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The white 'Woodstock' Strat

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A world record auction

In a final twist, I wrote up the guitar's story for Guitarist magazine and postulated that it might make £100,000 at auction. Having been asked to submit the article to Fender for their perusal prior to publication, it was suggested I reduce my estimate to £10,000, as the original figure was unthinkable to Fender.

In the event it sold at Sotheby's for £198,000 – a record in 1990, when 'celebrity' guitars were a new phenomena.

Since then the Woodstock Strat has changed hands again. Today it sits in the EMP museum in Seattle, Hendrix's birthplace.

It's never been confirmed, but many reports suggest Microsoft's Paul Allen (the software company's right-hand man to Bill Gates) paid more than $2m for this guitar a decade ago...

So I shudder to think what Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock Stratocaster is now worth. But I'm proud to say that in my own small way I might have contributed something to rock guitar history…

Neville Marten is an ex-Editor of Guitarist, and current Editor of Guitar Techniques.