Jimi Hendrix-played Japanese double-cut guitar hits the auction block for a second time

A rare Japanese-made, Jimi Hendrix-played 1960s electric guitar has hit the auction block for the second time, after apparently failing to meet its reserve price last time around.

The guitar – an unbranded sunburst double-cut played by the guitar icon during the early to mid-’60s, according to his brother, Leon Hendrix – is up for sale via GWS Auctions, with a minimum reserve price of $50,000.

As GWS explains, the guitar was used by Hendrix shortly after he returned home from his service in the US military in 1962, and sporadically thereafter.

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“After leaving Fort Campbell, Jimi moved to Clarksville, Tennessee for a short time, where he played on the Chitlin’ Circuit with the likes of Wilson Pickett, Slim Harpo, Sam Cooke, Ike and Tina Turner and Jackie Wilson before moving to Harlem, New York in early 1964,” the auction house says.

Upon Hendrix’s move to London in late 1966, he left the guitar – unstrung so as to keep it in its original state – at the New York apartment of one of his best friends, Mike Quashie.

The condition of the guitar is described by GWS as “well-loved”, and the winning bidder will receive an original signed, notarized letter of provenance from Quashie, as well as a statement from the collector who the seller acquired it from who spoke with Quashie before he died in 2019.

The winning bidder will also receive the guitar’s original case, as well as a letter of provenance stating that the instrument was given to Jimi by his father, James Allen Hendrix.

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“We have never seen provenance this thorough on an asset as historically significant,” GWS says. “The documentation is incredible.”

For more information, head to GWS Auctions.

In other guitar auction news, George Harrison's Gibson '58 “ransom” Les Paul – which was used as a bargaining chip to ensure the recovery of the Beatles legend's stolen Lucy guitar – recently sold for more than $300,000.