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The 100 Most Iconic Guitars of All Time: Complete List Revealed

Best guitars of all time: 100 iconic instruments, as chosen by a panel of rock guitarists, expert players and more.

Talk of the Town: None other than 20th century poetry giant Langston Hughes had this to say about Minnie’s guitar playing: “Louisiana bayous, muddy old swamps, Mississippi dust and sun, cotton fields, lonesome roads, train whistles in the night, mosquitoes at dawn, and the Rural Free Delivery, that never brings the right letter. Mark Knopfler stuck primarily to Strats and Les Pauls in Dire Straits, but the most indelible guitar image connected to the band is that of his 1937 National Style “O” resonator, famously depicted floating in the blue sky, storm clouds gathering in the background, on the cover of their Billboard 200-topping 1985 album Brothers In Arms. Springsteen was 22 when he bought this Frankensteined Fender from New Jersey luthier Phil Petillo for $185, which he later called “the best deal of my life.” An early-’50s composite of an Esquire (the neck) and a Telecaster (the body) housed in honeyed blonde wood, it had been heavily refashioned with four pickups and a wooden chunk behind the black pickguard removed.

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