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 Electric Guitar
Iconic enough to be mentioned in This Is Spinal Tap (where it features in Nigel Tufnel’s fearsome collection), the 1959 Les Paul is perhaps every Gibson fan’s most lusted-after guitar. The player most commonly associated with the timeless instrument – Jimmy Page – had realised its potential very early on and struck upon the tone now considered to be the Holy Grail for rock guitarists everywhere by modifying and expanding his ’59 LP for heightened performance. The rest is music history – yet history does repeat and this year, the wizards at the Gibson Custom Shop bring the hallowed guitar to us mere mortals.
Despite its somewhat chucklesome (if unintentionally so) moniker, the beautifully recreated “Number Two” is definitely not a shitty axe. Modelled on Page’s second LP, which he obtained in 1973 as a backup for his no-less-legendary “Number One”, the six-string was recreated by inch-by-inch examination of the original guitar. A number of hand-built prototypes were each checked and critiqued in detail by Page himself and only 325 examples are set to be produced in total, with the first 25 instruments signed and numbered by JP personally, while the additional 100 guitars will be given the extensive aging treatment and 200 will be finished to Gibson’s VOS (Vintage Original Specs).
The Custom Shop Jimmy Page “Number Two” Les Paul is equipped with a pair of humbuckers replicating the pickups in Led Zep legend’s own 1959 LP: a covered Gibson Page Version 1 with an Alnico III magnet in the neck and an uncovered Page Version 2 with an Alnico V in the bridge, both wax-potted to enable them to withstand high-gain playing without succumbing to microphonic feedback. The controls, like the song, remain the same – two volume controls, two tone controls and a three-way selector switch – but each one features a push-pull pot for individual pickup switching functions (humbucker/single-coil) while two miniature push-pull DPDT switches (mounted under the pickguard) provide phase in/out options for each pickup. Additional features include a Tune-o-matic bridge, Schaller straplocks, original-design acrylic trapezoid inlays in the fingerboard and a slimmed-down neck for comfortable playing.
As a brief synopsis, the “Number Two” is a classic rocker/Zeppelin fan’s dream made reality and a drool-inducing piece of guitar porn to beat the Les Paul Supreme. The five-figure pricing is likely to make most players say “Ouch!” and some have already confined the instrument to dentist or lawyer’s office walls, however one would have to expect to save up in order to own the Jimmy Page sound and feel. This fine piece of guitar craftsmanship is fit to reside in the houses of the holy, my good man.
RRP US$ 11,176 (Burst VOS), US$15,295 (Burst Aged), US$25,882 (Signed). Check out www.gibson.com for more information.
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