The Most Valuable Guitar In The World Is Worth A Staggering Amount

You'd be forgiven for looking at the Gibson SG "Eden of Coronet" guitar and wondering who went a little heavy-handed with the BeDazzler. But the jewels covering the front of the body are not shiny plastic rhinestones — they're real diamonds, and there are over 400 of them set in 18-karat gold. Since 2015, the instrument has held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most valuable guitar and is said to be worth $2 million. 

Interestingly, the extravagant Gibson wasn't commissioned by a musician known for the excesses of showbiz life. According to a press release, it was a collaboration between jewelry manufacturer Aaron Shum (for its Coronet brand), Chow Tai Fook as a "diamond partner," Gibson guitars, and designer Mark Lui, who came up with the idea. The team concocted the one-of-a-kind diamond-studded guitar, but it took 68 people and 700 "man-days" to create it. The purpose was to earn a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records and garner attention for the involved brands. 

One of the things Aaron Shum is very proud of is that the completed guitar was presented in Hall 1 of Baselworld in Switzerland in 2015. If you're scratching your head about why that matters, Baselworld was once a big deal in the world of luxury watches and jewelry. It was something like the industry's Super Bowl, Oscars, or Grammys, and Hall 1 was where the most high-end pieces were displayed. But after 103 years, Baselworld wasn't drawing enough revenue, and it hasn't returned since 2019. That year, though, the Eden of Coronet did return to the luxury trade show in Abu Dhabi.

If you're guessing that it was frowned upon to pick up the Gibson and break into song, you're right. For all the effort that was put into making it expensive, you have to wonder if anyone even bothered to tune it. However, the guitar was and is still playable, even with millions of dollars worth of diamonds attached. Mark Lui is a songwriter and musician himself, so keeping the utilitarianism of the instrument may have played into his design.

In September 2015, while performing a Jackson 5 medley with his brothers at an orchestra in London, Jermaine Jackson played the $2 million guitar on stage in front of thousands of people at the BBC Proms at the Park concert. The volume and tone knobs are covered by the diamond applications, but seemingly they're still accessible since he successfully played the show. 

Of course, this guitar was never meant to be for consumers — it was always just a high-priced branding and PR project. And despite its high price, several guitars have sold at auction for much more than $2 million. It wasn't because expensive diamonds were glued onto them either, but because iconic performers made songs we love with them. According to Guitar World, seven guitars have sold for more than $2 million, with the highest ever being $6,010,000 for Kurt Cobain's Martin D-18E, which he played in Nirvana's legendary "MTV Unplugged" episode.

While diamond-studded guitars worth $2 million may not immediately make you think of nature, that's what Mark Lui had in mind when he came up with the idea. The intricate designs of 18-karat white gold and diamonds include shapes of flora and fauna, and there are also some hearts sprinkled in. In an Instagram post, Lui called the diamond-studded Gibson one of his "long lost children" when seeing it again after two years for a photo session. 

Even though the model was a passion project and a publicity stunt, some guitar players weren't very impressed, as evidenced by reactions on Gibson's Facebook page. One commenter called it "Liberace's guitar," while another joked that the $2 million guitar "comes with a gig bag." A few people called it downright ugly, and another said it was a "waste of a guitar and it's tacky and gaudy to boot." Several requested that the guitar company just give players what they really want: "A technically accurate reissue that meets specs of that year."