On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Wilshire (serial no. 28500)
Epiphone American
Pete Townshend
Roger Daltrey British
Not on view
One of the Who’s most important instruments, this guitar belonged to both Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. Daltrey was the lead guitarist with the Detours, which would later become the Who, and Townshend joined the group as a rhythm guitarist. When Daltrey transitioned to lead singer (his job as a sheet-metal worker having cut up his hands), Townshend became the lead guitarist. Daltrey then sold this guitar to Townshend, who used it to write two of his earliest songs, “It Was You” and “Please Don’t Send Me Home.” Townshend later switched to Rickenbacker guitars.
Technical Description:
Mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard; 24¾ in. scale; white finish; set neck with mother-of-pearl dot inlays; inlaid mother-of-pearl Epiphone logo on headstock; two P-90 single-coil pickups, three-way selector switch, two volume and two tone controls; nickel tune-o-matic bridge, tailpiece, and Grover Rotomatic tuners, black and silver plastic knobs, symmetrical tortoiseshell plastic pickguard with Epiphone “e” logo; original cherry red finish painted over in white, tuners replaced, headstock break repaired
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