The Largest Guitar Collection Owned By one Person

[arlum]

So I got curious about who was the largest guitar collector in the world. We're always reading about electric guitars owned by famous players or that were used on specifics songs or albums selling for stupid amounts of money. When players say "what happened to this or that instrument" we often find someone with unlimited wealth now owns the instrument. I'm not against this as long as they care for it. I don't want them buying a cherished instrument and using it for a pool float to impress their guests. Anyway .... the more I searched the more all roads led to this person who owns the Indianapolis Colts. Jim Irsay. Here are a few links.

Collections – The Jim Irsay Collection

eMuseum is a powerful web publishing toolkit that integrates seamlessly with TMS to bring dynamic collection content and images to your website, intranet, and kiosks.

collection.jimirsaycollection.com

The Jim Irsay Collection - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Jim Irsay Collection

Rock ‘n Roll. American History. Pop Culture. Check out the storied collection of Jim Irsay, Owner/CEO of the Indianapolis Colts! Follow us! Instagram: @thejimirsaycollection Facebook: The Jim Irsay Collection Twitter: @IrsayCollection TikTok: thejimirsaycollection

www.youtube.com

Jim Irsay, owner of some of the world’s most iconic guitars, says he was offered over $1 billion to sell his collection and relocate it to Dubai

The Indianapolis Colts owner’s guitar collection includes Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Mustang and David Gilmour’s Black Strat

www.guitarworld.com

 

[dented]

Yep, for a long time. But he is passionate about it also. It's not like he needs the cash. Some people collect art. His art has strings attached.

 

[Wrong handed]

The Irsay collection has more historical value, but raw numbers... Bonamassa has around 550?
There are a couple of brothers here in Sweden that had to open a museum, because the number of guitars went out of hands.
This gentleman too:

 

[imwjl]

Dave of Dave's Guitar Shop collection is as quite something as his stores are. It looks like 283 guitars and amps at the moment. It occupies the whole upstairs of a really large building.

The Dave Rogers Collection

Dave's Guitar Shop is one of the largest independent guitar retailers in the Midwest! Shop our large selection of Fender, Gibson, Paul Reed Smith, Martin, Taylor, Rickenbacker and much, much more! We ship our new and used inventory worldwide.

www.davesguitar.com

In 2013 a really nice guitar I got there was on the bench before I drove home. Walking around upstairs, not sure Dave knew I just bought a high end guitar, but he put one of his 1930s Martins in my hands.

Even without his collection, everyone should know his stores and consider a visit to the original/hq/flagship location. If you're far from LaCrosse, stuff can be transfered to the Madison (Sun Prairie) or Milwaukee stores fantastic in their own right.

When traveling to cities with some famous stores I was also reminded of how down to earth Dave's is. Not just so much good stuff but good condition and fair if not excellent pricing. I can also attest to shops can say they know how to fix tube amps, but Dave's really does which makes sense for all the volume and vintage stuff.

 

[nc0gnit000]

Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, had quite a collection not only of guitars but a lot of other music memorabilia. Back in the the early 2Ks, he built the Experience Music Project, he wanted to name it after Hendrix but the family turned him down. It's an amazing building and museum.
I don't know how many guitars he owned, but he could also play pretty good too.

 

[john_cribbin]

Pfft, they're just amateurs. By all accounts Keith Richards is supposed to have close to 3000 in storage.

Not surprising really, his first stringed instrument was gifted to him by Tutankhamen.

 

[dkmw]

Pfft, they're just amateurs. By all accounts Keith Richards is supposed to have close to 3000 in storage.

Not surprising really, his first stringed instrument was gifted to him by Tutankhamen.

Yeah, I was gonna mention Keef but you beat me to it.

 

[Bob M]

What about Norman Harris? His warehouse seems mind boggling.

 

[Stringlover]

Pfft, they're just amateurs. By all accounts Keith Richards is supposed to have close to 3000 in storage.

Not surprising really, his first stringed instrument was gifted to him by Tutankhamen.

Yeah, but they only have 5 strings so they lost 1/6th of their value.

 

[Dan German]

I dunno, every one of those collections looks like a bunch of normal-sized guitars. None of them are particularly large.

 

[northernguitar]

Nigel Tufnel

 

[Bob Womack]

Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, had quite a collection not only of guitars but a lot of other music memorabilia. Back in the the early 2Ks, he built the Experience Music Project, he wanted to name it after Hendrix but the family turned him down. It's an amazing building and museum.
I don't know how many guitars he owned, but he could also play pretty good too.
View attachment 1296628

Has anyone told him that his roof is all bent up?

Bob

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

According to my partner, one would think I have the largest guitar collection in the world. At least that is how she disdainfully reacts whenever I try to bring a new one in the door....

 

[willietheweirdo]

Rick Nielsen?

 

[Filmosound 621]

Brigitte Nielsen.

 

[Vocalion]

Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, had quite a collection not only of guitars but a lot of other music memorabilia. Back in the the early 2Ks, he built the Experience Music Project, he wanted to name it after Hendrix but the family turned him down. It's an amazing building and museum.
I don't know how many guitars he owned, but he could also play pretty good too.
View attachment 1296628

It actually was named the Experience Music Project (or the EMP as the locals referred to it) when it first opened, and it had a far more extensive collection of guitars and other musical stuff at that time. The last several times I’ve been, however, it was named the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPop) and has definitely moved into the pop culture direction. That probably works better as they attract so many to the traveling pop culture exhibits.

 

[Old Plank]

So I got curious about who was the largest guitar collector in the world. We're always reading about electric guitars owned by famous players or that were used on specifics songs or albums selling for stupid amounts of money. When players say "what happened to this or that instrument" we often find someone with unlimited wealth now owns the instrument. I'm not against this as long as they care for it. I don't want them buying a cherished instrument and using it for a pool float to impress their guests. Anyway .... the more I searched the more all roads led to this person who owns the Indianapolis Colts. Jim Irsay. Here are a few links.

Collections – The Jim Irsay Collection

eMuseum is a powerful web publishing toolkit that integrates seamlessly with TMS to bring dynamic collection content and images to your website, intranet, and kiosks.

collection.jimirsaycollection.com

The Jim Irsay Collection - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The Jim Irsay Collection

Rock ‘n Roll. American History. Pop Culture. Check out the storied collection of Jim Irsay, Owner/CEO of the Indianapolis Colts! Follow us! Instagram: @thejimirsaycollection Facebook: The Jim Irsay Collection Twitter: @IrsayCollection TikTok: thejimirsaycollection

www.youtube.com

Jim Irsay, owner of some of the world’s most iconic guitars, says he was offered over $1 billion to sell his collection and relocate it to Dubai

The Indianapolis Colts owner’s guitar collection includes Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Mustang and David Gilmour’s Black Strat

www.guitarworld.com

Curious if your search extended to Japan, or Asia otherwise? I remember seeing a lot of interest and buying at New England guitar shows in the 90's and early 2000's and hearing/reading of lots of prize pieces headed oversees to collectors. (And in particular at a Boston show, a group of very businessmen-looking buyers following us around literally waving handfuls of cash for things we were carrying.) Perhaps there's some Irsay/Bonamassa-level collectors over that way as well.

Of course only Keith can say that every guitar he owns is ... Keith-owned!

 

[radiocaster]

200 guitars? No way.

There was an article, I can't find it, one of the Status Quo guitarists had 1200, then he trimmed it down to 800 or something like that, and the other guitarist also had several (way more than 200) hundred as well. I'm writing from memory, so I may not have all the details right.

 

[Swirling Snow]

A 2023 magazine article (https://www.guitarworld.com/news/joe-bonamassa-living-with-500-guitar-collection-overwhelming) suggests Joe's collection of guitars and amps numbers over a thousand.

This is worth a watch:

 

[tonepoet333]

I got up to the point of 60+ guitars but there comes a point where you just think "Why?"

My moment of realization came when I went to one of my storage spaces, opened a guitar case and thought: "Oh, I didn't know I had a blue one of that model."

When you open a guitar case and don't recall ever ordering and receiving that guitar, I think that's when you may have too many guitars.

It reaches the point where you realize there's some of these guitars that you literally haven't played in ten years or more.

tonepoet
www.jackshiner.com