Page's Les Paul Custom - the one stolen in the USA

[andreww]

The thing is that we are seeing the theft in the context of today rather than the time of the theft. We all wonder what someone would actually have done with "Rock God" Page's favorite guitar, and how he possibly could have unloaded it without being discovered. However, when this incident happened, I don't think zeppelin had even graduated from the club & theater circuit, so I would doubt that nobody would have recognized that guitar, nor really given 2 $hits that it was once owned by Page. The guitar didn't become infamous until many years later, and could have changed hands many times since. Could the switch holes have been filled? I guess, but I assume the was also a huge amount of routing out of the back to make room for those switches. It still should not be that difficult to identify. But who knows, it very easily could have been destroyed years ago, or it could be sitting untouched in some guys basement. You just never know.

 

[Thermionik]

Here's a gedankenexperiment for the expert valuers.

Just supposing someone now has a relatively original condition but "tired" '57LPC, and they look at it's potential "sale value". Then they think - drill, route and fit all the switches and wiring to match the missing guitar, put some appropriate "wear" and dings to make it look the part..... Make up some story about clearing out a pawn-shop or dusty old attic and finding this messed about old LP, but blow me down - it's Jimmy Pages old guitar from all those years ago, who'd a thunk it !!!
How much has it gone up assuming it's then sold as that missing guitar?

Shadowplayer and andreww are spot on regarding the value back in the day - JP was not the iconic player he later became, Zep were just growing their reputation and the guitar was just another second-hand "toured" guitar - not nearly as valuable as a shiny new guitar, but not in any way, form or fashion vintage, historic or iconic either.....

 

[maaadtrip]

Interesting thread.

It just makes me laugh that there was a time that 'some bloke in a band playing a small club' had several 50's LPs with holes drilled all over them, laying around next to a fire exit

 

[Shadowplayer]

Here's a gedankenexperiment for the expert valuers.

Just supposing someone now has a relatively original condition but "tired" '57LPC, and they look at it's potential "sale value". Then they think - drill, route and fit all the switches and wiring to match the missing guitar, put some appropriate "wear" and dings to make it look the part..... Make up some story about clearing out a pawn-shop or dusty old attic and finding this messed about old LP, but blow me down - it's Jimmy Pages old guitar from all those years ago, who'd a thunk it !!!
How much has it gone up assuming it's then sold as that missing guitar?

Shadowplayer and andreww are spot on regarding the value back in the day - JP was not the iconic player he later became, Zep were just growing their reputation and the guitar was just another second-hand "toured" guitar - not nearly as valuable as a shiny new guitar, but not in any way, form or fashion vintage, historic or iconic either.....

You may be onto something. However, if such a guitar did surface, one would think that Page himself would go out to check the guitar. Even though it has been a very long time since he played it, chances are he would remember exactly how it feels and would right there agree it was not the real one.


Also if someone took an original 57 LPC, they would have to be crazy to drill out and add different pups to it

 

[Thermionik]

...Also if someone took an original 57 LPC, they would have to be crazy to drill out and add different pups to it

Unless doing so drastically increased it's value.....

And Jimmy has played so many guitars since then, I wonder if he could really tell?

 

[Shadowplayer]

Unless doing so drastically increased it's value.....

And Jimmy has played so many guitars since then, I wonder if he could really tell?

I think he could. I went 2 years without playing a guitar I had only played a few minutes and it felt the same. Remember this was Pages main session guitar. He played it a lot.

Really wish we could just get Page himself on here to settle all this. would make things so much easier.

 

[Thermionik]

...wish we could just get Page himself on here to settle all this. would make things so much easier.

OK.....

I'll ask him to look in.

 

[Genericspoon77]

Wasn't it a 1960 LPC?

 

[Shadowplayer]

Wasn't it a 1960 LPC?

yeah, my bad.

 

[andreww]

Here's a gedankenexperiment for the expert valuers.

Just supposing someone now has a relatively original condition but "tired" '57LPC, and they look at it's potential "sale value". Then they think - drill, route and fit all the switches and wiring to match the missing guitar, put some appropriate "wear" and dings to make it look the part..... Make up some story about clearing out a pawn-shop or dusty old attic and finding this messed about old LP, but blow me down - it's Jimmy Pages old guitar from all those years ago, who'd a thunk it !!!
How much has it gone up assuming it's then sold as that missing guitar?

Problem there is that you would need to have the original guitar, or expert photos of the outside and inside of the guitar, which I'm pretty sure don't exist. Is there even a pic of the back to show what the routings looked like? I doubt Page would be able to verify its authenticity by playing it after this many years, but there is always one little scratch or dent that instantly would rekindle hi memory. If any of those marks were faked or missing, it would immediately be suspicious.

 

[RetropM]

The other problem is that the serial number of the original is documented. Hard to changed the serial on a vintage instrument without someone noticing the modification, especially with the scrutiny that would arise should this guitar resurface.

 

[dngrsdave]

Plus, I'm sure "Joe Jammer" would be able to recognize his own work.

 

[Shadowplayer]

well, if you had one where the sr is scratched out...potential starts again for faking it. I still believe Page would be able to identify it very quickly

 

[jimi55lp]

The LP Custom guitar was a 1960 3 PAF with a bigsby that Jimmy used on most of his sessions work before Yardbirds was claimed as stollen on route to Toranto from the US in April 3, 1970. I belive the last photo of Page playing the guitar was that same tour in a Miami dressing room and he's wearing patchwork blue jeans.

 

[X–Ray]

<snip>

I was speaking with a local rocker a while ago who was in some semi famous local bands back in the day. One gig he had was as an opener for Zep at a small theater. He told me that whilst being backstage prior to the show, Jimmy's guitars sat unattended right next to the emergency exit. He said it would have been extremely easy to grab one and be gone

<snip>

Trivia and to underscore the above:

Long story short; on one occasion I had opportunity to easily steal one of Jeff Beck's Marshall heads and on another one of Duane Allman's Marshall heads

The only thing standing in my way was my conscience - damn it!

 

[Ducati]

Why didn't he just buy another one? It wouldn't have been hard to find one in 1971 for reasonable rock star money.

 

[andreww]

Why didn't he just buy another one? It wouldn't have been hard to find one in 1971 for reasonable rock star money.

He bought the #1 59 Standard as a replacement.

 

[Eric Smith]

So the guitar gets lifted and no one can figure out where it is since it blends in so well with other black beauties?

 

[Ducati]

He bought the #1 59 Standard as a replacement.

He got the burst in early 1969. The Custom was stolen a year later.

 

[jimi55lp]

Correct.