Hi guys, you may have already seen the picture below of Jimmy Page's no.1 '59 Les Paul (I didn't take it, found it online). I find several aspects of it quite fascinating (being a guitar geek!). It looks like it's from the last decade or so, given the almost complete absence of red dye.
First, the tailpiece has been significantly raised on the bass side. My guess is this was either because JP preferred the string tension feel this way, and/or because, with it lower and not top-wrapped, some strings were snagging on the back of the bridge as they leave the saddles and travel to the tailpiece.
Second, a second set of thumbwheels have been added, the lower set screwed down tight to the maple top. I know some players like to do this to give extra support to the ABR1 posts.
The neck pickup appears to be screwed down quite low, slightly below the mounting ring. My guess would be this balances the output with the bridge pickup. Which, unless it's been changed again, isn't the original PAF, but from an early '70s Gibson, and is a T-Top. My understanding is that the original PAF failed on tour around '72-'73, and after a repair that only worked for a while, JP had it replaced with a T-Top from a new Gibson. Funny to think that, at least for the bridge pickup sounds, for the live recordings from the '73 tour we aren't hearing a late '50s PAF, but a bog standard '70s pickup. Which proves it's all in the fingers, not so much the gear used!
Interesting to see that there is absolutely no bleed through of red dye onto the binding - but of course the red dye has almost completely gone from the top too, as it often did on exposure to UV light over the years/decades. Maybe there was bleed through of red into the binding back in the day before the exposure to sunglight faded away so much of the red dye.
The mahogany back appears to be brown rather than having the red hue that many R9s have, but again, it may have been red originally but has now faded?
I guess Murphy Labs would call this one 'heavy aged', but of course in this case it's all genuine natural aging, from decades of use. Nothing artificial about this Les Paul or its owner!
Interesting to see the height of the volume/tone knobs above the top and the pointers.
I can't imagine Mr Page ever wanting to part company with this LP, but if it ever did go for auction my guess is the price would easily exceed $10 million USD, given it's provenance, and all those amazing Zeppelin tours and albums.
Also interesting to compare the first photo, I guess from maybe 2010+, with the picture below it of the same guitar taken I think in the early '80s, back when it still had a red sunburst look. Also, unless it's been changed, the switch cap appears white rather than amber.
First, the tailpiece has been significantly raised on the bass side. My guess is this was either because JP preferred the string tension feel this way, and/or because, with it lower and not top-wrapped, some strings were snagging on the back of the bridge as they leave the saddles and travel to the tailpiece.
Second, a second set of thumbwheels have been added, the lower set screwed down tight to the maple top. I know some players like to do this to give extra support to the ABR1 posts.
The neck pickup appears to be screwed down quite low, slightly below the mounting ring. My guess would be this balances the output with the bridge pickup. Which, unless it's been changed again, isn't the original PAF, but from an early '70s Gibson, and is a T-Top. My understanding is that the original PAF failed on tour around '72-'73, and after a repair that only worked for a while, JP had it replaced with a T-Top from a new Gibson. Funny to think that, at least for the bridge pickup sounds, for the live recordings from the '73 tour we aren't hearing a late '50s PAF, but a bog standard '70s pickup. Which proves it's all in the fingers, not so much the gear used!
Interesting to see that there is absolutely no bleed through of red dye onto the binding - but of course the red dye has almost completely gone from the top too, as it often did on exposure to UV light over the years/decades. Maybe there was bleed through of red into the binding back in the day before the exposure to sunglight faded away so much of the red dye.
The mahogany back appears to be brown rather than having the red hue that many R9s have, but again, it may have been red originally but has now faded?
I guess Murphy Labs would call this one 'heavy aged', but of course in this case it's all genuine natural aging, from decades of use. Nothing artificial about this Les Paul or its owner!
Interesting to see the height of the volume/tone knobs above the top and the pointers.
I can't imagine Mr Page ever wanting to part company with this LP, but if it ever did go for auction my guess is the price would easily exceed $10 million USD, given it's provenance, and all those amazing Zeppelin tours and albums.
Also interesting to compare the first photo, I guess from maybe 2010+, with the picture below it of the same guitar taken I think in the early '80s, back when it still had a red sunburst look. Also, unless it's been changed, the switch cap appears white rather than amber.
