Wealthy rock stars hoarding vintage instruments...
More than 70 years ago, Gibson Guitar Corporation manufactured their first solid body electric guitar and with the help of musician Les Paul, they released several different models in his name.Competing with Fender who bulk manufactured basic guitars on an assembly line, the Gibson Les Paul model had more hands-on craftsmanship. Select flamed maple front, decorative binding on the body and glue-in set neck (as opposed to bolting on a Fender neck) were the most significant visual differences. Another difference were the pickups. Fender used single coil pickups that were subject to interference or 60 cycle electrical hum. The Gibson pickups named Humbucker had dual coils inside a metal shielded case. Some of the early pickups were stamped patent applied for, later known as PAF were the most sought out style of that era.
So the combination of design, wood, hardware and electronics, adding limited production has made those models difficult to find and extremely valuable.
Unfortunately, collectors... players or not, scoop up these guitars whenever they can.
Guitarist Joe Bonamassa will go through pawn shops looking for vintage Les Paul guitars in the cities where he is performing.
Last year I saw a video of the guitar collection owned by Rick Nielsen of the rock band Cheap Trick. He's got many different brands and models and remembers every purchase.
According to Wiki, Nielsen has owned about two thousand guitars over the years and currently has about 500 instruments.
I believe he's got a museum for viewing and sometimes does shows of his favorites.
Here's a 5 minute version for an online music company name Reverb:
Comments (13)
This is a small part of Joe's collection.
His guitar amplifier hoarding is worse.
Today I saw another video of a white Stratocaster at auction claiming to be Jimi's and it sold for $180,000. I don't know how long ago the auction was. It's was on a Fender Stratocaster video.
Here's what I think:
The guitar was strung right-handed. Don't come to me and say it was played by Hendrix.
If Hendrix actually played it, he would need the strap button on the top side (when held left-handed) I stopped the video when it was removed from the case and there wasn't a hole where Hendrix would have moved the strap button.
Hendrix always removed the plastic cover on the back to access the springs on the vibrato system. That cover was intact.
Lastly... chips in the paint on the back (from a belt buckle) were created by a right-handed player and not someone who used it left-handed.
I'm left-handed and noticed these things right away.
For the reasons stated, documentation or not, I don't believe Hendrix really owned/played that guitar.
A E D A... yeah?
A E D A... yeah?
I heard Dire Straits used them in concert.
I'll call him a collector then!
Many guitars in his collection are Gibson Les Paul custom shop models including some replicas.