St. Vincent’s Signature Guitar Featured in the Met’s ‘Play it Loud’ Exhibit

With its exquisite shape and bold color options, the Ernie Ball Music Man St. Vincent guitar is recognizable no doubt. Designed by our Ernie Ball Music Man engineers and Annie Clark herself — better known by her stage name St. Vincent — the instrument has attracted loads of attention. Clark’s unmatchable talent and signature guitar have hailed plenty of praise, with Guitar World magazine noting her as “possibly the first true twenty-first-century guitar hero.”

Clark’s success as a performer and guitarist landed her signature guitar — which she used on her 2017 MASSEDUCTION tour — in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art  exhibition, “Play it Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll.” Featured in the “Guitar Gods” gallery, Clark’s instrument is displayed among the likes of Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Prince and many more notable artists.

This exhibition explores the instruments that came to define the music. Often an extension of the artists themselves, these objects are designed and engineered to perform both visually and audibly. They are decorated, exaggerated, and, most importantly, beloved — by those who play them and those who watch in awe. They are the link between the artist and the audience, the physical source of a glorious noise.

The iconic instruments here were played by some of the most influential musicians across seven decades of artistry. In their own way, they represent the countless instruments picked up by ordinary individuals, inspired by their musical heroes and rock and roll’s defiant spirit.

The guitar, a 2017 matte neon yellow St. Vincent HHH, has an African mahogany body, roasted maple neck, and ebony fingerboard. Also featuring mother-of-pearl intersecting circle inlays and our Ernie Ball Music Man “modern tremolo” vibrato bridge. It will be featured in the Met Fifth Avenue exhibit until Oct. 1, when the historic guitars will move to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. If you’re in New York, make sure not to miss this great opportunity to see some of the world’s most infamous instruments!

Strings

St. Vincent plays her signature guitar with Ernie Ball RPS Regular Slinky guitar strings.

**** All photos courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.