Legendary Guitar Collection

Family Guitars is a living, breathing guitar collection based in Chicago and home to some of the most legendary instruments ever played.

These guitars helped shape the sound of rock and roll. The collection includes instruments connected to artists like Jerry Garcia, Jeff Beck, Dickey Betts, Randy Rhoads, Trey Anastasio, Kirk Hammett, Chuck Berry, Frank Zappa, Bob Weir, Mike Bloomfield and many more pioneers who forever changed the way the world hears music.

But Family Guitars is not a museum.

These instruments are not locked away in a vault or hidden behind glass. They are part of a living collection; guitars that continue to be played, heard, and experienced the way they were meant to be.

Recently, many of these guitars have found new life, returning to the stage and the studio where they belong. 

From appearances at Lollapalooza and Soldier Field to sessions inside Timeless Gem, our private penthouse studio hidden high in the Chicago skyline, these instruments are once again doing exactly what they were built to do: make music.

Every scratch, every worn fret, every vibration in the wood carries the fingerprints of the musicians who played them and the songs that defined generations.

Our mission is simple: keep these guitars alive.

Because their story isn’t finished yet.