I recently added a Gibson Les Paul Supreme to my personal collection (more on that in a future post) and while the purchase did not break the bank, it did make me wonder… “How much was the most expensive guitar ever sold?”

The key criteria here is “sold”, meaning someone actually paid the price. Well, I did a little Google’ing and was amazed to find the answer. This is not a “new story” and many of you may already know the answer but for those of you who don’t, read on…

Acording to Fender, a signed Standard Series Stratocaster sold for a $2.8 million at auction in Doha, Qatar. The auction was held to aid victims of the 2004 tsunami disaster. The guitar broke the previous record held by Eric Clapton’s $959,500.00 Black Strat (Blackie).

The idea started when Fender Europe’s Jamie Crompton contacted Bryan Adams to see how people from the music industry could reach out to help the victims of such a devastating natural disaster. Bryan got his phone book out and called 19 of rock’s most treasured artists to sign a Standard Series Fender Stratocaster guitar, to be donated by Jamie and Fender Europe.

The artists who signed were: Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Brian May, Liam Gallagher, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, David Gilmour, Bryan Adams, Tony Iommi, Mark Knopfler, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Paul McCartney, Sting and Noel Gallagher.

Makes the price I paid for my Les Paul Supreme seem really cheap!