Jimi Hendrix’s 1968 Fender Stratocaster (black, left-handed)

Jimi Hendrix bought this left-handed black 1968 Stratocaster with a maple neck at Manny’s Music in New York City and gave it as a present to Richard “Deering” Howe. Howe was a friend of Jimi’s in the late 60s, and apparently, the two traveled to Morocco together in the summer of 1969.

The guitar remained with Howe until 1988 when he decided to sell it through Sotheby’s auction house. Unfortunately, no information about this auction is available online, so we don’t know how much the guitar sold, and with whom it ended up. If you happen to have information about this, please be sure to leave a comment below.

Jimi mainly used restrung right-handed guitars, but he did own a black, maple neck 1968 left-handed Stratocaster. This instrument was sold at Sotheby’s in 1988.

Douglas J Noble, Music Director of UniVibes, the international Jimi Hendrix magazine

Deering Howe was also friends with Duane Allman. Howe owned or rented a penthouse at One-Fifth Avenue, and during one of his visits to New York City, Duane played this guitar which was strung right-handed (Gregg Allman, My Cross to Bear, p. 185 – 186).