Interesting Guitar

[bouche]

Blackbird is the song i play the most when i'm "that guy" in the store ...better get a new one now

Yup' date=' me too. Dammit; time to find a new song.[/quote']

we should all do a Blackbird playoff. Can you guys record? Let's all do a version and post it and get everyone to vote for the best version.

[AD]

Gibson built, Jimmy Page OK'd, yours for just $20,999

Bruce Ward, Ottawa Citizen

Published: Thursday, April 03, 2008

There's likely to be a whole lotta love for one ultra-special guitar now on display at Dave Lauzon's Wellington Street music store.

The guitar is a re-creation of the instrument played by Jimmy Page in the first days of Led Zeppelin, who became rock gods in the 1970s. It has a $20,999 pricetag, but is likely worth four times that to collectors. Only 25 of the numbered guitars were built by Gibson Custom Shop.

"Page played all 25, picked out one for himself and signed the rest. Our guitar is No. 25 and it's the only one in Canada," said Mr. Lauzon.

He has not put up a "No Stairway To Heaven" sign, as in Wayne's World, because only Page has ever played the guitar.

"If I owned the guitar, I would play it because I think guitars are meant to be played," he said. "But in this case, the last person to play it was Jimmy Page. That means something to collectors."

The guitar has only been on display for a few days, but Mr. Lauzon has had several e-mail inquiries, sent to the Lauzon Music site from collectors in England and the U.S. as well as Canada.

"I've talked to a bunch of people about this guitar from all over the world already. I don't know how they find out we have it, but these guys are serious Jimmy Page lovers. There's a buzz about it. It's a unique piece of rock memorabilia. You don't see that too often. There are guitars that are investment pieces, and this is an investment for sure."

The original guitar - a three-pickup 1960 Les Paul custom "Black Beauty" - was stolen at an airport in 1970 and never recovered.

Mr. Lauzon said Mr. Page used the guitar while working as a freelance session musician and on albums with the Yardbirds as well as the first Led Zeppelin recordings in 1969.

"I think it was stolen somewhere between Ottawa and New York. He went on to play others, but he referred to it as the one that got away," said Mr. Lauzon, who at 30 is too young to have seen the band perform live in its glory days.

He won the right to buy the guitar in a draw set up by Gibson. "The distributor for Canada basically took all Custom Shop dealers and put their names in a hat. If your name was drawn, you got the chance to buy the guitar."

A few years ago, Gibson reissued another early guitar favoured by Mr. Page - a 1959 Les Paul Sunburst. He also signed each of the 25 Sunbursts.

"They were probably priced around about $15,000, I think." One of the special Sunbursts recently sold for $87,000, added Mr. Lauzon.

So what's stopping Mr. Lauzon from selling the guitar to the highest bidder in an auction?

"As a Gibson dealer, it's our responsibility to provide the guitar for sale. For me to take the guitar and jack up the price and put it on eBay probably wouldn't be the most ethical thing to do," he said.

The re-created guitar features "Page BurstBucker pickups, gold Bigsby tailpiece, and an innovative six-position toggle," Gibson says in a release.

"There are lots of limited edition guitars out there, and sometimes they fly and sometimes they don't," said Mr. Lauzon. "But I think the stuff that's really limited like this guitar, that gets exciting.

"My gut feeling is that this guitar is headed for a collection somewhere where it's not going to be played. I would assume that whoever buys it first might resell in on eBay and it would go to a private collection somewhere. The highest percentage of collectible guitars are in Japan, I'm sure."

[Schwa.]

Blackbird is the song i play the most when i'm "that guy" in the store ...better get a new one now

Yup' date=' me too. Dammit; time to find a new song.[/quote']

we should all do a Blackbird playoff. Can you guys record? Let's all do a version and post it and get everyone to vote for the best version.

IN! but have no way to record....OUT!

[TheGoodRev]

I work in a guitar store and - maybe Dave has a different opinion here but - without a doubt, Sweet Child O Mine is the new Stairway. I hear it at least 4 or 5 times a week...and most of them don't stop at one time, they'll just keep hammering through it. Warts and all. Shitty nasal tone.

Funny that this post got bumped this week, as the new Slash Les Pauls were just introduced. Sweet Child O' Mine is now my most hated song of all time.