BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

Springsteen was quite the monogamist when it came to his road-beaten 1950s Telecaster-esquire hybrid, bought for $185 and played solidly for 40 years. This guitar features front and centre on the cover of his classic 1975 album Born To Run and can be heard on just about every album The Boss has recorded since, although it has now been retired from gigging. It was originally owned by a record company and once fitted with two extra pickups, while the black pickguard hides a hulking great hole in its swamp ash body. This yields two unique traits: a slightly acoustic tone akin to a Thinline, and a feather-light weight - which probably comes in handy if you’re partial to playing three-hour shows. Suggesting that Bruce Springsteen would be unrecognisable without a Telecaster slung across his body would probably be going too far, but consider for a second just how disconcerting it would be to see him wielding a Strat instead.