Whether you are looking for a conversation starter with your musician friends or are just curious about how it all came to be. We have compiled an interesting read for someone just like you about our favourite instrument of them all – the guitar. Electric guitars have always been fascinating to use since we were kids but there is still so much that we don’t know about this gorgeous instrument. So here are some of the most exciting facts that we have brought together – the most lowkey, underrated and weirdest facts! Here we go:
- The record for the most expensive guitar ever sold is for $2.8 million!
This sounds good as a headline but, I mean, you can get great electric guitars under $500 also, right? Fender’s creation, the ‘Reach Out To Asia’ Stratocaster was a one of a kind guitar made with its unique design that took inspiration from signature guitars of big names like Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and many more! The beauty of this transaction is that the money raised from the sale of the world’s most expensive guitar ever sold went to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. The previous record for the most expensive guitar sale was just shy from a million dollars for Eric Clapton’s very own guitar in 2004.
- Record time for guitar played continuously, in a stretch – 4 and a half days!
Someone once played guitar continuously for four and a half days, only to break the record of longest guitar session ever. The guitar player to break this record was none other than Dave Browne, an Irish guitarist, who played the instrument for 114 hours, 6 minutes and 30 seconds and made a new world record for the same. I am sure he would’ve required a lot of ice packs to sooth his fingers the next day.
- The first guitar ever was discovered from Ancient Egypt!
The 6-string instrument that we know today had it’s ancestor that only used 3-strings at the time (3,500 years ago) and even had a plectrum-type-device attached to it using a chord. This was the earliest us humans can trace the guitar back to. The guitar-like-instrument belonged to a singer named Har-Mose and was created by using cedar and rawhide. You can catch a glimpse of this guitar if you visit the archaeological museum of Cairo.
- A man once got married to his guitar.
Yes, I know what I just wrote and it actually took place. A musician named Chris Black fell so deeply in love with his Red Fender Stratocaster that he took his ‘35 years of dating’ to another level – he held a wedding ceremony to officially marry his guitar. Although, this was his second wife as he was married already to a real woman too. His human wife was not happy with his relationship with his guitar and made comments such as – ‘he spends too much time with his guitar’ or ‘why don’t you just marry that damn guitar’. So he listened to her.
The British musician married ‘Brenda the Fenda’ (a nickname given to the Strat by him) in 2001 and I suppose he lived happily ever after?
Those are all the facts I have for now! I hope you enjoyed this read. Let me know below in the comments if I missed out your favourite guitar facts.