Famous Axes

The black Strat photographed in Hendrix's hands the day before he died — less documented than the Woodstock guitar, but reportedly the only one of his instruments left unchanged from when he last played it.

The Strat Hendrix spray-painted and burned at Monterey Pop on June 18, 1967 — only a fragment survives, but it remains the most iconic act of rock stage destruction ever documented.

The Olympic White Strat Hendrix played at Woodstock — one of the best-documented guitars in rock history, now at the Met on loan from MoPOP.

A birthday gift from his wife and friends, Lenny was SRV's clean-tone voice — the guitar behind 'Lenny' and 'Riviera Paradise,' and one of the most visually distinctive Strats ever played.

SRV's battle-scarred, primary Strat — heavily modified and used throughout his career.

The butterscotch blackguard Telecaster at the center of Keith Richards' five-string open-G method — used on Exile on Main St. and still appearing on Rolling Stones albums 50+ years later.

Roy Buchanan's 1953 Telecaster, serial #2324 — the instrument behind his volume-swell vocabulary and one of the earliest blackguard Teles to become iconic in its own right.