The electric guitar that blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan used in his first studio recording and early performances is expected to sell for about $400,000 at auction in his hometown of Dallas.
“Jimbo” is the first professional-grade guitar Stevie Ray Vaughan ever owned. It’s the guitar on which he proved himself as a teenager in the Austin, Texas, club scene in the early-’70s and it’s the guitar he used for his earliest recordings.
As a teenager, Stevie spent hundreds if not thousands of hours playing “Jimbo”; he used to take it to school and even supposedly slept with “Jimbo” in bed next to him.
“Jimbo” wound up at a recording studio in Dallas in the ’70s. After changing hands a few more times, it was acquired by a collector, according to Heritage Auctions.
The significance of the “Jimbo” guitar cannot be overstated. This is the guitar with which Stevie developed his style and launched his career. He went from a poor kid trying to impress the girls to a committed professional guitarist playing gigs in seedy dives until the early morning hours. In the earliest known recording of Stevie Ray Vaughan, he is playing “Jimbo” at the End of Cole Avenue club in Dallas, age 15, in 1969. When Stevie went into a studio for the very first time to record, in 1970, he also played “Jimbo.” This guitar is part of blues and rock and roll history.
Read more about “Jimbo” here and find other SRV items up for auction.
