If you have a refin or player grade 61/62 Les Paul SG... check this out.

[brcampbe01]

You may have a very historic guitar and not know it. I have been looking for this guitar for about 10 years without luck, I figured I'd enlist the help of you guys. Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" was not recorded on a Firebird like many people think. Allen Collins recorded all of the guitar parts (including the slide) on a 61/62 Les Paul SG that he'd modified. I have rock solid proof of this.

He'd painted only the body of it white but he left the back of the neck in its original cherry red. This guitar will have a very distinctive 5 bolt pattern drilled into the body where the Gibson tremolo originally was. This is where Allen attached his unique German tremolo system he used for Freebird. The guitar was stolen on the road in early 1974 on the west coast and never recovered. Being that these things bring upwards of $20k nowadays, I'm quite sure it has been refinished. However, the guitar can easily be identified by the German tremolo's unique 5 bolt pattern. I've got one of his originals so I can verify the spacing. There will be plugs in the guitar's body.

Reference photos:

Tracking Freebird, 1973 at Studio One Doraville, GA.

At rehearsal 1973, note the tremolo position.

 

[LocoTex]

Didn't Gary Rossington play the slide part? I could be wrong, though.

 

[brcampbe01]

He did live but Allen did it on the studio recording.

 

[sputnik]

I didn’t know that. That’s very cool. I’m a huge Skynyrd fan and would love to run across his SG!

 

[sputnik]

Just curious, how do you know he used the SG for Freebird? I’m not saying you’re wrong. I just did a quick Google search and couldn’t find anything about him using it.

 

[brcampbe01]

An

Just curious, how do you know he used the SG for Freebird? I’m not saying you’re wrong. I just did a quick Google search and couldn’t find anything about him using it.

An enormous amount of research and interviews. It's not published anywhere that I'm aware of. You can see here that his Firebird was setup with a stop bar tail piece during the Pronounced sessions at Studio One in 1973 so he was not using that guitar for Freebird at the time (but most certainly was used on a bunch of the other songs on the album).

 

[brcampbe01]

The is the base of Allen's tremolo. You can see the very unique bolt pattern.

 

[Uncle Vinnie]

Very cool info! Thanks.

 

[OBX351]

Cool quest. I assume you have you reached out to the guitar dealers. That's a pretty specific mod that would be noticeable to a Gil Southworth like character.

 

[Red Pharoah]

I found this pic of Allen and his highly modified Firebird 1, It appears to have the same strange vibrato as seen on his SG. His Firebird has a P90 in the bridge and an added firebird pickup in the neck position.

Looks like he may have taken it off the SG and used it on the firebird for a bit. Went to a stop after this I think.

 

[Dolebludger]

I have a 61 LP SG standard with side pull trem, one owner (me) and now pretty much a case queen. It was my second guitar and my first REAL one. That trem is really musically useless. It’s only positive function is to eliminate neck dive! I’d like to see more pics of Allen’s trem, if they exist.

 

[ajory72]

I have a 61 LP SG standard with side pull trem, one owner (me) and now pretty much a case queen. It was my second guitar and my first REAL one. That trem is really musically useless. It’s only positive function is to eliminate neck dive! I’d like to see more pics of Allen’s trem, if they exist.

The sideways trem is definitely not to everyone’s taste but I find mine gives a very unique sound though takes a bit to dial in. once done it plays in tune for day’s. (Though I’m thinking that your original’61 doesn’t have the re-issues block that eliminates sideway movement when knocking the unit?) the reissues work really well due to that addition- but I imagine back in the 60’s/70’s these were pulled off the guitar in favour of something more reliable?

Would be good to get some anecdotal and first hand accounts of mods to sideways trem SGs from its heyday

 

[dc007]

Didn't Gary Rossington play the slide part? I could be wrong, though.

I thought it was Gary as well. Can't find anything to say it wasn't except this thread. Of course I wasn't there