finish and which I subsequently had painted red.”

Among the guitar's many appearances, you can hear its dulcet tones on the entire Communiqué album, particularly the world famous Sultans Of Swing. At the time, Knopfler played it with the pickup selector taped between neck and middle positions, creating what became among guitarists in the late 70's as the ‘Knopfler sound'

The red Strat® has a black volume knob (not original) and a maple fingerboard. The strap button is located at the back of the guitar. According to some sources, the modifications were made by a repairman called Sam Lee.

The guitar can be seen on the Sultans of Swing and Wild West End videos, as well as on countless pictures and live footage. It was Mark's main live axe for several years.

So does Mark still own the guitar and if so, does he still use it? Knopfler explains: “I've been using it. The only reason I didn't use it on the recent charity shows is I was playing the new ones to sell afterwards for the charities.”

So how much would the guitar be worth if it was sold today? That's a tricky question. There is no doubt that it is one of the most historically important Stratocaster® guitars to emerge since the eighties. Will Mark sell it? Don't bank on it! Any offers would truly be Money For Nothing!

Fender® now offers a Mark Knopfler Signature Stratocaster®. With Mark's involvement, this model incorporates all the player features favoured by the guitarist, while retaining the vintage feel and sound of the original. Click HERE for more information.

5. The Last Waltz Strat®

On Thanksgiving Day 1976 at San Francisco's Winterland Arena, legendary U.S combo The Band gave their farewell performance before a spellbound audience.

The Band (Robbie Robertson (guitar), Rick Danko (Bass, violin, guitar), Richard Manuel (lead vocals, piano, drums), Levon Helm (Drums, mandolin) and Garth Hudson (Lowrey organ, piano, keyboards, saxophones, accordion, horns) started life as The Hawks in 1960. By the mid 60's, they had been discovered by Bob Dylan and joined him as his official backing band both on tour and in the studio, notably on Dylan's all-time classic album Blonde On Blonde.

The Band also became legendary in their own right with a string of excellent studio albums, including Music From The Big Pink (1968) and The Band (1969), as well as their live albums, Rock Of Ages (1972) and In Concert (1973).

Their farewell concert was captured on film and released both as a record and a film – The Last Waltz – directed by Martin Scorsese.

The concert was a five hour, star-studded affair with luminaries such as Bob Dylan, Dr. John, Neil Diamond, Eric Clapton, Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Neil Young, Ringo Starr, Paul Butterfield, Ronnie Hawkins, and the Staples. It is regarded by many as the finest concert ever captured on film.

Although the publicity and album/DVD cover for The Last Waltz feature a Telecaster® as its central image, there can be no doubt that the star of the show that night was Robbie Robertson's 1958 Stratocaster®. His trusty Strat® (serial number #0234) had been a constant feature throughout his career and was very much part of the band's sound on that historic night.

After the legendary concert, Robertson retired the guitar and had the body coated in bronze. (The act of ‘bronzing' a treasured article is sometimes practiced in the U.S and other parts of the world. For example, some people have their baby's first shoes bronzed as a way of converting the item to an art object).

In 1995, the guitar was loaned by Robertson to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio and remains in their collection to this day. Obviously, as the guitar is unplayable, it would be of little interest to anyone wishing to purchase it in auction with a view to playing it. However, as a cultural symbol and a piece of rock history, the “Last Waltz” Strat® remains one of the most valuable and important Stratocaster® guitars in the world today.

6. The “Tappy” Stratocaster®

The next guitar in our line-up has recently been the centre of a legal dispute. The axe in question is an original 1967 Fender® Stratocaster® in Three Tone Sunburst with a rosewood fingerboard. The serial number is 213078.

Our story begins with a man called Tappy…

James “Tappy” Wright started out as road manager for U.K group The Animals until 1966, when he became part of Hendrix's management team, being employed as an assistant to Jimi Hendrix's co-manager Mike Jefferey. During that time, he got to know Jimi and the pair became friends, right up until the unfortunate demise of the guitarist in 1970.

According to Wright, when Hendrix was on tour in the U.S in the late 60's, he acquired a new batch of Fender® guitars. Some time afterwards, in 1968, Hendrix gave one of them – the Sunburst Strat® - to Tappy as a gift.

Speaking about the infamous guitar, Tappy says, “Originally, Hendrix had set it up and strung it left-handed. It was used by him mostly for songwriting and recording, as I can recall. It is the actual guitar played by Jimi in a series of black and white photos of him writing lyrics in a hotel in Hawaii in 1968.”

“This was a guitar which would have usually been in Jimi's hotel room, rather than at concert venues, although it is possible that it was occasionally used live. The main stage guitars would travel in a big road case, along with the sound equipment, separate to Jimi's personal items, which would include this Fender®. Jimi had guitars everywhere, and I remember this one mainly as one he used to use when he was writing.”

“Apart from swapping back the guitar's nut so I could string it right-handed (removing it, flipping it round and gluing it back in the slot), and also putting the upper strap button back on the original side, the guitar has not been altered in any way since I got it from Jimi. In fact, it hasn't been used much since, and I have stored it from the 1970's until now.”

One other person who has been privileged enough to see the Strat® up close is Norman Harris, the owner of Norman 's Rare Guitars in California . After getting the opportunity to examine the guitar, Harris confirmed that it was manufactured in August 1967. He also stated in a letter of authenticity that “The finish of the guitar is original and the decal is the original transition logo. The pickups are original ‘black back' models”. In conclusion, Harris has estimated that everything about the guitar is original apart from one tiny solder joint, which appears to have been repaired by a qualified repair person.

A few years ago, Tappy Wright sold the Stratocaster® to U.S guitar dealer Greg Dorsett for around $60,000. Dorsett then attempted to auction the instrument on eBay, but was approached by an attorney acting on behalf of the Hendrix family. According to the attorney, the family members asked eBay to suspend the auction until they could verify where the guitar came from. Then, the family consulted its expert and decided the guitar had never belonged to the rock star.

Dorsett, from San Diego fought back, providing eBay with evidence supporting the authenticity of the guitar, including letters from Tappy Wright, Norman Harris and Carmine Appice, the drummer from Vanilla Fudge. Despite the documentation, a cloud hung over the authenticity of the guitar and the sale refused to attract the kind of attention that was hoped for.

As a result, Dorsett sued the Hendrix estate for defamation and after a two-year courtroom battle, was awarded $131,000 in damages in May 2003. In the meantime, a lawyer for the Hendrix family is planning to launch an appeal. Dorsett still has the guitar and is trying to decide when to put it on the market again.

When all legal action has ceased, providing the authenticity of the guitar is verified, the guitar could be worth a great deal of money.

7. Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Red"

The second of our Stevie Ray Vaughan guitars is a 1964 Stratocaster® with a rosewood neck. The guitar, known as “Red” was originally black, but was re-sprayed red sometime during its life with Stevie.

In 1986, Vaughan 's guitar tech Rene Martinez replaced the guitar's original neck for a left handed one, complete with rosewood fingerboard. Stevie added heavier-gauge strings and, of course his “SRV” initials on the pickguard.

Red's tone fell somewhere between “Wife Number One” and “Lenny”, being bright, but with a growly edge. This Strat® was often used live by Stevie for Pride and Joy and Love Struck Baby, and also occasionally stood in for Number One for the song, Rude Mood . Red is identifiable by a black patch on the lower body edge.

As with Stevie's other guitars (with the exception of Number One), we cannot be certain where it is now, but a safe bet would be that it is in the custody of his brother, Jimmie.

© 2003, Fender Europe Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Original Presentation on the Fender Europe Website