Hendrix: see article on Forbes online here: http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/09/05/jimi-hendrix-guitar-face-markets-cx_je_0904autofacescan01.html. The guitar Hendrix set fire to in London - before more famously doing it at Monterey Pop - was just sold for about $500,000. It was expected to go much higher - twice that perhaps. Not sure why it didn’t - maybe because it is not THE Monterey Pop guitar (IIRC, owned by Dweezil Zappa), maybe because of the economy - vintage prices are down overall…
Allman: see http://www.duaneallmansgoldtop.com/ - this guitar is featured on the cover of this month’s Vintage Guitar - apparently it was used by Duane on the first two ABB albums and Layla, then Duane traded it (while keeping the pickups) for the sunburst Les Paul he ended up using on one or both of the Fillmore East gigs (note that the burst he traded the Goldtop for is NOT “Hot’Lanta” the burst at the RRHOF with his name spelled out with frets hammered into the back of the guitar - the one with the famous “gull wing” grain pattern of the flamed maple. I believe that was the other 'burst used at Fillmore…
The Goldtop, no surprise, is for sale - while it ain’t Hot’Lanta, it was used on Layla (if it is authentic; VG Magazine regards the folks vouching for it and the evidence as credible but they don’t offer details). It has been re-finished but that is less of an issue when it is the association and use that matters. I would guess it would go for several hundred thousand dollars; a re-finned '57 LP Goldtop in otherwise good shape would likely go for the $60 - $90,000 range…
The Zappa guitar is not the one from Monterey (wrong color). Frank Zappa stated in interviews that his Hendrix guitar was from the Miami Pop Festival. Hendrix experts, however, say that Jimi only ever burned two guitars: one in Monterey and one in London. It was therefore commonly accepted that Zappa had the one from London. But the one that was just sold isn’t Zappa’s. So either Zappa was right and the researchers are wrong about Hendrix burning a guitar in Miami, or the Zappa guitar (which Dweezil attempted to sell for $1,000,000 a year or two ago, but got no takers) was a fake all along.
Darn it, I left my fortune in my other pair of pants.
The history of the guitar offered on that Web site matches what I know about Duane’s guitars, although I have not kept nearly the kind of track that some people do. The owner mentions the first two ABB albums and Layla, all of which were finished by late 1970, and by early 1971 Duane was using Hot’Lanta and was playing slide on an SG that previously belonged to Dickey. Derek Trucks did indeed play that guitar, and it was explicitly identified by people in the Allmans’ camp as Duane’s guitar, at a festival in Florida last year. It was a subject of big time excitement in the Allman fanbase and I’ve seen photos of him playing it. The owner was mentioned to be in Florida, which also jives with this story.
All good - if you venture over to the Les Paul Forum in the Vintage Forum there is a thread about Derek and Haynes each playing real, vintage ‘bursts, with pics. It was asked if Derek’s burst is from Duane, but that is clarified as No. There was a thread earlier in the same forum where a collector with a wonderful collection who hangs out a lot on the LP Forum, Charlie Daughtry, relates how he had been approached by Haynes to use Charlie’s guitars and amps on his (Haynes’) solo album, I think. From there, I think it turned out that Charlie hooked Warren up with a very well-known 'burst wrangler, Joe Ganzler (Joe sells 'bursts, but really is a 'burst yenta, putting buyers and sellers together for these VERY expensive instruments and providing authentication, transport and other services) and Ganz hooked them up with 'bursts of their own…
(by the way, you will see pics with Warren and a bunch of gear - all top flight amazing. You will see him in front of a set of about 5 Trainwreck amps - these, along with Dumbles, are the Holy Grail of first-gen (mid-1980’s) hand-made boutique amps. Like Dumbles, only about 100 - 150 were made - if you find one for sale, they go for tens of thousands of dollars…:eek:)
It does sort of sound that way, but you get to see the instrument a little- and you hear what Susan says about it at the end. The guitar strap is also one I’ve seen in pictures of Duane, so I’m prettty sure that’s the same guitar we’re talking about here.