Waddy Wachtel - 1960 Les Paul

Waddy Wachtel has played with Bob Dylan, The Everly Brothers, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Warren Zevon, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, Joe Walsh and many more.

His 1960 Les Paul with factory Bigsby was purchased for $350 from Stephen Stills in 1968, soon after he had moved to Los Angeles to do session work.

According to Waddy, he bought this guitar because:

“I really loved the slim neck. Not slim in width, but from top to bottom. And clear as a bell. A lot of treble and a lot of tone."

1960 Gibson Les Paul - Sunburst

Marc Bolan - Gibson Les Paul

Originally a sunburst, the late fifties Les Paul that Marc Bolan of T Rex favored was refinished in an orange varnish, apparently because the color reminded him of Eddie Cochran’s Gretsch. 

In 1972, on tour in America, Bolan threw the guitar across the stage in a fit of rage and the neck broke.  It was replaced by a Les Paul Custom neck.

The guitar was eventually stolen from a van in 1977, allegedly resprayed black, and auctioned to a collector in France.


Late 1950's Gibson Les Paul - Orange

Frank "Poncho" Sampedro - Les Paul Goldtop

"Poncho" Sampedro of Crazy Horse has for the most part used his 1952 Les Paul "Goldtop" since 1978.  It is a very early model with no serial number, an old Gibson logo, no neck binding and P-90 pickups.  The bridge and tailpiece have been replaced.

When asked about why he takes such a rare guitar out on the road, Sampedro replied:

"It was made for me.  It's so worn and trashed.  I play it every night."

1952 Gibson Les Paul - Gold

James Williamson - Les Paul Custom

Williamson of The Stooges is known primarily for his use of Gibson Les Paul Custom guitars.

To get the iconic sound for The Stooges classic "Raw Power", Williamson says he plugged his 1969 Les Paul Custom into a Vox AC30's Top Boost channel, with volume at full and bass at low, and played primarily on the Custom's low-output bridge humbucker pickup.

1969 Gibson Les Paul Custom - Sunburst with Sticker

Billy Gibbons - "Pearly Gates"

The ZZ Top guitarist has a huge guitar collection. His 1959 Sunburst Les Paul known as "Pearly Gates" is at the heart of both his collection, and the classic ZZ Top sound.

The back story is that ZZ Top gave their old 1930's Packard to a friend, Renee Thomas, to drive to L.A. for a movie audition. After landing the role, Renee jokingly called the Packard “Pearly Gates” because she figured it must have had divine powers.

She wound up selling the car and wiring the money to Gibbons on the very day he received a call about a 1959 Sunburst Les Paul that was found under the bed of a man who had recently passed away.

Billy loved the Les Paul "Burst" so much that he purchased it that day and dubbed it “Miss Pearly Gates.”

1959 Gibson Les Paul - Sunburst

Carl Broemel - "Blacky"

Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket from a 2007 interview with Guitar Center...

"My black 1988 Les Paul Standard is definitely the most special guitar in my collection. I've been playing it for 14 years, and have replaced the tuners, frets, pickups and pots, and eventually added a Bigsby (so I could pretend to be in Crazy Horse)."

"I guess I've just played it so much, and used it to record so often, it's become the main thing that makes me sound like me. I once watched in shock as it flew out of my friend Mike's pickup truck and landed neck first on Indiana Highway 37. Hard. But somehow, Ol' Blacky lives to tell the tale."

1988 Gibson Les Paul - Black

Bob Marley - Les Paul Special

Bob Marley got his iconic Gibson Les Paul Special around 1973. Prior to this Marley used a number of guitars, notably the Les Paul Junior and Fender Stratocaster.

His Gibson Les Paul Special had the football shaped aluminum pickup switch surround and aluminum pick guard installed by famed music tech Roger Meyer in 1979.

The guitar featured a brass nut and the P-90 pickups that coupled with his up-stroke style helped to create the classic clean Marley tone.

1973 Gibson Les Paul Special - Mahogany

J. Geils - 1959 Les Paul

From Vintage Guitar Magazine:

"The J. Geils Blues Band was playing a gig in late ’68 or early ‘69, unbelievably enough, at Worcester Tech, the school I attended when we first moved to the area. And as we were packing up, a kid came up with that guitar."

"It had a different tailpiece, the pick guard was missing, and it had been varnished with a brush, but I knew what it was. He said, “Do you wanna buy this guitar. I need 600 bucks.” I said, “I don’t have $600, but I have this Les Paul Custom I just paid $600 for… I’ll swap.” And he did."

"I took the guitar to Eddy Murray and told him to make it look like it was supposed to. He scraped away the varnish and we found the parts it needed. In keeping with the times, I took the covers off the PAFs. That guitar – I call it the “lunch pail Les Paul” – and that amp (points to a tweed Gibson GA-40) were used on almost all the solos on all the J. Geils Band records we ever did."

1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard - Sunburst

Mick Jones - Les Paul Custom

Not to be confused with the other Mick Jones of Foreigner, Mick Jones of The Clash favored Gibson Les Pauls across the range of models

Inspired by New York Dolls’ Johnny Thunders, Jones’ first guitar was a Les Paul Junior with P-90 pickups. By the time The Clash got rolling, he moved up to Les Paul Standards and Customs, while still using Juniors in the studio.

While rhythm guitarist and main singer Joe Strummer preferred Telecasters, Jones opted for a fatter sound and played a variety of Les Pauls on The Clash’s 1979 breakthrough album "London Calling".

Jones had a sunburst Les Paul Standard and an Alpine White Les Paul Custom, but is most visibly associated with a black Les Paul Custom as used in the "Train In Vain" video.

Late Seventies Gibson Les Paul Custom - Black

Keith Richards - 1959 Gibson Les Paul

From a Christie's 2004 catalog:

A 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar, Serial No. 93182, Sunburst finish, single cutaway body, Maple top, cherry finish sides and back in Honduras Mahogany, Grover tuners, 22 fret Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard with mother-of-pearl inlays, Gibson logo inlayed to head, one Humbucking "patent applied for" zebra rythym pickup, one Humbucking "patent applied for" double black lead pickup, Gibson ABR1 Tuneomatic bridge, four rotary controls, selector switch, Bigsby tailpiece, together with 1960s Les Paul hardshell case.

Played by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones on the Ed Sullivan Show (1964/1965), Ready Steady Go! (1964) and during various Rolling Stones appearances from the same era. Also played by Mick Jagger during Beggar's Banquet recording sessions.

BTW: The Les Paul failed to meet the auction reserve and didn't sell.

1959 Gibson Les Paul - Sunburst

Mick Ronson - Gibson Les Paul Custom

Mick Ronson had the paint removed from the front of his 1968 Black Beauty by one of Michael Chapman's roadies during the recording of "Fully Qualified Survivor". Mick thought that would make the guitar even more "edgy" than it already was.

Sometime in the 80's he gave this guitar to Hard Rock Cafe in Australia. The neck had broken so many times that it was unrepairable.

A rumor about Ronson's stripped Black Beauty is that the body of the guitar had a steel plate installed inside, which might explain the major sustain in Ronson's sound.

1968 Gibson Les Paul Custom - Black with stripped front.

Steve Jones - Les Paul Custom

Apparently, Malcolm MacLaren "liberated" this mid 1970's Les Paul from Syl Sylvain of the New York Dolls for his new creation, The Sex Pistols.

The Les Paul's original creamy white finish has faded to a smoke-and-sweat-stained yellow. The speed knobs and machine heads have been replaced - the originals were destroyed in various flights of six-string recklessness.

The kitschy Forties pinup stickers with which Sylvain decorated the guitar have become worn with age; two telltale screw holes are all that remain of the pickguard.

Mid 1970's Les Paul Custom - Cream

Duane Allman - 1958 Les Pauls

Duane switched between several Gibson guitars, although his favourite was a 1957 Les Paul Goldtop (serial number 7 3312) with PAF pickups. He part-exchanged this guitar in Daytona Beach, FL on the 16th September 1970, having played a concert with a local group there, (having also recorded the large part of Layla with it) for a plain-top 1958/59 cherry sunburst Les Paul that was then in the posession of the guitarist in the opening group; they were called "The Stone Balloon".

The plain-top is the guitar he can be seen to play in the Fillmore Video; it is also the guitar that he used to complete the recording of the Layla album.

When he did that exchange, he also switched over the PAF pickups from the 57 Goldtop to the 58/9 Cherryburst - apparently he preferred the sound of the Goldtop's bridge pickup to that of the newer guitar, and consequently swapped them over in a Hotel Room after the concert where he found the Cherryburst.

Early in 1971 he bought, in addition to the other Les Paul, a 1958 vintage tobacco sunburst Les Paul, with an exaggerated tigerstripe sunburst pattern. This had been owned by singer Christopher Cross, and was found for Duane by Billy Gibbons of Z Z Top. This was the guitar on the "at Fillmore East" and "Eat A Peach" albums.

1958 Gibson Les Pauls - Cherry Sunburst/Tobacco Sunburst

Pete Townshend - Les Paul "#5"

Mid 1970's Gibson Les Paul - Wine Red

This is Pete Townshend's # 5 Les Paul Guitar. It was used on stage and in the studio from 1976 to 1979. It can be seen pictured in the 1979 Tour program as well as in the movie The Kids are Alright. Pete had numerous Les Paul's modified by adding a humbucking pickup. He had them numbered from 1 to 9 based on the tuning requirements of various songs. Over the years several of them were broken and never replaced. At this time the following numbers can be accounted for: #1, #3, #5, #6and #9.

The Edge - Gibson Les Paul

1975 - Gibson Les Paul Custom - White

This cream colored 1975 Les Paul Custom (faded from it’s original white) found fame with The Edge as a go-to guitar for stage and studio on many of U2’s most famous recordings and performances. In 2005 The Edge partnered with Gibson and the Guitar Center Music Foundation to establish Music Rising, a charity founded to benefit musicians whose lives were torn apart by Hurricane Katrina. In 2007, he donated this prized guitar to be auctioned for the cause. The winning bid: $240,000 from Guitar Center ($288,000 including Buyers Premium).

Jimmy Page - Les Paul "#1"

1959 Gibson Les Paul - Sunburst

Bought from Joe Walsh in the early 1970s. The neck is thick at the nut and at the neck heel, like a typical 1959 Les Paul, but it tapers to a super-slim depth in the middle. It was that way when Page acquired it, and he hasn't changed it.

He did make two other modifications: He put a push/pull pot in the rear volume control that reverses the phase, in order to get a tone like Peter Green or B.B. King. And he replaced the original tuners with sealed, gold-plated Grovers to achieve the exact tuning and sensitivity of the Les Paul Custom he had been playing with Led Zeppelin.

Neil Young - "Old Black"

1953 Gibson Les Paul - Goldtop Painted Black

This is Young's primary electric guitar and is featured on Rust Never Sleeps and most other albums. Old Black got its name from a purely amateur paintjob applied to the originally-gold body of the instrument, sometime before Neil acquired the guitar in the late 1960s.

In 1972, a mini-humbucker pickup from a Gibson Firebird guitar was installed into the lead/treble position, replacing a P-90 as standard on Les Paul guitars from that era. This pickup, severely microphonic, is considered a crucial component of Neil's sound. A Bigsby vibrato tailpiece was installed as early as 1969 on the guitar, and can be heard clearly during the opening of "Cowgirl in the Sand" from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. This guitar also features a mini-switch that is used to send the signal from the mini-humbucker direct to the amp, without going through the volume or tone controls.

Young acquired Old Black from Jim Messina, swapping one of his Gretsches for it in 1969 while Messina was assisting Young on his first solo album. Messina, who played briefly in Buffalo Springfield and produced the band's final album, "Last Time Around," still has the Gretsch in his possession.