Gibson & Michael J. Fox Launch Worldwide Search For Missing 'Back To The Future' Guitar

Did you know that the Gibson electric guitar that Marty McFly played in that iconic scene of Back To The Future has been missing for decades? That travesty may be corrected soon, as Gibson is searching for it and needs your help.

Gibson has launched a global campaign to find the famous Cherry Red Gibson ES-345 guitar Michael J. Fox played in the 1985 blockbuster film, where he ripped through the Chuck Berry classic, Johnny B. Goode, at the “Enchantment Under the Sea” school dance.

Back To The Future filmmakers sought the original guitar while making the 1989 sequel, but it couldn’t be found. A press release notes that discovering the iconic guitar “would add a critical chapter to the film’s cinematic history.”

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the missing original Cherry Red Gibson ES-345 is advised to contact Gibson at the Lost To The Future website or call/text 1-855-345-1955.

You can watch a video starring Michael J. Fox about the global call to find the guitar below.

Along with the hunt for the missing Gibson guitar and 40th anniversary celebrations of Back To The Future, Gibson Films has begun production on the Lost To The Future documentary.

The film will feature interviews with Back To The Future stars Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, and Harry Waters Jr., plus Huey Lewis—whose song The Power Of Love prominently features in the film—the movie’s co-creator/screenwriter/producer Bob Gale, and musicians who have been inspired by the Marty McFly performance.

Bob Gale said of the campaign to find the missing Gibson guitar, “Years ago, I was astonished to learn this beloved cinematic artifact had apparently disappeared into the space-time continuum. Since we don’t have a functioning time machine, this effort is probably our best chance to solve a decades-long mystery.”

Michael J. Fox reminisced about the Enchantment Under the Sea scene and expressed disbelief at the moment’s ongoing influence in a statement.

“Guitar has always been a big part of my life,” he said. “When we talked about the ‘Enchantment Under the Sea’ scene in Back To The Future, I sat down with the cinematographer and choreographer and said I want to riff through all of my favourite guitarists, like doing Jimi Hendrix behind the head, Pete Townshend doing a windmill, and the Eddie [Van Halen] hammer thing, it was so cool that they were open to that, and we laid it all out there.

“I’m really happy with the scene because it was an expression of my love for guitar and all the great players. I didn’t realise the influence the scene had on people, John Mayer said, ‘I play guitar because of you,’ and Chris Martin said the same thing, and I am glad they took it further than I did, they went to the trouble of being really good players. I just love the guitar, and I love the movie.”

Mark Agnesi, Director of Brand Experience at Gibson, added: “I started searching for this guitar back in 2009 on my first day on the job at Norman’s Rare Guitars. After 16 years of searching, I’m so excited to get the entire guitar community together to help find the guitar that made me, and so many other guitarists of my generation, want to learn to play.”

Doc Crotzer, Director of Lost To The Future, continued: “This is the movie that made me want to be a filmmaker, and the scene that made me pick up a guitar for the first time. As children of the '80s, it is our duty to take fans of music, fans of the movie, and fans of true crime documentaries with us on this too-crazy-to-believe quest to find our generation's Excalibur.”