Three Guitars was the title of the piece I posted back on August 13, 2019.

It featured three very cool instruments from Medieval to Metal: The Art and Evolution of the Guitar; an exhibit I saw at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire earlier that summer.

Three More Guitars highlights a trio of dazzling electrics that were part of Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll. That incredible exhibit ran from April 8 through October 1, 2019, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

(The Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll exhibit is on view now through September 13, 2020 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.)

I chose these instruments because of the new meaning they give the term: “The Art of the Guitar.”

More like “The Art On the Guitar.”

Take a look. (And let me know which one is your favorite!)

The first beauty is a 1957 Gibson Les Paul Custom.

This instrument belongs to Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. He painted the guitar himself – using “very early acrylic pens” – sometime in 1968. When trying to recall if his art had been inspired by what he was playing or a song he was writing, he finally admitted, “No, this is definitely acid, man. It’s a great inspiration.”

Keith performed with this guitar during the December 11, 1968 concert known as The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.

Guitar #2 is a 1961 Gibson Les Paul TV Special.

This double-cutaway electric belongs to Steve Miller. It was given to him by Leslie West of the band Mountain (Remember “Mississippi Queen?”) in about 1967-68. Miller used it extensively throughout the 1970’s and had it painted by Bob Cantrell, a surfboard artist, in 1973.

Finally, I give you “The Fool.”

That is a 1964 Gibson SG. It has belonged, in turn, to George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Todd Rundgren. The instrument is now part of the collection of Perry A. Margouleff.

Eric Clapton was a member of the band Cream when he owned it. He used it frequently in concert as well as on the trio’s albums Disraeli Gears (1967), Wheels of Fire (1968) and Goodbye (1969).

The decidedly psychedelic designs were created and applied to the SG‘s mahogany body using “oil-based enamel paint” by Marijke Koger and Simon Posthuma in London in 1967.

The World of Guitar is definitely a wild and wonderful place.

The information used in the writing of this post came from the Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll exhibition catalogue by Jayson Kerr Downey and Craig J. Inciardi. It was published in 2019 by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.