A guitar that Jimi Hendrix once purchased for twenty-five dollars was recently sold in an auction for over a quarter of a million dollars.
The guitar, a 1951 Epiphone FT79 acoustic, was expected to sale for anywhere between $10,000 to $48,000, but ended up rising to $260,072 as the bidding intensified during Bonhams' Entertainment Memorabilia sale.
Hendrix purchased the 1951 Epiphone for twenty-five dollars during the Experience's first tour of the U.S. in August 1967. He ended up bringing the guitar back with him to England, where he used the instrument frequently in his Upper Berkeley Street flat in London to avoid receiving noise complaints from his neighbors.
He ultimately wrote a number of riffs and arrangements on that guitar, including his reworking of Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower." The song served as Hendrix's only top 20 entry on the Billboard chart, with the track reaching the number 20 spot.
The guitar was in Hendrix's possession for almost three years, until the acclaimed musician gave the instrument to Blue Mink guitarist Alan Parker.
In other Hendrix related news, a collection of vinyls from Hendrix's Band of Gypsys dropped a few months back. One was a reissue of his Merry Christmas And Happy New Year compilation, which featured renditions of songs such as "Little Drummer Boy," "Silent Night" and "Auld Lang Syne."
"Knowing that this was going to be a special occasion, Jimi readied and recorded this medley of holiday favorites to celebrate both Christmas and the dawning of a new decade," a press statement said in regards to the release.
The second one was Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/69, which features a number of tracks that were unreleased up until this point. One of those songs was "Ezy Ryder," which had been in development for over a year (and ultimately appeared on Hendrix's first posthumous album, The Cry of Love) but was played for the first time ever during this performance.
