Guitarist – Issue 535 April 2026 – Guitarist (1)

Following his passing, this extraordinary trove, which also includes Holy Grails of pop culture such as the hand-written lyrics to Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ and more, has ’ come up for sale. In the following pages, we explore the crown jewels of Jim’s collection, including the most famous guitars the world is likely to see – now or ever.

Words Jamie Dickson Photography Joby Sessions y
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T*Y`ƥƥƥ 61 Take a look at some of the instruments featured in the Jim Irsay auction! http://bit.ly/guitaristextra m say n Jim Irsay’s collection of iconic guitars rivals that of the world’s major museums. We speak to Amelia Walker of Christie’s about the complexities of cultural stewardship and preparing this unique treasury of tone for auction, tracing every modification and major stage appearance that these historic instruments underwent over thousands of miles of touring Words Jamie Dickson This 1966 Vox Kensington prototype embodies the spirit of Flower Power-era design.

It was used by both John Lennon and George Harrison, and was present in the studio for the Magical Mystery Tour sessions This solid korina-body 1976 Gibson Explorer reissue was used by U2’s The Edge as a back-up guitar on the band’s The Joshua Tree tour back in 1987 and on later tours FEATURE The Jim Irsay Collection
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T*Y`ƥƥƥ 63 The Jim Irsay Collection FEATURE any famous guitar collections are simply impressive – but some go far beyond that.

So far, in fact, that they become as culturally important as anything found in a museum and raise questions about the role private guitar collections play in preserving pillars of modern culture. Jim Irsay, who died last year, was that kind of collector. The catalogue of his collection reads like a roadmap of American pop culture and includes everything from the original paper-roll manuscript of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road to Miles Davis’s Martin trumpet and, of course, some of the most important guitars the world has ever seen.

Huw Price reaches the summit of a rather splendid restoration of a 1961 Gibson Southern Jumbo – with a lovely new ’burst finish p120 Future Publishing Limited, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA Telephone 01225 442244 Email [email protected] Online www.guitarist.co.uk Looking at the incredible guitars that belonged to Jim Irsay’s almost unparalleled collection, I was struck by the enigmatic relationship between artist endorsement and the popularity of certain guitars thereafter.

In the case of ‘The Black Strat’, it’s probably fair to say that, after Hendrix, the Floyd guitarist has probably done the most to persuade guitar buyers that a Strat is the ultimate electric – after all, if an instrument can take both Purple Haze and Comfortably Numb in its stride, there isn’t much it can’t do. And indeed, before Hendrix came along, the Strat’s sales were waning in comparison to the Telecaster.

I’m sure there will have been a similar bounce effect for the Strat because Gilmour has championed it for so many years. But fame isn’t an automatic guarantee of widespread adoption. While replicas of Prince’s Cloud guitars are no doubt available, it’s not a style of guitar you’ll see at the Dog And Duck’s next open-mic night.

Partly that’s because of its flamboyance, no doubt – it’s a lot of guitar to live up to – but also because Prince, while an absolutely formidable guitarist, was too varied and ambitious an artist to neatly fit the ‘guitar hero’ label that tends to sell artist-affiliated guitars by the truckload, and perhaps he had no interest in popularising things like signature models. Consider the influence of someone like Kurt Cobain and the case is altered once again. Yes, there are very famous individual guitars he used that have been much copied and replicated, but his main influence on guitar sales was, arguably, to repopularise Fender’s student guitars and offsets in general – be that a Mustang or a modded Jag.

He represented a kind of visceral anti-cool that gave those previously marginal guitar designs a cultural relevance and edge that has carried forward to the present day, which even Leo Fender would have struggled to foresee. In this way, visionary artists, and what they play, help us see the potential in guitars that even their designers never suspected. Enjoy the issue, see you next time.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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