The Red Special, Frankenstein, Trigger, Lucille… All incredibly famous instruments in their own right, but which one is the most famous guitar of all time?
I believe if you have to narrow it down to one, single instrument, the title has to go to Willie Nelson’s guitar known as Trigger.
Yes, the look of the Frankenstrat changed the world, but lots of Eddie Van Halen’s guitars (not to mention the entire Van Halen brand) wore similar stripes. Any guitar painted with those stripes screams Van Halen to your average non-guitar playing Joe, but we are looking for one SINGLE guitar here.
This also disqualifies B.B. King’s Lucille. There are many, many different guitars that bore the moniker Lucille. Folks who aren’t music nerds like us may not know that, but we are chasing the most famous guitar in the world. Not the most famous guitarS in the world.
Brian May’s Red Special guitar is indeed special and it was hand built by Brian and his father making it extra-unique amongst these examples. Queen are also a MASSIVE GLOBAL force in music and popular culture.
That said, I don’t even know if the general public would notice the Red Special out of context. Us guitar player would for sure, but if we are chasing over global recognition…
The title has got to go to Willie Nelson’s guitar, Trigger.
One guitar that Willie played for most of his extremely long career and has only grown more unique over time.
I’ve personally surveyed my non-music playing friends/ family and they might not remember the name of the guitar (although many did) they could as confidently say that it was Willie’s guitar.
I don’t know if another single, individual guitar on the planet has achieved that level of recognition in popular culture.
What do you think? Drop it in the comments!
