MetCollects Episode 3 / 2020

MetCollects is an online feature that highlights works of art new to the Museum's collection through the fresh eyes of photographers and the enthusiastic voices of leading scholars and artists. Discover a new work each month.

Les Paul TV Special Electric Guitar
by Gibson, painted by Bob Cantrell. 1961

Promised Gift of Steve Miller, in celebration of the Museum's 150th Anniversary

Steve Miller used this beautiful guitar for many important performances during the 1970s. The Gibson Les Paul TV Special model was introduced in 1955 and featured a pale yellow color that, under the high-powered lights of the stage, would appear as a warm white on black-and-white televisions, thus giving the model its moniker. One of the early adopters of the TV Special was the singer and guitar player Mary Ford who used it on television appearances alongside her husband Les Paul, whose name has been associated with Gibson guitars since 1951, and who was also Steve Miller's godfather.

This 1961 guitar first belonged to Leslie West, a guitarist who was a member of the Vagrants, among other groups, and founded the pioneering hard rock band Mountain. Around 1967 or 1968, West gave this TV Special guitar to Miller. Deciding that the pale yellow guitar needed a makeover, Miller had the surfboard artist Bob Cantrell paint the instrument with the psychedelic designs that now cover its surfaces.

This guitar's exquisite ornamentation stands among a handful of psychedelically painted instruments from the late 1960s and early 1970s that were made for legendary rock musicians of such bands as Cream and Big Brother & the Holding Company. Such decorated instruments, matched with stage costumes, posters, and album cover art, became hallmarks of style that enhanced the overall image of the bands that used them. They were also uniquely identifiable as personal items of iconic musicians.

Miller used this decorated guitar in some of his most important television appearances of the 1970s, such as "The Midnight Special" in 1974 and "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" in 1973, where he played an early version of his hit song "Fly Like an Eagle." This splendidly decorated and historically important guitar is a promised gift of Steve Miller in honor of The Met's 150th anniversary. Miller will continue to use it in stage and recording projects until he retires from public performances.