7 Legendary Guitarists Who Painted Their Own Guitars
Customising your guitar is something that adds a touch of individuality to the instrument. Just as people customise skateboards, cars, and even their home walls, why not add a personal touch to something so integral to the artistic process. Many artists have adorned their instruments with custom artwork, and in this article, we’ll cover just a few.
READ MORE: Five iconic rock star guitars that were actually copies of famous models
Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstein
Eddie Van Halen performing onstage with his Frankenstrat guitar in 1984. Image: Paul Natkin/Getty Images
It’s hard to imagine a more iconic paint job than Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstein (or is that Frankenstrat?) and the subsequent Bumblebee used for Van Halen II. The Frankenstein was originally a white guitar with black stripes that later took on another coat of red Schwinn bicycle paint. It is synonymous with Van Halen, but Eddie was not the first to decorate his guitar with the iconic stripe paint scheme. That honour belongs to Chip Kinman of the California-based punk band, The Dils. It is likely that Eddie was inspired by Kinman’s design. We recently talked to Chip, who is still making music, and he had this to say about the origins of the Frankenstein’s paint job:
“I striped my guitar early ’77 and remember the Van Halen guys checking out the Dils at the Whiskey. I have a date book, a poster, and a review of the show. All before Edward striped his. He might have been inspired; it did look cool, but I don’t really know. Never met him… It is great fun, however, being part of the Van Halen story!”
Jimi Hendrix’s Monterey Stratocaster
Jimi Hendrix performing onstage at the Monterey Pop Festival with his painted 1965 Stratocaster. Image: Paul Ryan/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Is there a guitarist who hasn’t seen the iconic image of Jimi Hendrix kneeling next to a burning guitar? This memorable scene took place at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Hendrix had decorated the iconic 1965 Stratocaster with a flowery design the night before the festival, using nail polish for the artwork. Hendrix famously brought the guitar out for his final song of the set, Wild Thing. The charred remnants of the guitar sold at auction for £280,000 in 2008 – far less than the $1.8 million that his Woodstock Strat sold for. Still the hand-painted piece remains an important part of rock history.
George Harrison’s “Rocky” Stratocaster
George Harrison performing onstage in 1974 with his Fender “Rocky” Stratocaster. Image: Steve Morley/Redferns via Getty Images
The Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein acquired two 1961 Sonic Blue Stratocasters for George Harrison and John Lennon. Harrison immediately used the guitar on the track Ticket To Ride and later ended up applying the famous brushstrokes to add a personal touch to the instrument. He said of the guitar, “During ’67, everybody was painting everything. And I decided to paint it… and I got some dayglo paint, which was quite a new invention in them days! And I just sat up late one night and did it.” Fender recently released a signature version of the guitar complete with the colourful paintjob.
The paintjob certainly did personalise the guitar. He put song lyrics from old songs that The Beatles used to cover in the early days. The headstock features a drawing of a figure in sparkly fingernail polish that is said to be a depiction of Harrison’s longtime friend, Eric Clapton.
Tom Morello’s “Arm the Homeless” Guitar
Tom Morello performing onstage with his “Arm the Homeless” guitar in 2016. Image: Scott Dudelson/WireImage via Getty Images
Tom Morello’s main instrument during his years with Rage Against The Machine and his solo career has been a Performance USA Stratocaster-style guitar. The guitar had been modified many times by Morello in the early days of Rage Against The Machine. Morello adorned the guitar with several hippo illustrations and the words “Arm The Homeless.” It remains the guitar that he most often uses during his solo sets.
Billy Corgan’s “Gish” Stratocaster
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman used his 1970s Stratocaster for the recording of Gish. The guitar was originally yellow, but Corgan, who didn’t want a yellow guitar, decorated it with artwork that was, by his own admission, heavily inspired by the LSD experimentation Corgan had been dabbling in at the time. The guitar was his weapon of choice all the way up until it was stolen in Detroit in 1992.
The guitar made a miraculous resurfacing and was returned to Corgan in 2019. It ended up being bought by a woman in Michigan at a garage sale for $200 and it hung in her house for years before she looked into how much it would be worth. It was then she realised that it had belonged to Corgan. The guitar still had the psychedelic artwork after all those years, which helped Corgan confirm the guitar was, indeed, his.
Keith Richards’ Les Paul Custom
A studio still life of Keith Richards’ 1957 Gibson Les Paul Custom. Image: Nigel Osbourne/Getty Images
Keith Richards acquired a triple pickup black Gibson Les Paul Custom in 1966, and added a psychedelic moon mural to its body. It is still in the possession of Richards with the mural intact. According to photographic evidence he painted the mural around 1968 just prior to using it during the recording of Beggars Banquet. The guitar was covered in detail in the book Rolling Stones Gear.
Jimmy Page’s Dragon Telecaster
Jimmy Page playing his Dragon Telecaster with a violin bow onstage in 1968. Image: Jorgen Angel/Redferns via Getty Images
During the early days of Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page’s weapon of choice was not the Les Paul, as he would later be known to play; it was a Telecaster, which had been gifted to Page by another legend, Jeff Beck. Page customised it a couple of times before painting what he called a dragon on the body of the guitar. Jimmy Page had a thing for dragons.
His “Zoso” symbol used on the Led Zeppelin IV album comes from a chapter of an occult book (Grimoires et Rituels Magiques) called “Dragon Rouge”. So, it stands to reason that he adorned his beloved Tele with an abstract depiction of a dragon. For those attempting to decipher the artwork, the head and red horns are often said to be up near the neck, but to me, I always saw the head right behind the upper side of the bridge, facing backward. Like so many aspects of Led Zeppelin lore, it may remain a mystery forever, open to interpretation.
Fender did a recreation of this Telecaster a few years back, including an affordable made in Mexico version – so if you want a painted guitar but don’t want to paint it yourself, this might be the best route for you!
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