Okay, so you probably didn’t have enough money for that incredible guitar ‘Vault’ that we wrote about back in November. We understand, $1.5 million is a lot of money. Well, we hope you’ve sorted out your financial affairs since then, because the ‘Holy Grail’ of guitars is going under the hammer and is expected to fetch .
As the Washington Post reports, this Thursday, 19th February, the original 1954 Gibson Les Paul Custom, known in guitar circles as “Black Beauty”, will be auctioned off, with the guitar that allegedly spawned perhaps the most iconic guitar ever made set to land in the hands of someone with very deep pockets.
For those playing catch up, if you take a quick look through the rock section in your iTunes, the Gibson Les Paul is likely to have made an appearance on pretty much every single one of those albums. Paul, a musician and inventor, worked with Gibson to create the guitar in the 1950s, effectively creating the ultimate rock axe.
Paul apparently gave the 1954 Les Paul Custom to his assistant, Tom Doyle, in 1976. It was unplayable at the time, but Doyle fixed it up and partnered with guitar dealer Max Stavron, who is now auctioning off the Black Beauty. Of course, their sales pitch has riled up some controversy.
[include_post id=”427000″]
After Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson saw a black Les Paul Custom at the National Association of Music Merchants show in Los Angeles, he called his guitarist and axe legend Rick Nielsen, who snickered at the hyperbole. As far as he’s concerned, the 1955 “goldtop” he bought in 1965 for $55 is the real ‘Holy Grail’.
And that seems to be the general consensus among guitar aficionados. According to the Washington Post, the model that grew into the sunburst Standard made famous by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons is the 1952 goldtop, which came out two years before the Custom.
“What it is is a carved up old Les Paul Custom that Les modified and gave to Tom,” says blues guitar star Joe Bonamassa, who received multiple emails urging him to buy the axe after it was listed. “I think Tom has the best of intentions with the guitar but Tom, because of his closeness to Les, may have an unrealistic value in his mind.”
Regardless of whether the guitar is indeed the ‘Holy Grail’ of electric six-strings as it is being advertised, the guitar is certainly a valuable piece of history and will fetch a pretty price (Bonmassa admits to once spending $410,000 for one of his Les Paul guitars) and is a valuable addition to any collection of ridiculously rare guitars you’ll never play.
