Back in 2021, a 1964 Fender Jazzmaster electric guitar once owned by Jimi Hendrix surfaced on Reverb.com.
Genuine used-by-Hendrix guitars are famously valuable, and difficult to track down. With that in mind, the Jazzmaster in question – put up for sale with the Marshall Super Lead amp the guitar legend used at his legendary Woodstock performance – had an asking price of $750,000.
The guitar went on to be sold by Julien's Auctions in 2022 for $384,000, but now, the guitar has ended up in the hands of, who else, Jim Irsay – guitar collector, and the owner of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts franchise.
Listed in 2021 as being in "very good" condition (though it clearly has a few battle scars) the Jazzmaster was used by Hendrix in 1964 and 1965, during his time as a sideman.
Particularly, he used the guitar onstage with stars of the day like the Isley Brothers and Little Richard.
Hendrix kept the guitar at his New York City apartment until he gifted it to Hank Ballard & The Midnighters guitarist Billy Davis – who was a huge influence to Hendrix, and gave him some of his earliest guitar lessons – in 1969.
The Jazzmaster – which came with letters of authenticity from Davis and Hendrix's one-time girlfriend, Lithofayne Pridgon – is just the latest addition to the Jim Irsay Collection of guitars, a world-class stable that also includes some of the most expensive guitars ever sold at auction, like Kurt Cobain's Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang and David Gilmour's legendary Black Strat.
Irsay also purchased the 1992 Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar Bob Dylan used for his performance at the U.S. Presidential Inaugural Concert at Washington D.C.'s Lincoln Memorial on January 17, 1993.
How much Irsay ended up paying for the Jazzmaster and Hummingbird was not disclosed.
For more info on Irsay's world-beating collection, visit the Jim Irsay Collection's website.
