Joe Perry wants to buy back sentimental red Höfner guitar

Joe Perry wants back the red Höfner S-style guitar he once used for July 4 performances at Lake Sunapee, and the reason has less to do with rarity than with memory. Perry has said the guitar was part of a 1990s ritual in New Hampshire, when he played The Star-Spangled Banner for local crowds, and he now says he would buy it back or trade for it.

That regret sits in a very Joe Perry-sized pile of gear. Over the years, his collection has been described as about 600 electric and acoustic guitars, the kind of number that makes thinning the herd feel practical until one specific instrument turns out to matter more than the rest. Perry sold the Höfner during a decluttering phase, then ended up thinking about it long after the sale was done.

The story took on a second layer of frustration when Perry recalled spotting a fan holding the guitar out to him on a Japanese bullet train, only to realize the train was already moving and there was no way to act in time. Perry’s line on the missed chance was blunt: “I’ll buy it back.” For collectors, that is the exact moment the regret gets sharper, because the guitar stops being an object and becomes a lost opportunity with a face attached to it.

Perry’s attachment to a single instrument also fits a longer pattern. He has said the guitar he missed most for years was a 1950s Stratocaster he used to record Walk This Way, a loss tied to the period when he left Aerosmith in 1979 during the recording of Night in the Ruts. That earlier regret and the Höfner story point to the same thing: the instruments that stick are often the ones tied to a song, a stage, or a repeatable ritual, not necessarily the most expensive pieces in the room.

The Lake Sunapee detail matters because it roots the guitar in a place and a moment, not just a price bracket. Perry and Steven Tyler’s New Hampshire ties have been documented for years, and Sunapee sits inside that local Aerosmith mythology. In this case, the sentimental value is the provenance: a red Höfner that was once part of a July 4 tradition now lives in the category every serious player knows too well, the one that got away.