Gibson Acoustic John Lennon J-160E Peace

John Lennon couldn’t quite afford his first Gibson J-160E in 1962, pressing Beatles manager Brian Epstein to co-sign for the guitar’s purchase. Epstein obliged, and ended up purchasing not just Lennon’s, but one for George Harrison as well. Both guitars ended up making rock and roll history with the Beatles, appearing on countless studio recordings, movies, and live performances. The Gibson John Lennon J-160E Peace guitar—produced in cooperation with Yoko Ono—is a painstaking recreation of Lennon’s beloved instrument as it was in 1969, after he stripped away the psychedelic paint job he commissioned in 1967, and before he doodled caricatures of himself and Ono on the guitar’s body during their infamous 1969 “Bed-In” protests against the Vietnam War. Today’s John Lennon J-160E Peace model features the same round shoulder body design, with a Sitka spruce plywood top and mahogany back and sides, producing a full-sounding, balanced tone with warm, rich lows and crisp, presence-laden highs.