The highest price paid for an electric guitar at an auction was $959,500 in 2004 for Eric Clapton's "Blackie" Stratocaster.
The Telecaster was originally named the Broadcaster but there was already a drum set with the same name. For a short time, Fender produced the guitar with no name on the headstock. These "Nocasaters" are now valuable collector items.
The Fender factory keeps busy. They produce nearly 90,000 strings a day. This is about 20,000 miles per year which is enough to circle the globe.
They also make about 950 guitar necks per day! Some years they produce over 250,000 guitars. Banjos, mandolins and violins are also made there.
In 1950, Leo Fender tested the strength and durability of the guitar necks by balancing the neck between two chairs and standing on it!
Leo Fender wasn't a guitarist, but a saxophonist. The current head of the Fender company is also a sax player!
Do you love your guitar? Well, in 2001, an Englishman named Chris Black married his Stratocaster.
Jimi Hendrix's tombstone has a Fender Stratocaster carved into it.
Les Paul was in a car accident in 1948 and he asked the doctor to set his arm permanently in a guitar playing position.
In 1952, Gibson didn't use serial numbers. So if you have a Gibson guitar with no serial number, it's a 1952 model.
The Van Halen album "5150" is named after Eddie's Peavey 5150 amplifier, that was custom-built for him.
Most toilets flush in E flat.
Epiphone, originally a Greek violin company, had been making banjos since 1923 when it switched to guitars in the 1930's.
Epiphone was the only banjo company to successfully switch to guitar production.
There are certain guitars that have a reputation of their own.
A few examples are:
- The #0001 Stratocaster, owned by David Gilmour
- B. B. King's guitar, "Lucille"
- "The Duck" Stratocaster, owned by Yngwie Malmsteen
- Billy Gibbons' "Muddywood"
- The "Frankenstein" Strat (or "Frankenstrat") built and owned by Eddie Van Halen
- Brain May's "Red Special"
- and the "Space Bass" owned by Bootsy Collins.
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