Did Hendrix Play This Rare 1968 SG Custom?

You can hardly contain yourself as it is. The gold hardware has a patina befitting its age. The period-correct nylon saddles are in great shape (“A few have been replaced? No big deal”). And then, the dealer says, “You know, there’s exactly a 50 percent chance that Jimi Hendrix played this.” Well, as Dirty Harry said, “You've gotta ask yourself a question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’”

Such is the dilemma for wealthy guitarists around the world, especially, we can imagine, the left-handed ones.

Because this ’68 SG Custom—or its twin sibling, the second of only two ever built with these same specs—has been traced back to a legendary jam session with Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and Elvin Bishop. And it’s recently been unearthed and listed for sale by Reverb seller Imperial Vintage Guitars for the sum of $395,000, with as much evidence of its provenance as possible.

There are photographs that show Jimi playing such a guitar that night. The late photographer’s brother has written a letter about the photographer’s career, his relationship with the guitarist, and original prints of that fateful jam.

And Matt Koehler—Gibson’s vice president of product and one of the company’s most avid, archive-diving history buffs—has signed a letter confirming that this is one of two never-replicated, left-handed, Bigsby-equipped, Pelham blue SG Customs that Gibson ever built in this period.

Shipped out within a few days of each other in May 1968, Koehler writes, “The two guitars were definitely related, and this combination of features does not appear anywhere else in our ledger books.”