Jimi Hendrix’s 1961 Epiphone Wilshire Guitar Is On The Market For A Staggering $1.25M

A piece of musical history is for sale, and it could be yours for over $1 million.

According to TMZ, the 1961 Epiphone Wilshire guitar, once owned and played by legendary rock musician and guitar deity Jimi Hendrix (“Foxy Lady,” “Kiss the Sky”) is on the market. According to the Moments in Time website, the instrument can be purchased for $1.25 million.

Hendrix reportedly bought the guitar after being discharged from the Army in 1962. In exchange for the Danelectro instrument he previously owned, he traded it in for the Epiphone Wilshire and paid $65 for it. This took place in early 1963 when he first started performing with King Casuals at Club Del Morocco.

According to TMZ, the guitar was last seen on the open market in 2008; Moments in Time is selling it on behalf of a private collector.

Discogs reported that the band was originally named “The King Kasuals” and started in 1962. Hendrix and bassist Billy Cox founded the band while both were in Clarksville, Tennessee. They started the group after being discharged from the adjacent Fort Campbell Army post.

If this guitar is sold at the requested amount, it will be the highest price paid for an instrument once owned by the rock musician. The Independent reported that in 2016, another guitar that Hendrix reportedly bought for $25 was purchased for more than $254,395.00 at an auction. Then in 2020, a non-branded Japanese sunburst electric guitar from the early Sixties that Hendrix once owned was sold for £171,080 ($217,492.29) at another auction.

On September 18, 1970, the young musician was found dead inside West London’s Samarkand Hotel in the apartment of his then-girlfriend, German figure skater Monika Dannemann. He was only 27 years old. The cause of death was listed as barbiturate intoxication and inhalation of vomit.

Hendricks is part of the “27 Club,” named for young musicians who died at 27. That list includes the likes of Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Robert Johnson, and Janis Joplin.