Taylor Swift’s Gibson acoustic, Keith Urban’s Hi9 electric guitar and more to be auctioned for COVID-19 relief

Taylor Swift
(Image credit: ACMA2020/Getty Images for ACM)

Christie’s has announced a new auction to benefit COVID-19 relief, and the sale includes a host of electric and acoustic guitars from the likes of Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Dwight Yoakam and more.

Among the many instruments featured in Nashville: An Auction To Benefit ACM Lifting Lives COVID-19 Response Fund is Taylor Swift’s Gibson J-180 Special acoustic, which she used in September for her performance of Betty at the ACM Awards.

Taylor Swift acoustic

(Image credit: Christie's)

 The guitar features a bound rosewood fingerboard with mother-of-pearl star inlays, and comes mounted with a pick caddy containing five personalized Taylor Swift picks – one commemorating her 2017 album, Reputation, and four commemorating 2019’s Lover – as well as a hardshell case and an embroidered Levy guitar strap worn during the performance. It is expected to fetch as much as $40,000 at auction.

Also on tap is Keith Urban’s Hi9 electric, which boasts a pair of P-90-style pickups and two inscriptions in gold marker: “Keith Urban 2020” with a peace sign on the pickguard and “Played on the ‘Coming Home’/VIDEO/AND ON/THE ACMs/Keith Urban” with a peace sign on the back of the body. The guitar is estimated to fetch between $3,000 and $5,000.

Christie's is auctioning guitars for COVID relief

Keith Urban’s Hi9 electric (Image credit: Christie's)

There’s also Dwight Yoakam’s Epiphone Casino, a Gibson semi-hollow electric played by Bradley Cooper in the 2018 movie A Star is Born and acoustics from Kenny Chesney, Vince Gill, Blake Shelton and others.

And if you’re looking for more than a six-string, might we point you to Sheryl Crow’s rhinestone-studded Baldoni accordion or Dolly Parton’s Swarovski-crystal adorned dulcimer?

For more information, head to Christie’s.

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Richard Bienstock

Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.