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Marc Bolan's Les Paul

Tweety

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Sep 3, 2007
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181
Does anyone have any info about Marc Bolan's famous orange Les Paul. I think it may have been a goldtop of some sort which was refinished. He also put a Les Paul custom neck on it when he broke the original. I think the guitar was stolen in 1977. I'd love to know where that guitar is.
 

phil47uk

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Apr 17, 2002
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Does anyone have any info about Marc Bolan's famous orange Les Paul. I think it may have been a goldtop of some sort which was refinished. He also put a Les Paul custom neck on it when he broke the original. I think the guitar was stolen in 1977. I'd love to know where that guitar is.

Where it is now, I don't know, but I believe he had it re-finished in that translucent orange to look like his idol Eddie Cochrane's Gretsch.
 

woody-89

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Sep 16, 2007
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Thats been a guitar thats always puzzled me, I've seen pictures of it with three different necks on it; the original, a custom neck, and then a custom-ish neck, with block inlays that are much too wide to be Gibson I think, more like those that can be found on some early seventies Japanese copies.. Can't seem to find any pictures of that for the moment unfortunately!
 

phil47uk

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Here's one.

BolanStu_08.JPG
 

Cody

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Jul 23, 2002
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Zebra pickup and center seam.

If the pickup is original to the guitar, it's definitely a burst (as I've always believed anyway).
 

woody-89

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Sep 16, 2007
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Ive never seen that shot before.. Is it missing the 21st fret inlay?? I still can't find any pics on the net of the other neck I've seen on it.

Does anyone actually know the year of it? I've always assumed it was a Deluxe, but some seem to think it was a 50's one. Any ideas?
 

Kap'n

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Jan 2, 2002
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I believe it was original, and had at least two, or possibly three necks on it, and at least one refin. Marc was pretty tough on it.
 

Tweety

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Sep 3, 2007
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181
Tony Visconti mentions Marc playing a Gold top in the early days which i've seen picture of and wondered if this was the one that was refinished. Tony has no idea what happened to Marcs original guitars.

I saw Marc play live in 1976 , and the guitar appeared to have a Les Paul custom neck on it. It was a great gig.
 

Greco

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Apr 23, 2006
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Seems like the same guitar had multiple necks. I'd say at least 3 renecks. I think the custom was the last.

Custom Neck
BolanD_18.jpg


Bolan460.jpg


MarcBolan.jpg


Standard neck - SQUARE INLAYS?!? :wah
6267.jpg


Standard neck:
trex_2.jpg


Mother of toilet seat inlays?
trextasy-danielz_lowres.jpg


Weird missing inlay:
2.jpg
 

Greco

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Apr 23, 2006
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I also am not sure about the one on Burstserial:

This has the bigsby removal and strange dark streaks around the knobs. Obviously not the original neck either. :hmm :hmm :hmm Would have had to have been completely rebuilt, refinished and the DW put in the bridge. Who knows?

main.php

main.php
 

Billy Porter

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Mar 16, 2005
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The Standard neck with the block inlays with the first one missing looks really weird.

I never thought about it being an original burst. A refinned gold top would probably make more sense.

Perhaps he followed Mick Ronson and had the front sanded. They were both in the same camp (resist the innuendo Phil47UK) at the time. He then perhaps changed to Gretsch orange. All supposition of course.

Interestingly this has been on the Rockstars Guitars website for many yearsI have never seen a picture with either Bolan or Ronno playing this guitar. Note that I’m not claiming it to be untrue.

http://rockstarsguitars.com/product_details.php?c=1&prod_id=211&cat=64&scat=176&x=0&y=728

I also wonder what happened to Bolan’s Strat and V
 
Last edited:

woody-89

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Sep 16, 2007
Messages
855
The Standard neck with the block inlays with the first one missing looks really weird.

I never thought about it being an original burst. A refinned gold top would probably make more sense.

Perhaps he followed Mick Ronson and had the front sanded. They were both in the same camp (resist the innuendo Phil47UK) at the time. He then perhaps changed to Gretsch orange. All supposition of course.

Interestingly this has been on the Rockstars Guitars website for many yearsI have never seen a picture with either Bolan or Ronno playing this guitar. Note that I’m not claiming it to be untrue.

http://rockstarsguitars.com/product_details.php?c=1&prod_id=211&cat=64&scat=176&x=0&y=728

I also wonder what happened to Bolan’s Strat and V


Billy Porter? Do I sense a Ronson fan as well?! As far as I know, Mick used that deluxe as a spare guitar in around 1981ish, such as on the Never alone with a Schizophrenic tour, although I've also seen footage of him breaking a string at one of these concerts and picking up a strat instead, so who knows?! I didn't know it ever belonged to Marc though..

I've heard rumours of Marc's V having floated round near London, in the Croydon area, (where I'm from) a while back. He was quite friendly with one of the guitar shop owners round here that I know quite well, and he seemed to think it was around fairly recently.
 

guitarvoodoo

Formerly fishnose, Les Paul Forum Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2006
Messages
2,000
When Marc died in that car crash in '77, the news got out and his house was ransacked.... That's a bunch of fans for ya :rolleyes:

So his guitars were just spread with the wind....

:] Fish
 

Tweety

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Joined
Sep 3, 2007
Messages
181
Didn't Marc's V come up for auction a while ago in London, around the 30K mark. If I remember the blurb, its the one he used on the Xmas Top of the Pops, doing Get it on , I think.
 

Billy Porter

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Woody-89 said
Billy Porter? Do I sense a Ronson fan as well?!
Yup - The clue is in the Billy Porter moniker :dude:

Woody-89 said
As far as I know, Mick used that deluxe as a spare guitar in around 1981ish, such as on the Never alone with a Schizophrenic tour, although I've also seen footage of him breaking a string at one of these concerts and picking up a strat instead, so who knows?! I didn't know it ever belonged to Marc though..

I’m not doubting you because as you say ‘who knows?’ but there’s photo’s of him using a wine custom (Yeah I know, not quite cherry ). Ronno’s guitars have oft discussed at the Ronson forum and something new crops up all the time. He even sold a 51 Esquire to Marty Stuart

Lund2001.jpg


Back to Bolan

I searched one night for any photo or video of Bolan using the cherry deluxe but came up trumps (got bored actually)

Surprised Gibson haven’t issued a Bolan replica. :ganz
 

Zinc Alloy

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Joined
May 8, 2003
Messages
608
Mother of toilet seat inlays?
trextasy-danielz_lowres.jpg

This isn't Marc Bolan. It's Danielz from the cover band T.Rextasy.

apparently the Bolan Burst was "restored":
http://burstserial.com/gallery/main.php?cmd=imageview&var1=No+Serial+Number%2F%2A+58+Marc+Bolan+%2A%2FBolan+58-01.jpg&var2=2

I think the 'burst had been stolen from the back of a roadie's pick up truck that was parked in front of Orange music (must have been late '76 or early '77).

anybody else noticed that Bolan had gold tailpiece on that guitar?
 
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