The pics don't lie. There are way too many constancies to even remotely think that it's a replica.
Steve said he has had no response from the owner of the Bolan guitar, and from the pictures he can see he thinks it may be the guitar he looked at in the late 70s after it went missing.He would not tell me much about what he knows about it except that there is a particular mark inside the guitar that he wanted to get a close look at to verify it. I also was told that he has some 8mm film from the gig when Bolan broke the neck on the guitar, he was then given his flying v to start the next song with. This was in 1972 and he took the gear out for T. REX that night.Bolan new he was filming the show for the fan club and had clearance. Later he remembers seeing the guitar neck broke in the case.The next time he saw it was in the late 70s.
First, having been away from the thread for awhile, it is good to see that it's still live and developing.
Second, the Barrie Wentzell photos referred to as the 'garden' photos in a recent post were taken on Hampstead Heath in London. I think this session was toward the end of June and possibly a few days before Marc wrote 'Ride A White Swan' ... which gives them an extra magic, attractive as they are anyway. They're not to be confused with the later brown album session, taken by Peter Sanders, which really was in a garden.
Third, referring to the quote above, the account doesn't quite hang together with what we know. The original neck-break was in the US at the end of April 1971, not 1972, and there is nothing about that gig - a support slot - being filmed for the fan club. Marc first used the Flying V live on the autumn Electric Warrior tour of 1971. There is a photo session at his home in Clarendon Gardens where he is posing with it - that's in the summer of 1971.
This reference to a filmed gig might be to a later gig where the guitar neck repair might have failed in concert (depends what 'break' means in this context) - the Boston UK January gig was filmed by ATV - and then there are the June 1972 gigs - in one interview during the brief UK tour Bolan says that the guitar kept going out of tune - this incident might have led to the replacement Custom neck.
It goes without saying any film (!) of a Bolan guitar neck break would be a sensational find.I'm not holding my breath.
Let's hope there are more details to come.
One more thing ... and I guess many of the readers of this thread may know this but just in case ... regardless of the Les Paul you play to get close to the sound of that original Les Paul as it sounded in 1970 on the brown album get your hands on a Shatterbox and / or Rangemaster Treble Booster (or affordable clone thereof). That dirty, wirey tone Bolan captured on that album owed much to those effects. Not a standard rock Les Paul sound at all. And use very light strings. And experiment playing with the flat of your fingernail, not a pick. (I will summarize some of this stuff in the book I've been working on).
Looking forward to reading more.
