Michael J. Fox has accumulated a collection of more than 30 guitars over the years. But one he doesn’t have is probably the most famous.

That would be the cherry red Gibson ES-345 that Fox played during the Enchantment Under the Sea dance scene in the film “Back to the Future.” “There was something special about the guitar,” Fox says. “That’s the thing about a great guitar; it will always have a certain feel to it, and with (that) guitar I played in ‘Back to the Future,’ it was the perfect guitar.”

There’s only one problem now. Nobody knows where it is.

The guitar is now the subject of a global “Lost to the Future” campaign launched by Gibson Guitars, in conjunction with filmmaker Doc Crotzer, who’s working on a documentary of the same name. They’ve set up the website LostToTheFuture.com and a toll-free phone number (888-345-1955) for tips and leads they hope will lead to the guitar’s recovery and a happy ending for Crozier’s movie.

“I’ve been searching for this thing for 16 years now,” says Gibson Director of Brand Experience Mark Agnesi. He credits the movie scene — in which Fox’s Marty McFly performed the Penguins’ “Earth Angel” and, more memorably Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” complete with Berry’s trademark duck-walk — with inspiring him to play guitar.

So does Crotzer. “‘Back to the Future’ made me want to make movies as a kid, and made me pick up guitar about 20 years ago,” he says. “I’m just a hobby guitar player, but I picked it up because of that scene. I kind of went on with my career, but I always wondered what happened to that guitar. Over the last however many years, so many props from the movie have surfaced … but not this thing.”

The guitar was rented from Norm’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana, where Gibson’s Agnesi worked for a time. “Norm’s has this big warehouse of guitars,” he says, “and occasionally I’d go in and look for certain things, and every time I was always looking around for (the ES-345), but to no avail.” The guitar was returned to Norm’s after filming and reportedly sold, then sold back to the store and then, presumably, sold again. “Back then, there was no digital record of that stuff,” Agnesi says. “It was all hand-written receipts and stuff.

“At that time in the mid-’80s, there was a Japanese vintage guitar boom; charter buses of Japanese tourists were pulling up and buying everything in sight. So it could be someone has it in Japan. We don’t know. The possibilities of where it could be are endless.”

While the guitar’s serial number is not known, there is a unique, “smoking gun” feature that should make it easy to identify, according to Agnesi. The inlay on the “Back to the Future” instrument’s 12 fret is solid, not split like others on the next — which was standard for the ES-345 at the time. “That will not be on any other guitar,” Agnesi says. “That’s how we’ll know we’ve found the guitar.”

Aficionados, meanwhile, have long pointed out that the ES-345 did not belong in “Back to the Future” in the first place. The film is set in 1955, but that model did not go into production for another three years, and not in that color until 1959. The 345, however, became a Berry trademark, so Agnesi notes: “They were willing to take some small liberties. They wanted that Chuck Berry 345 look even though it wasn’t the right guitar for the time period. If not for that guitar, the scene might not have been impactful.”

Charles Berry, Chuck’s son, says his father “would go back and forth” between the ES-335, ES-345 and 355 models, as well as the 350T that was dubbed “Nadine” after Berry’s 1964 hit. He remembers that his father was casual about the “Back to the Future” notoriety, too. “He comes to (the) house and says, ‘Yeah, there’s this movie coming out, in one of the scenes this kid’s playing ‘Johnny B. Goode,’” his son recalls. “We’re like, ‘Really?! OK …’

“We got a kick out of it. It’s a very good movie, a nice wholesome movie. Michael J. Fox did a really cool job. It may not be exactly the right guitar, but we’ll take it.”

While the search goes on, Crotzer continues to work on the documentary, which will include interviews with Fox and some of “Back to the Future’s” other stars, including Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and screenwriter Bob Gale. Huey Lewis, who made a cameo appearance and recorded two songs for the soundtrack — including the chart-topping hit “The Power of Love” — also appears, as well as artists such as Coldplay’s Chris Martin, John Mayer and Jason Isbell, who were similarly inspired by the Enchantment Under the Sea scene.

Fox, Lloyd, Thompson and Lewis also are in the special trailer Crotzer made to promote the search, and Fox will be featured in an October episode of the Agnesi-hosted Gibson YouTube series “The Collection.” The company also will be launching new custom versions of the ES-345 along with “Back to the Future”-themed apparel.

“The through-line is the true crime search for this guitar,” Crotzer says. “But the emotional core is tracking how it inspired a generation of kids, whether they went on to become Chris Martin or went off to do completely other things. There’s a collective experience here that we really want to capture.”