Guitar Stevie Ray Vaughan Used to Sleep With Up for Auction

A guitar once owned by both Stevie Ray Vaughan and his older brother Jimmie Vaughan is up for auction with the opening bid set at $200,000.

The 1951 Fender No-caster initially belonged to Jimmie, and it was he who carved "Jimbo" into the back of the instrument. Jimmie eventually gave the guitar to his brother in 1966 after the then 12-year-old Stevie kept borrowing it without permission.

Jimmie gave the guitar up at the urging of Doyle Bramhall, who suggested the gift would keep Stevie's hands off Jimmie's other instruments. Stevie later etched his own name lightly on the headstock and beneath the tuners. 

In the mid-'70s, Stevie sold the guitar to get a Freddie King Gibson model. He went back for it after a few weeks and it was gone. He continued looking for it for years, but never found it.

"[Jimmie] gave me a '51 Tele, a cross between a Broadcaster and a Tele that I rebuilt and ended up letting someone talk me into selling and I'm still kicking myself!" Stevie said in a 1989 interview. 

"Still looking for it, by the way! So if somebody finds a guitar that says 'Jimbo' on the back and it's the right one, it's the real deal — you can come rape me for it, or my pocketbook anyway!"

"Jimbo" is the first professional-grade guitar Stevie Ray Vaughan ever owned. It's the guitar on which he proved himself as a teenager in the Austin, Texas, club scene in the early-'70s and it's the guitar he used for his earliest recordings.

As a teenager, Stevie spent hundreds if not thousands of hours playing "Jimbo"; he used to take it to school and even supposedly slept with "Jimbo" in bed next to him. 

"Jimbo" wound up at a recording studio in Dallas in the '70s. After changing hands a few more times, it was acquired by a collector, according to Heritage Auctions.

The guitar has been displayed at the GRAMMY Museum in more recent years. 

You can get a better look at it here. 

Photos: Getty Images